One thing that makes his songs so special is you can 'learn' them and then you discover that next little twist you didnt quite hear or couldnt quite put your finger on, and when you do it just clicks and have a fresh appreciation and awe as the detail is made clear. He had such an abundance of those in his songs and this series has brought so many of them to light for me, really incredible job on these!
the quality of all your videos is insane!!! Cant thank you enough for your work. Im sure its very fun work, but still having to organize all the things you want to say, and video editing takes time. We appreciate what you are doing for the ES community.
I been so excited to learn this song its out on my last day of work before collage! Also I'll definitely be getting that book, super excited! Thanks again for another amazing video
I'm so stoked to have found this. I appreciate the clear and concise instruction, and the insightful analysis. SO REFRESHING to have such quailty. Elliot Smith deserves it. Thanks.
Hi, I'm from Russia and I want to say a huge thank you for your videos, they are amazing! I opened each video with trepidation, anticipation to learn something new, to learn about a new detail in Elliot's song. Thank you for your hard work!
sadly I'm outside of America but I am so grateful for you, its hard to find guitar lessons and I would never have learned the white lady if it wasn't for you, you've done such a great job and I hope this won't be the last Elliott songbook that you make :)
Thanks for doing this! God knows us acoustic guitarists Elliott Smith fans always need help and your insights are like a flashlight beam through the darkness. You know, one thing I thought about is how so many songs can be played with just strumming and chords and they just sound fine. With Elliott, that’s almost never the case. This song wouldn’t sound good at all playing the straight chords. You have to have the fingerpicking, percussive strums, thumbed bass notes and dynamics in all of his songs. You don’t have to nail every hammer on or slide but something has to be there for it to sound right. “Division Day” is pretty straightforward but even that has some walking bass.
Thanks for watching! I think the question is - how much better some could songs with just strumming, or only standard chords, be if they had a more thoughtfully written part? The Biggest Lie is still one of my favorite Elliott Smith parts to play, and I think it'd still be a beautiful song just strumming, G Em C D and so on. Of course we're used to the extra depth of Elliott's parts, so it would feel like it was missing something.
Also to note Elliott change the lyrics to the song so it wouldn’t be so gruesome Original beginning “there’s a man under the train, subway only goes one way, stupid train probably will pull him apart, make everybody late” There’s more but I’m too lazy to type it all
Thanks for sharing, I never heard that. I always thought that part of the lyrics was strange "stupid thing that'll come to pull us apart and make everybody late". I assumed the thing was the subway but why say it like that - this context makes alot more sense. Are there any recordings with these original lyrics?
@@_E_S_P there’s live recordings of it, search “la Luna balcony Elliott smith” and click on the one with the date of “1996-11-18”. I’ve time stamped it so it should be easy to go to the song. One more thing to add is a lot of the songs on self titled where changed up lyrically, earlier performances of these songs have the original lyrics before he changed them for the record. I think songs include clementine, satellite and I can’t remember which others.
@@_E_S_Psearch Elliott smith La Luna balcony 1996-11-18, should be able to listen to it there, I’ve time stamped the songs. Another fun fact, a lot of the songs on self titled had a lot of lyrical changes once recorded on the album. This applies to songs like clementine, satellite, etc.
Hey! I LOOOVE your videos! You figured out so many details of those songs and I can see how much time you spend on them! Can’t wait to see more Elliott Tutorials for other albums :) But I noticed one thing: You do the picking patterns often differently than him. It still sounds great and I kight be nerding out a bit too much on this😅 but Elliott never really use his nails that much for strumming. brushstroke medaillon got it pretty close but I think i might have figured it out. I’m also guilty of doing it wrong in my older covers but we’re all learning haha. If you would be down I would love to talk about this and maybe share some info/ contribute my point of view (only If you want to of course :)) Cheers, please keep going💙🙏
hell yeah🤘🏻I actually had a little section of the vid edited where I talked about the right hand craziness, I also think the brushstroke medallion method is maybe slightly different bc he talks about using your thumb to slap or press the strings into the frets, and I hear more tapping on the body on a track like The Biggest Lie. I also mentioned the nails/thumb, i hear the balance of the two change in different performances - like the vid I used live Fargo 1997 sounds like more nails/almost clawhammer than usual - but I basically use nails cuz it’s more natural for me. I ended up cutting that section for length, but also bc like you said, I realized I was maybe overly nerding out lol. Still a super central part of his sound and worth practicing and pointing out. Props to you if you’ve got it down!!
