Tripping Billies

[Flyguy]

Hi - I'm new to the Dave Matthews style, but not to guitar in general (I've been playing about a year). So, I'm trying to learn some Dave Matthews songs...tripping billies sounds awesome. I have one, actually two questions. First, it kinda sounds like Dave is palm-muting or dampening some of the notes in the verse somehow. Is this necessary to do? And secondly, I can play along with the verse at about 1/4 speed - so I'm just slowly increasing the speed until I can play it at full speed.

Lastly, does anyone have any tips on playing Dave Matthews stuff in general, or more specifically Tripping Billies? Thanks a lot. (by the way, I've read a LOT on the forums, and they are the best I've ever seen).

[The Man of The Hour]

There are some important things to take note of when playing Dave:

1) His strumming. His strumming is very rhythmic and percussive. There are usually always patterns to his strumming, as there is any song, his just take a bit longer to figure out. Stick with it though.

2) His muting. It is present in 99% of his songs. Basically try to learn how to strum all of his songs while muting or "deadening" the strings. This might be the one definitive style which gives Dave his own uniqueness.
By me saying "try to learn how to strum all of his songs while muting the strings", I mean literally put on the cd and play along with the track, playing with the beat, just getting a feel for the rhythm. If you can achieve his rhythm you have achieved the most difficult part of playing like him.

3) His ability to mute strings while playing notes at the same time. Apparent in songs such as "The Stone", learn to pick out notes individually and muting strings at the same time.

Remember to always keep the rhythym. Even if you mess up, hitting the wrong notes or something, keep the strumming going, it's the most important part. Have fun!

[Granny33]

the man's advice is pretty good, i'd just say read the lessons on this site. also you may be good but you should still learn a few easier songs such as crash to get the feel of dave's music, then move onto harder stuff like billies. oh and man what are you talking about w/ the stone? you don't have to pick notes and mute at the same time. unless i'm doing something really wrong in the verse.

[The Man of The Hour]

oh and man what are you talking about w/ the stone? you don't have to pick notes and mute at the same time. unless i'm doing something really wrong in the verse.

Well, as you know the majority of The Stone intro is downstrokes, and you aren't always going to hit each string perfectly, so when that does happen, to be able to mute all of the other strings is the way to go. Basically if you have your pinky on the first note of the intro, you should be able to strum every string and still only hear that one note. I guess that's what I mean.

And FlyGuy, as for dampening the strings in Tripping Billies, that's just muting you will eventually get to as soon as you master the rhythm, notes, slides, etc. As soon as you listen to it enough you'll notice the little details that really make the song shine. It's all relative.

[Granny33]

yea yea you're right i get it now. sry

[Appfro]

great advice so far. id also ad that in songs like the stone and other picking songs, it is important like previosly stated to keep going if you mess up, its the easiest way to learn. secondly, in songs like tripping billies...you aren't going to hit every note. if you stop ever time you mess up you'll never get it. so keep it going, if you miss something, try to get it on the next go round. i guess this isn't an addition...its just a stress on what man of the hour said.

[The Man of The Hour]

It's all good Granny, I could see how my statements can be a bit confusing...I put down too many words I think

[Flyguy]

It's all good Granny, I could see how my statements can be a bit confusing...I put down too many words I think

Naah, lots of words are good. Thanks for all the advice guys!