French Guitar Song

[Custodio Groves]

Frenchmusic isn't just somebody playing the accordion outside a Parisian cafe. In fact, there are French artists playing plenty of different genres of music: there's French pop, disco, rock, as well as the classical melodies from Debussy.

The song uses 6 chords: Dm, F, C, Bb sus2, Csus2, A. While a few of these aren't the most common chords you'll study when you learn how to play guitar, they usually just involve moving a single finger to another fret as you strum.

Don't forget that if you like the sound of French, you're not just limited to music from France, there's music from Belgium, Switzerland, Quebec (the French-speaking Canadian province), and a multitude of countries in Africa.

If you're struggling with any of these, you can always get guitar lessons from a private tutor or another guitar player. Playing guitar isn't something you have to learn on your own and playing the guitar is often more fun with somebody there to help you.

That said, there are plenty of great resources such as free guitar lessons online to teach you more about the strings, frets, and how to tune your guitar, for example. However, if you're really serious about playing the guitar, you should consider learning guitar on a guitar course at a music school or in private tutorials with your own private guitar tutor.

NEIL : I mostly buy guitars as a souvenir to remembersomewhere I've been. If I'm happy somewhere, I'll try a usedguitar in a corner, and that guitar will always remind me of theplace I bought it. The sound of the instrument reflects mypersonal sound at that time. I've written lots on a Martin D-18that I love, and that I stole from Elliot Roberts office. Everytime I use it, I'm instantly back in Elliot's office. But I buythem for other reasons. I might buy them because they areclassics, standards. I collect guitars, so I'll buy an Exploreror a Flying V, or a Black Falcon or a White Falcon just for whatthey are. But now I have them, so I don't feel the need to haveany more. Material things mean less and less to me, so I reallyconsider myself a collector.

NEIL : No, I don't ever have that sort of reaction. I have aguitar that Hank Williams owned, but I use it all the time. It'san old Martin D-28 and I bought it from Tut Taylor. Its alwaysgreat to realize the history that you are holding in yourhands...to understand the importance and the influence of HankWilliams for all of us. People are almost scared to be in thepresence of something he could have touched...almost to the pointwhere they think that just touching the instrument will elevatethem to another plane. It's wonderful to have that guitar forthose reasons. Most of the people who should have used thatguitar have used it. I'm very careful with it, but I use itconstantly. It's not on some museum wall.

NEIL : In fact, it's a Firebird pick-up that I used on myblack Les Paul, as a treble pick-up. But during the time ofEverybody Knows This is Nowhere I didn't have that pick-up and Ihad an interference in my treble pick-up (Neil Young uses onlyP-90 s on his Les Paul, which are simple wound pick-ups). I tookit to the store to see what they could do, and when I got back,the store had closed and moved. I never got my pick-up back.After I lost it, I think I tried two or three replacementpick-ups. But the Firebird I've had since 1973.

NEIL : It works. It's expressive. The vibratos they makenowadays aren't expressive. They're too hard, too rigid. You cango down to the low notes back up to the highs as fast as you candoing metal bends, and you always stay in tune. Fantastic! Stayin tune! Brilliant! You were in tune before...it makes no senseto stay in tune! I go out of tune in every song, because myvibrato won't stay in tune. But when you don't stop playing andplay around the melody, you never know whether you're in tune ornot. The control is in the fingers. And if you use an echoplex,and use the Bigsby very carefully, the tone rises and falls, butreproduces very faithfully what you play. It's as if you had twoguitars that had not only two different attacks, but alsodifferent sustains. It's a huge sound. My Bigsby is practicallyattached to my right hand, and it couldn't be otherwise.

NEIL : Thank you. That's very kind of you. I think I've goneas far as I could in that style, even when you look at what I'mdoing right now. I don't know if I still have any reason to keepon in that direction.

NEIL : No, it's just rock and roll. But real rock and roll. Infact, punk and rock are one and the same. What has degraded whatwe now call rock and roll is not rock in itself, but rather pop. Commercial product. It's an imitation, a paleressemblance of what it once was. It's Perry Como compared toreal rock. You remember how it started? There was real rock, thenthat other music that everyone listened to. Today, our parentslisten to rock. It's over. Even if I'm a parent, OK. But that'show it is.

