Classical Gas Note For Note Intro Lesson 1

I have seen lessons for this on youtube and no matter how professional the presentation the ones I found are not accurate to any of the several different ways Mason Williams has recorded this over the years. Some are not even close. . , The most popular series of lessons has over a million views, and is a nice beginner's version. but really its just the melody line with a few half chords. It really oversimplifies it. Some want you to pay for it and their version is not like anything Williams ever played. . So I thought why not present it note for note the way the man plays it. Mason Williams has played this differently on every record and I found that even Mason William's book and all of the tab I could find has major errors and discrepancies in them and I found that all of the sheet music and all of the tab has been transcribed differently from one another.
I found that there is no perfect tab on the web for this and no sheet music that you can buy is right but there is one tab that is close enough to use for a start. The book is also good enough to use for a start. Though the book has discrepancies it is well worth it for the history and story of Classical Gas and the CD that comes with it. In it he plays the intro differently than in any of of his other records. There is lots of great music in the book.
Ultimate-Guitar.com adds to their song list from time to time and moves the right one in the list so to get to the closest to right tab at Ultimate Guitar.com skip all the Guitar Pro versions, all of those miscrediting this to Eric Clapton and all the tab until you come to the series labeled Mason Williams, Open each until you come to the one that matches the Power Tab I have uploaded. It's labeled Version 4. It is a PT or Power Tab.When printed it will say its from "The Mason Williams Phonograph Record" This is the best I could find anywhere but still wrong in many places. Many of its errors are the same as the book's. but its as close as I could find to his release "Handmade".Like I said Ultimate guitar changes all the time but the following link gets you right to the download button at the bottom of the page at this link. http://tabs.ultimate-guitar.com/m/mason_williams/classical_gas_ver4_power_tab...


He has released it several times.
ONE GOOD THING IS THAT AFTER THE INTRO THERE WILL BE VERY FEW ERRORS.
This is an amazing piece. After 40 years this is still the most famous, most aired, played, covered, learned and attempted instrumental guitar solo of all time. It is still the Holy Grail of guitar instrumentals. Kind of a rite of passage more or less. Though it is not the most difficult guitar instrumental it requires time to get it "under your hands". Not many people can play it and few play it well or all the way through, However it is well worth the effort. Once you have it "under your hands" you've got it forever if you play it once in awhile. All the chord shapes are simple and common and easily learned. No big fret spreads or tricky effects. It just takes patience and practice. One tip is to get his playing it from the album on youtube at isaacleo. Thats the site that has it. Download the free program "Audacity". Its an audio recording and editing program that you will not want to be without. Get a mic. Record your playing with Audacity and add effects but mostly hear yourself playing. It is the best learning tool. You can play and loop individual sections of it. and use the speed function there to slow it down so that there is separation between the notes without lowering the pitch.. I don't play it perfectly, or as well as I did when I was young but it still gets to me like it did 40 years ago. I am going to do this (if there is a good response) in about 10 or so 9 minute lessons over the next couple of months or so.
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[Brynjulvify]

I gave up learning this about 6 months ago. Now I'm going to try it again. These lessons are actually good, it is just a really hard piece to play.

[revedmusic]

@Brynjulvify Until there was YT CG was considered very difficult. Now, since YT you can see and hear hundreds of pieces that are more difficult by far. Trust me on this-- Your left hand fingers just need to do this over and over and over and over until they learn to land in the right places automatically every time. Thats all there is to it. You do need to be able to bar chord but thats all. Let me know how it goes-Art

[funguy4utube]

Holy cow .. you have Tommy Lee Jones's voice .. besides that though great lesson ... you sure you are not TLJ ?

[revedmusic]

@funguy4utube Thank You, but if I was TLJ do you think I would be hanging out here on youtube?, I'd be in Cannes or Tahiti or some very expensive resort with a drink that had a little paper umbrella in it.

[mrspeachymangos]

im going to play this for a pageant(: 

[revedmusic]

@mrspeachymangos There are 2 tricks First-don't give up on it. Second- don't give up on it. Both of these will work equally well.

[Deadshot001]

tobuscus learned it in a week

[revedmusic]

@Deadshot001 I saw his video a couple of years ago. and I believe he learned it in a week like he said. A professional studio musician could just play it from the sheet music the first time he saw it. Most serious guitar players could learn it in an hour or two. I also think there are those who could just "Play it" from hearing it once. without having the sheet music. Unfortunately those people are very rare.

[mwilson315]

Excellent teacher. Super video

[revedmusic]

@Surreallism007 Well I larned it when I was young and it took me a VERY long time. but anything worthwhile usually does. Good luck -Art

[Surreallism007]

i subscribed ! It'll take me VERY long to learn...

[revedmusic]

Look at some Merle Travis videos. He was famous for playing your way. But the way you learn to use your other fingers is you simply start doing it. It may seem weird at first but right away you will start seeing how much more you can do. Especially for chords. Just consider the way you have been doing it as a bad habit and work on it. It won't take to see the difference.