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Dear Ruth,

That is exactly the information I was looking for, I'll change my two songs to Bird on a Wire and You KNow Who I Am. I'll inquire about either finger-picking or strumming.

Thank you so much. His lesson is tomorrow so I will let you know how all goes.

Queen of Solitude, Suzanne is fine to set him (eight quavers per bar compared to six for Bird on the Wire), but I would class Hey, That's No Way to Say Goodbye as advanced, because it consists entirely of semiquavers, sixteen notes per bar ... so just the lines "I loved you in the morning, our kisses sweet and warm" require thirty notes to be played! You Know Who I Am is twelve semiquavers per bar, with a bar containing between three to six words, so still too fast for a beginner if picking. If you set him too hard an objective, he may just give up entirely. The simplest is undoubtedly Bird on the Wire, with Suzanne in second place.

I love Judy Collins's rendition of Priests on her album Wildflowers. I used to play Priests, but only strumming ... Most of Leonard's early songs consist of quavers and semiquavers, but Priests is entirely demisemiquavers, and there is no way I could ever play that fast (24 notes per bar, when a bar may contain only two or three words of the song ... gulp!)

But I have always loved Priests because it was written about the little shrines that used to be dotted all around Hydra. While many chapels in the wild still have a little window that can be opened from the outside with a shrine on the inner ledge, the free-standing shrines at the side of the road about which Leonard wrote have almost all vanished now. The only two I know are at the western end of Vlichos.

"And who will write love songs for you
when I am lord at last
and your body is some little highway shrine
that all my priests have passed,
that all my priests have passed?

My priests they will put flowers there,
they will stand before the glass,
but they'll wear away your little window, love,
they will trample on the grass,
they will trample on the grass."

hydriot wrote:Queen of Solitude, Suzanne is fine to set him (eight quavers per bar compared to six for Bird on the Wire), but I would class Hey, That's No Way to Say Goodbye as advanced, because it consists entirely of semiquavers, sixteen notes per bar ... so just the lines "I loved you in the morning, our kisses sweet and warm" require thirty notes to be played! You Know Who I Am is twelve semiquavers per bar, with a bar containing between three to six words, so still too fast for a beginner if picking. If you set him too hard an objective, he may just give up entirely. The simplest is undoubtedly Bird on the Wire, with Suzanne in second place.

Hello Hydriot - that's odd that you think You Know Who I Am would be too fast for a beginner - that was the first one I learned and is definitely one of the simpler ones, it may have more semiquavers per bar but it is a repetitive pattern, as is One Of Us Cannot Be Wrong, so therefore once you have the picking pattern down it remains pretty much the same throughout the song (apart from the intro in YKWIA). Suzanne (and to some extent BOTW) require you to pick out the tune or the counter melody and are definitely trickier for the beginner, regardless of how many notes per bar. That has been my experience at any rate

Hope your boyfriend's lesson goes well Queenofsolitude!

Well it seems it'll be a while before he's strumming some Leonard for me, he's just now learning the chords. I guess I thought he would come home and just play the songs ( rather I fantasized he would ), so now I'll be patient as a bird on a wire and calmly await my serenade. I was discouraged to learn that his teacher is not an LC fan, finds him depressing. Oh well, just another stray soul unaware of the beauty lost at his fingertips

All the feedback, advice and wisdoms were wonderful, thank you all.

hehe, patience will probably be needed on both sides, it can be a frustrating business learning an instrument. Good luck to you both

I just want to mention here that Bird on a wire was not in my repertoire of LC music I used to play in the 70's. It was not yet born then. But if it was, definately I would have played it.

Hi Somewhatnifty, I started learning guitar a few months ago, so I found your advice interesting. I try a simplified accompaniment to The Window, because I love it so much, and as you say the chords in it are approachable. My teacher is more into Smoke on the Water, White Stripes, etc, but as I improve I hope to introduce him to some L.Cohen !

Hi Ann - my teacher was (and probably is) not much into Cohen either, more James Taylor and Hendrix - probably depends on if you like your guitars electric or not. Get him teaching you some of Leonard's songs, it'll be good for him The Window is a nice one to play - also I remember Joan of Arc is similarly not too complicated.

Thanks Somewhatnifty, will try Joan of Arc, love that one too, especially the original version on "Songs of love and hate "where Leonard recites and sings, gorgeous !

Am enjoying learning Absent Mare on guitar, quite approachable. There is a bewildering array of sources of chords for LC 's songs, do those of you who play guitar know if some are more accurate and authoritative than others ? And is there something about Leonard tuning his guitar lower than normal tuning ?

Hi Ann, there used to be http://www.cohenchords.com, which disappeared for some reason, but Maarten transferred it to his site: http://www.maartenmassa.be/CohenChords/index.htm

I don't know if Leonard permanently tunes his guitar lower than normal, I do know for some of the songs such as Master Song and Tonight Will Be Fine the E string is dropped to a D but that's quite common in finger picking. As a result of a discussion about the chords for Avalanche I showed my guitar teacher footage of Leonard playing it on the recent tour on YouTube, and he said that Leonard had custom-tuned the guitar for that song. Whether this is standard practice for him though I don't know. Doesn't seem to be if you play along to recordings.

Thanks Somewhatnifty, that's a help. I see Joan of Arc is given in different keys, beginning in G ( which I'm trying at the moment, because it seems easier) and A on Cohenchords. I suppose all songs can be played in different keys. Strumming is easy enough, but picking as Leonard does is a different matter - fun trying, though !