Good day to you all,

This challenge was to produce a video demonstrating a technique or passage of music that we found difficult to master. In my case that’s quite a long list to choose from.

Until about 2 years ago I was submitting videos to another forum, and at the beginning of July I started looking at some of these older pieces (most of them covers) with a view to re-recording them and maybe putting them on the ‘Showcase’ section of our Forum.

One of those that I looked at was Jigsaw Puzzle Blues, which was the B-side to Fleetwood Mac’s Albatross, all those years ago. This is a brilliant piece that I find really interesting – I can still remember the first time I heard it (at the age of 16 or 17) and thinking that I’d never be able to play that. (When I started practising it I had the same thought – it’s still not perfect, although my bends are better than they were in June 2022). Unusually, it was written, and the lead played by, the late Danny Kirwan. It’s in 4 sections with 1 and 4 being similar and 2 and 3 being similar, also each section is in a different key (this isn’t too much of a problem when using Tab).

More recently I found out that Joe Venuti recorded a piece with the same title (I think in the 1930s) with a band featuring Eddy Lang, although there is little similarity with the FM version – just one or two phrases.

The reason for me choosing this piece is that it features many, many bends, with some of them (in Sections 1 and 4) with vibrato. Some of the bends alter from half to full while being played and then have vibrato added. So, my problem area is bending generally, but also preventing the sound of unwanted strings. I’m glad that Brian pointed out that by definition there won’t be many submissions that will be perfect! The backing track (which I have slowed down slightly) is provided by Adrian Woodward, a British guitar teacher.

I hope you like it.

I’m looking forward to seeing the other submissions.

Here’s the link