hi guys lots of buzyness and distractions thanks for listening and feed back thanks eric https://soundcloud.com/f-m-m/you-got-to-make-it-happen all real tracks except guitar solos Style is =SJAZZC1.STY (Smooth Jazz Cool Slow (75 RT))

RealTracks in style: ~902:Bass, Electric, SmoothCool Sw16 075
RealTracks in style: ~904:Piano, Electric, Rhythm SmoothCool Sw16 075
RealTracks in song: 1767:Piano, Acoustic, Rhythm Pop16 Ev16 085
RealTracks in song: ~1055:Sax, Alto, Soloist SmoothJazzCool Sw16 075 (Bluesy)
RealDrums in style: SmoothJazzCoolSw16^2-a:Snare, HiHat , b:Snare, Ride
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eric,

Gorgeous guitar - as always. I'd like to hear an identifiable melody/riff from your guitar to really put this where it needs to be.
Something that you come back to several times throughout.

Great mix.

floyd

Hi Eric,

I already told you that in earlier songs.
Still enjoyed listening a lot.

Love it, love it, love it Eric. Especially the gorgeous Robben Ford tone.
I always look forward to your work. This is a classic.


John

Hi, Eric !

Why do I just love those wonderful
chords and chord progressions ?
probably because I could never
play or produce them !
I love this !!!


Cheers
Dani

This is the kind of song that NEEDS a signature lick, a melodic hook..... something that repeats in places to grab the listener and make them want to listen. Think of Carlos Santana and Europa.

The tone on the guitar is smoking sweet!! Love that, but the song and the guitar just seems to wander aimlessly and as a result, since there is no hook to grab on and pull it all together, an the average listener will lose interest after a minute or two not hearing anything repeated as a hook.

Here is a link to a song I did using BB and it has a melodic hook in it.

http://soundclick.com/share.cfm?id=9414184

so much so that people who first heard it thought it was a cover of someone else's song...... notice that while I wander in the tune to one degree or another, I come back to that melodic hook to hold it all together.

Great work Eric. The guitar(s) do sound fantastic.

Lovely guitar work, Eric.

What guitar and effects are you using on this one? I'm sure there's more than just me who would like to know!

ROG.

Eric,

As always, great sound and guitar tones. Very tasteful licks. I do agree with Floyd, it would be nice to have some sort of recurring melodic "hook". But a very enjoyable listen, nonetheless!

Steve

I agree with pretty much everything that has been said. Your tone is enviable, and you have some really nice licks. You have a way of working yourself into a chord pattern so your playing sounds like it belongs there.

As a decorative guitar player, you excel. But, as a composer, the recurring theme in your songs is ... that there is no recurring theme!

The difference between a backing musician and the song's composer is that the backing musician decorates the song while the composer structures the song.

You do an excellent job of structuring the chords into a pleasing arrangement... I don't think I've ever heard one of your chordal arrangements that wasn't quite interesting.

But the star of the show needs to be your guitar playing because that's your strength. As such, once you get the chords right, your next focus should be to ARRANGE the guitar parts in a structured way (as opposed to jamming along with the chords... the guitar needs to be at least as structured as the chords, if not more so)

Herb's suggestion about listening to Santana is a good one, because what you do is so similar to what he does... (except that Santana is a master theme builder... Europa is indeed the perfect example)

You are such a good guitar player in every way that it drives me nuts to hear you bounce the ball off the fence instead of hitting it out of the park!

I know its tough to hear criticism like this, but I assure you, nobody would bother saying this stuff if you sucked. Bouncing the ball off the fence is the right metaphor for your songs, because all of the elements for a home run are there except for one more inch of elevation. And everybody can see that that inch will come from adding a recurring theme (aka signature lick or passage) to your songs

If you did nothing more than record half the song, then cut and paste it again so the second part mirrored the first part, that would be a step in the right direction. But the real missing ingredient is an identifiable melody


standard disclaimer:
you're already wayy better than I'll ever be, so feel free to disregard everything I say

thanks guys lots of good constructive feed back I realize its hard to deliver it in a positive way however its all good and good advice structured im not but its time that try it on thanks pat for takeing time and effort to write this in very construtive way hey rob I use a boss/roland gt-5 pedal to carvin sx100 amp to delta 1010 pci card playing on a 1968 les paul custom preset I made on the gt-5 thanks eric

Eric,

your reply is quite gracious.. thank you for that.

I was thinking about how so many people here in the forum collaborate and learn from one another. I'm pretty much a non-contributing blabbermouth in the forum, but the rest of the people who commented are masters of structure. It might be an interesting experiment to bounce your next song off each of them privately to see what suggestions they make.

When you say you aren't structured, I don't really believe that. Without structure you wouldn't be as good a guitar player as you are. I just think that this particular aspect of songwriting is something you haven't spent a lot of time thinking about yet, and once you do it will come as easily to you as that smooth guitar work already does.

Bud and Janice are two of the most admired contributors to the forum, and they routinely seek the opinions of others. Standing on the shoulders of giants is the obvious way to get tall quickly... and fortunately we have a lot of giants here


Pat (More of a pi$$-ant than a giant)

Fantastic, smooth, vibrant and really well structured. Great guitar work and a credit to you.
Loved the arrangement !
Congratulations
Trevor

Hey Eric,

Pretty stuff, great backing track to your playing as well.

You've been given some good advice for making your improvisations into more song like structure which is a good thing. I think that would add another level too.

However, I noticed that in the past 7 days you've had 579 plays for this track - read that number and weep all us so called real songwriters. LOL! I'd love it if any of my songs got that many listens in seven days.

So you are doing something right that lots of people want to hear just as it is. Kudos!