All My Loving

Wow, this one has taken a while – and not due to laziness on my part.  Instead, it’s taken a lot of practice because the strumming during the verses is fast.

Actually, when all is said and done, it’s not that fast, but more on that in a minute.

Though it did take a while to learn, it was nevertheless worth it since this song was a return to more canonized Beatles fare.  While “Act Naturally” and “All I’ve Got to Do” have their merits, “All My Loving” is a song that most casual Beatles fans will recognize, which is good in a sense, but also means that they will know if I’m screwing it up.

And screwing it up is easy to do because, as I said before, it’s fast.  Throughout the verses the guitar part, though not playing any chords that are all that unusual (except for one tricky B-minor7), is strumming at a constant up-tempo pace that I’ve never tried to pull off before.  Upon my first few attempts at it I would just strum as fast as my arm would allow and do my best to change chords in time.  The results did not sound good.

So, as is so often the case with music, I found that the solution was to slow things down a bit and work up to the final goal rather than just blunder through.  Playing slower allowed me to quickly realize that something I was doing was a little off.  After revisiting the recording I realized two things: first, even The Beatles sometimes have a slight pause between a few of the bigger chord changes and, second, rather than just strumming up and down really fast, the strumming is actually in a very controlled triplet.

The first realization helped because it enabled me to relax about the chord changes a bit – if The Beatles hands are governed by the laws of physics then it’s okay that mine are, too – and, along with slowing down and lots of repetition, relaxing is often one of the keys to learning something new on an instrument.  The second realization helped both because it enabled me to actually control the tempo (I started counting a quick “1-2-3″ rather than just flailing away in an up-down rhythm as fast as possible) and it helped me to realize that the strumming actually isn’t quite as fast as I thought – the triplet gives the song a momentum that sounds a lot faster than it actually is.

All of this being said, it’s still pretty darn fast, and that took some getting used to.  I’ve always found it easier to strum chords without a pick, so I started without one.  Then, when that felt comfortable, I started using a really flimsy plastic one.  Gradually, I worked my way up to stiffer and stiffer picks until, by the end, I was using my preferred wood and stone picks.  I wouldn’t go so far as to say that I’ve mastered it – some days are definitely better than others – but it feels a lot more natural than it did when I started.

Which is good because the song poses another challenge as well: this is the first song with any significant solo to speak of.  It’s relatively short, though, so it was easy to memorize, which meant that I could just practice it over and over while watching TV.  Eventually, my hands go used to doing it and it sounds okay.  Like the fast strumming, some days are better than others.

I haven’t said much about the chorus or the lyrics – but this is largely because there just isn’t that much to say.  The chorus uses the same off-beat staccato that was so pervasive in “All I’ve Got to Do,” and the lyrics are pretty straight forward: the singer is promising his love that he’ll miss her and stay faithful to her while he’s away.  Oh, and he’ll write to her every day.  That’s about it.

And that’s about it for the song.  While it was definitely a challenge, it also reaffirmed one of the values of this whole process.  It seems that each song I’ve learned so far has forced me to practice at least one skill that will be important to being a competent guitar player.  From changing time-signatures to practicing fills to playing staccato to fast strumming, each song poses new (but, so far, surmountable) challenges.

Now on to “All Together Now”…

Lyrics – “All My Loving”

Close your eyes and I’ll kiss you
Tomorrow I’ll miss you
Remember I’ll always be true

And then while I’m away
I’ll write home every day
And I’ll send all my loving to you

I’ll pretend that I’m kissing
The lips I am missing
And hope that my dreams will come true

And then while I’m away
I’ll write home every day
And I’ll send all my loving to you

All my loving, I will send to you
All my loving, darling I’ll be true

Close your eyes and I’ll kiss you
Tomorrow I’ll miss you
Remember I’ll always be true

And then while I’m away
I’ll write home every day
And I’ll send all my loving to you

All my loving, I will send to you
All my loving, darling I’ll be true
All my loving, all my loving
Ooh, all my loving, I will send to you

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