I think a small thing that I found that makes his strumming technique harder to replicate is a physical trait of his fingers. If you get a chance to see a video with a close-up on his fingers, he has a lot more flesh on the tips than he does nail (I think I read somewhere that he said he bit his nails a lot, so that might explain it). When I try to mimic his right hand strumming and hold it exactly like he does, I get a lot more nail sound in the downstroke. EX: The 2003 Henry Fonda performance when he plays Shooting Star; he plays in a natural position with his fingers mostly curled, aside from extensions of the index for upstrokes. The downstrokes he does have a _bit_ of nail sound, but it's mostly flesh. For me, there'd be *no* goddamn way I could get that sound by strumming like that, and I think that applies to a lot of people as well and why it's such a pain in the ass to get down. brushstroke medallion's videos show him with his fingers more extended than how Elliott usually plays, which does get pretty close like you said and his videos helped me out sooo so much, but it's still very hard to accurately replicate especially on faster songs. That's part of why his playing is so unique to him, imo. It's thrown me off for my first couple years playing guitar until I figured that out, and was REAL frustrating trying to get his sound down, but I've learned to play my own way in a sort of compromise, which I don't think is a bad goal for anyone to have. Gives us more identity as guitar players. Or just bite the fuck out of your nails, whatever works honestly. Thanks for reading my Elliott Smith Fingertip Analysis.
@@caketits2723 super interesting and helpful - I completely agree about personality coming from picking style, but the way he plays is just too beautiful sounding to not try to replicate, or approximate like we're all doing lol
Any chance for a breakdown video on Elliott's picking style? A lot of videos I've seen have been a little hard to follow and your videos are always a huge help.
Sorry just to follow up on that - I know there's a breakdown in the video but a dedicated video to this topic might help people get the fundamentals on his right hand down. Thanks!
I've gotten a few messages like this, so we're doing it! I'll update the listing to include overseas shipping when I get another batch of books! I'll post about it soon 🤘
![The White Lady Loves You More LESSON! - Elliott Smith Project [Self-Titled]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/7PiGBLroGOc/mqdefault.jpg)
![The White Lady Loves You More LESSON! – Elliott Smith Project [Self-Titled]](/img/tr.png)
![Good To Go is Elliott Smith's HIDDEN GEM - Elliott Smith Project [Self-Titled]](/img/n.gif)
One thing that makes his songs so special is you can 'learn' them and then you discover that next little twist you didnt quite hear or couldnt quite put your finger on, and when you do it just clicks and have a fresh appreciation and awe as the detail is made clear. He had such an abundance of those in his songs and this series has brought so many of them to light for me, really incredible job on these!
So true, perfectly said 🤘🏻
This song almost brings me to tears every time I hear it.
We need more!! Please keep going!
Even if you just talked about the songs in depth the way you do before the tutorial, we’d love that!
Thank you for this series, beyond amazing, I'm so looking forward to the continuation!
I pray for you once you eventually make it to Angeles. Amazing collection of videos and am glad to see it continue!
the quality of all your videos is insane!!! Cant thank you enough for your work. Im sure its very fun work, but still having to organize all the things you want to say, and video editing takes time. We appreciate what you are doing for the ES community.
I been so excited to learn this song its out on my last day of work before collage!
Also I'll definitely be getting that book, super excited! Thanks again for another amazing video
Also appreciate the improving lessons, the slowness, the clear instructions and clear visual for how to play, greatly appreciate!