NEIL : It's obvious that I like Sonic Youth. In my book, theyreally do modern rock. They make magnificent music. You know thatone, Expressway to Your Skull? It's incredibly good, sobeautiful. It's a classic. Superb melody, and even better live.They have quite a few that are that good. So that's one greatgroup. U2 is a good rock group. I haven't heard their latestalbum, but the others really rock. You'd almost think they hadbeen recording in their home.

NEIL : He was excellent. He was one with his instrument. Atthat time, no one had pushed the electric guitar so far, and thatgoes for today, too. He was over everybody. Totally gone. Sofluid, using the feedback to create such beautiful things. For aguitar fan like me, it was a revelation. But as for acousticguitar, Bert Jansch is on the same level as Jimi. That firstrecord of his is epic. It came from England, and I was especiallytaken by The Needle of Death, such a beautiful and angry song.That guy was so good... And years later, on On the Beach, I wrotethe melody of Ambulance Blues by styling the guitar partcompletely on Needle of Death. I wasn't even aware of it, andsomeone else drew my attention to it. I'd met him in England inthe early 70s, with Pentangle, but I this huge limousine and allthat shit and they had a strange attitude with me, considering meas one of those bonehead superstars.

NEIL : That's how I've worked for years. Very quickly. I leaveit to other people to take the songs and make records out ofthem. As far as I'm concerned, I just want to sing my tunes, playthem, record them as faithfully as possible, then move on tosomething else.

NEIL : It would give you a rather sad view of your future,wouldn't it? First off, nobody cares if you know how to playscales. Nobody gives a shit if you have good technique or not.It's whether you have feelings that you want to express withmusic, that's what counts, really. When you are able to expressyourself and feel good, then you know why you're playing. Thetechnical aspect is absolute hogwash as far as I'm concerned. Itbores me to tears. I can't play fast. I don't even know myscales. I know that most of the notes I play aren't where I playthem. They're simply not there. So you can play any note youlike. I think about it on another level, I don't care about thatsort of shit. On the other hand, I appreciate really greatguitarists, and I'm very impressed by those metal groups withtheir scale guitarists. When I see that, I go Holy shit, that'sreally something. Satriani and Eddie Van Halen are guitargeniuses. They are incredible musicians, at an amazing level. Butit does't really grab me. One note will do.

NEIL : That's right: two chords. The same note on two chords.The vibrato makes each note sound different. People say it's aone-note solo, but in my mind, every one of those notes isdifferent. The further you go into it, the more you can hear thedifferences.

NEIL : Transcendance. It's a feel. That's what I hope to getto. And you can blame me for not caring about off-notes, but inmy solos, I listen to the whole group. You call that a solo, butfor me it's an instrumental. The whole group takes part. BillyTalbot is an excellent bassist, yet he only plays two or threenotes. People always asks if he plays like that because those arethe only notes he knows, or the only ones he feels like playing.(laughs). But when he lets go a note, it speaks to you. It's afucking huge note. Even the soft notes sound enormous.

NEIL : Frank uses the biggest guitar strings I've ever seen aguitarist use. He's probably the most violent guitar player Iknow -- much more than I am, because he doesn't really do solos.His strings are so huge! 012 to 055, with a wound G string! Whenhe plays a note, it's like a hurricane! In the midst of all that,I play and I don't really know where I'm going. Without them, mysound would be ordinary. The biggest part of it is theirs.

NEIL : I don't think so. It's a logical extension of today'srock. Feedback has always been a part of it. There's always beena lot of temptation to go in that direction. It's like jazz. It'slike the jazz in rock, without the rythm.

NEIL : I hardly listen to albums. I just listen to what peoplemake me listen to, because I can't make that kind of decision. Ihear what goes on on the radio in my car or on the jukebox. But Ialways like to hear BB King, Ray Charles and old country stuff.

NEIL : An album with the Stray Gators, the group that playedwith me on Harvest. Playing with different groups lets mecontinue to move forward. It forces me to adapt to all situation.I don't try to get used to just one group, it's not good for themusic.

NEIL : Start playing, learn a few chords and play withsomebody a little bit better than yourself. Don't try to learnfrom books anything you don't already know. Music is learningdirectly from others. Takes certain riffs from here and there anduse them to write songs and to discover new sounds and new chordprogressions. Create. But even if the results sound shitty, keepcreating. Soon, it'll be great.

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