@@tannertalbot6044 oh dude congrats! thanks for your support and good luck this year you're gonna crush it 🤘
Thank you so much ❤ My favorite song in the album
So glad to see you've done another Elliott Smith video - really hoping you end up doing another album (all of them)!
I'm so stoked to have found this. I appreciate the clear and concise instruction, and the insightful analysis. SO REFRESHING to have such quailty. Elliot Smith deserves it. Thanks.
Hi, I'm from Russia and I want to say a huge thank you for your videos, they are amazing! I opened each video with trepidation, anticipation to learn something new, to learn about a new detail in Elliot's song. Thank you for your hard work!
So glad to hear the series will continue!
Thank you, I needed this so much. I hope this will not be the last of Elliott Smith in-depth tutorials. Anyway, a great accomplishment my friend.
sadly I'm outside of America but I am so grateful for you, its hard to find guitar lessons and I would never have learned the white lady if it wasn't for you, you've done such a great job and I hope this won't be the last Elliott songbook that you make :)
finished the video and I just had the biggest smile on my face when I heard exactly what I wanted, the series will continue
@@naps340great great work
LETS GOOOOO
Thank you so much for all the effort and time that you put into this project , can’t wait to hear about your next project.
This is the best breakdown on the net. Amazing job
pure love bro 💙
Thanks for doing this! God knows us acoustic guitarists Elliott Smith fans always need help and your insights are like a flashlight beam through the darkness. You know, one thing I thought about is how so many songs can be played with just strumming and chords and they just sound fine. With Elliott, that’s almost never the case. This song wouldn’t sound good at all playing the straight chords. You have to have the fingerpicking, percussive strums, thumbed bass notes and dynamics in all of his songs. You don’t have to nail every hammer on or slide but something has to be there for it to sound right. “Division Day” is pretty straightforward but even that has some walking bass.
Thanks for watching! I think the question is - how much better some could songs with just strumming, or only standard chords, be if they had a more thoughtfully written part? The Biggest Lie is still one of my favorite Elliott Smith parts to play, and I think it'd still be a beautiful song just strumming, G Em C D and so on. Of course we're used to the extra depth of Elliott's parts, so it would feel like it was missing something.
Also to note Elliott change the lyrics to the song so it wouldn’t be so gruesome
Original beginning “there’s a man under the train, subway only goes one way, stupid train probably will pull him apart, make everybody late”
There’s more but I’m too lazy to type it all
Thanks for sharing, I never heard that. I always thought that part of the lyrics was strange "stupid thing that'll come to pull us apart and make everybody late". I assumed the thing was the subway but why say it like that - this context makes alot more sense. Are there any recordings with these original lyrics?
@@_E_S_P there’s live recordings of it, search “la Luna balcony Elliott smith” and click on the one with the date of “1996-11-18”. I’ve time stamped it so it should be easy to go to the song.
One more thing to add is a lot of the songs on self titled where changed up lyrically, earlier performances of these songs have the original lyrics before he changed them for the record. I think songs include clementine, satellite and I can’t remember which others.
@@_E_S_Psearch Elliott smith La Luna balcony 1996-11-18, should be able to listen to it there, I’ve time stamped the songs. Another fun fact, a lot of the songs on self titled had a lot of lyrical changes once recorded on the album. This applies to songs like clementine, satellite, etc.
Music stuff is the best thing about yt and Elliott is the best stuff. Your work is great. Thank you!
This series is a gift. Thank you.
Hero, thank you
Loved this serie!! Can I ask, regarding Elliott´s work, whats next?
This series is amazing! Thank you for putting so much effort into this
please dont stop doing things like this 🙏🙏
Wow you should be really proud man. Great work on all the songs, thank you 👍👏🙏
I'm crying
been waiting for this one, thanks a lot
Thanks for your work, I’ll be picking up a digital copy when available
Yeahhhhhh finally thanks for making great videos
Hey! I LOOOVE your videos! You figured out so many details of those songs and I can see how much time you spend on them! Can’t wait to see more Elliott Tutorials for other albums :)
But I noticed one thing:
You do the picking patterns often differently than him.
It still sounds great and I kight be nerding out a bit too much on this😅 but Elliott never really use his nails that much for strumming. brushstroke medaillon got it pretty close but I think i might have figured it out.
I’m also guilty of doing it wrong in my older covers but we’re all learning haha.
If you would be down I would love to talk about this and maybe share some info/ contribute my point of view (only If you want to of course :))
Cheers, please keep going💙🙏
hell yeah🤘🏻I actually had a little section of the vid edited where I talked about the right hand craziness, I also think the brushstroke medallion method is maybe slightly different bc he talks about using your thumb to slap or press the strings into the frets, and I hear more tapping on the body on a track like The Biggest Lie. I also mentioned the nails/thumb, i hear the balance of the two change in different performances - like the vid I used live Fargo 1997 sounds like more nails/almost clawhammer than usual - but I basically use nails cuz it’s more natural for me.
I ended up cutting that section for length, but also bc like you said, I realized I was maybe overly nerding out lol. Still a super central part of his sound and worth practicing and pointing out. Props to you if you’ve got it down!!
I think a small thing that I found that makes his strumming technique harder to replicate is a physical trait of his fingers. If you get a chance to see a video with a close-up on his fingers, he has a lot more flesh on the tips than he does nail (I think I read somewhere that he said he bit his nails a lot, so that might explain it). When I try to mimic his right hand strumming and hold it exactly like he does, I get a lot more nail sound in the downstroke.
EX: The 2003 Henry Fonda performance when he plays Shooting Star; he plays in a natural position with his fingers mostly curled, aside from extensions of the index for upstrokes. The downstrokes he does have a _bit_ of nail sound, but it's mostly flesh. For me, there'd be *no* goddamn way I could get that sound by strumming like that, and I think that applies to a lot of people as well and why it's such a pain in the ass to get down.
brushstroke medallion's videos show him with his fingers more extended than how Elliott usually plays, which does get pretty close like you said and his videos helped me out sooo so much, but it's still very hard to accurately replicate especially on faster songs.
That's part of why his playing is so unique to him, imo. It's thrown me off for my first couple years playing guitar until I figured that out, and was REAL frustrating trying to get his sound down, but I've learned to play my own way in a sort of compromise, which I don't think is a bad goal for anyone to have. Gives us more identity as guitar players. Or just bite the fuck out of your nails, whatever works honestly.
Thanks for reading my Elliott Smith Fingertip Analysis.
@@caketits2723 super interesting and helpful - I completely agree about personality coming from picking style, but the way he plays is just too beautiful sounding to not try to replicate, or approximate like we're all doing lol
big W man thanks, i loved every video and im fs getting that book cuz ur videos helped me a lot with my guitar playing 🖤
please keep doing elliotts albums
Any chance for a breakdown video on Elliott's picking style? A lot of videos I've seen have been a little hard to follow and your videos are always a huge help.
Sorry just to follow up on that - I know there's a breakdown in the video but a dedicated video to this topic might help people get the fundamentals on his right hand down. Thanks!
Your tutorials are so amazing! Roman Candle project next :)?
Im so excited 😊
hell yeah dude such a beautiful track
Don’t kid yourself that tomorrow is going to be better
When is the songbook dropping? Buzzing for it.
Will the book be available in U.K at somepoint really wanna buy it
I've gotten a few messages like this, so we're doing it! I'll update the listing to include overseas shipping when I get another batch of books! I'll post about it soon 🤘
where’d the new moon vids go ? D: i was saving Pt. 2 to watch
those are still up on the channel! Thanks for watching 🤘
ALTHOUGH depending on where you live it might be blocked! Looks like they're both blocked in almost every country except the US and Canada, that sucks
@@_E_S_P vpn time :3
Where can one purchase the book?
is there an ebook option available?
To this listener, “the biggest lie” is a shot of dope., but obviously there’s plenty of room for interpretation.
I don’t see a link for lessons?
I don’t have room for new students right now - if you have any specific questions about a guitar part I’m happy to answer!