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2.54pm
3 August 2012
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I started trying to learn how to play this song about 20 minutes ago and one of my fingers on my left hand is already bleeding. 
I refuse to stop of course, who do ye think I am? 
Also, how in the heavens does Paul sing this at the same time as playing it? I can play it well without the singing but as soon as I try the verse with vocal, it immediately goes wrong– it’s a very odd rhythm… 
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3.14pm
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15 February 2015
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pepperhand screamed
I started trying to learn how to play this song about 20 minutes ago and one of my fingers on my left hand is already bleeding.I refuse to stop of course, who do ye think I am?
Ooh, ye poor thing. I’ve never actually played to the point that my fingers began to bleed, but I did attempt to learn this once and gave up after five minutes put it off for another day… or year
Also, how in the heavens does Paul sing this at the same time as playing it? I can play it well without the singing but as soon as I try the verse with vocal, it immediately goes wrong– it’s a very odd rhythm…
Yeah, I’ve learnt songs like that– you just have to keep at it until somehow, someday, it all falls into place. (Or it doesn’t. Like ‘Brain Damage’, which I shall never be able to play and sing, but I can play the bassline and sing…)
Usually I’m pretty good at weird syncopated play-and-singing, but there are times when it just doesn’t work.
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3.38pm
3 August 2012
Offline I think I’ve got it now @Beatlebug! I can just get by when I sing it as ‘ni ni ni’ instead of the lyrics. For some reason that works. 
Yeah, I’m not used to my fingers bleeding because me callouses are hard enough to stick a sharp knife in and I won’t feel anything 
, but there’s a bit in the song where you have to slide from your average D chord to a D on the 10th fret and it’s bleedin’ ripping up my finger– I’m having to just jump to the chord instead of slide which ruins the effect.
Ah well, I’ll get by… with a little help from me other fingers.
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3.41pm
Moderators
15 February 2015
Offline peppershands sanged
Yeah, I’m not used to my fingers bleeding because me callouses are hard enough to stick a sharp knife in and I won’t feel anything
Same here 
Yeah, that tripped me up too… (now I want to learn it)
I appreciates yer perseverance and things– have an apple or three to speed the healing of your fingers. 
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4.05pm
3 August 2012
Offline And they call her SiiilleeEEE, Silly G said
Same here
Yeah, that tripped me up too… (now I want to learn it)
I appreciates yer perseverance and things– have an apple or three to speed the healing of your fingers.
Thanks for the apples, I’m gonna need ’em– although after way-too-long practicing it (almost an hour and a half!!!), I think I’ve got a grip of the singing bit too.
And yes, you should learn it— it’s a lot of fun to play (when your fingers are doing what they’re supposed to).
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4.21pm
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20 August 2013
Offline ^ This conversation makes me appreciate Paul even more. 
All that natural talent.
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6.35pm
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15 February 2015
Offline Ahhh Girl said
^ This conversation makes me appreciate Paul even more.
*cough* *whispers* and years of practise 
Umm, yeah, natural talent.
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1.18am
27 March 2015
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It’s both. He does have natural talent, and then he’s had 60 years of practice as well. 
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6.37pm
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15 February 2015
Offline 
I listened to this song for the first time in forever the other day, and for some reason, to me, it sounded like much more than an innocent, joyful spring morning love song. I always associate it with Linda and her death shortly after the song’s release, so there’s that colouration over it; but even by itself, his vocal sounds tinged with — not sadness, exactly; more bittersweet. It sounds to me like a scenario where two people are a little desperately holding onto the perfection of this moment because they know it will end soon by the death of one of them — I picture either Paul’s and Linda’s case, or a (more dramatic) scenario (that would make a great, shmaltzy movie premise) where it’s the middle of a horrific war and they fall in love and one of them has to go off and get killed in the war soon — although, upon review, Paul’s and Linda’s case makes more sense. Kind of a grown-up Things We Said Today .
The second verse seems particularly relevant:
Always looking for ways to love you (trying to make every moment count)
Never failing to fight at your side
While the angels of love protect us (grant us a bit more time)
From the innermost secrets we hide (Cancer being the innermost secrets we hide)
…Right, now that I’ve ruined the happiness of this song for everyone, I’m going to go off and have a good cry 
(nonexistent Linda smiley)
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10.13pm
11 April 2016
Offline ^^^ Don’t worry, @Beatlebug, you haven’t ruined the happiness of the song for me, at least.
I always associated it with Linda beforehand, and it was never a “happy” song for me. It makes me quite sad, actually. It reminds me of a friend of mine. I get a bit teary when I hear it.
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2.18pm
Moderators
15 February 2015
Offline Beatlebug said three years ago
Ahhh Girl said
^ This conversation makes me appreciate Paul even more.*cough* *whispers* and years of practise
Umm, yeah, natural talent.
I’ve since learnt this song, and maybe I have a natural talent for play-and-singing (I don’t find it quite as difficult as most people, but I’ve had a lot of practise as well), because I don’t find it that hard to get the groove down, although it’s still quite a difficult song to play-and-sing. Lots going on with the chord changes.
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2.31pm
Reviewers
17 December 2012
Offline And where’s your Maccasongs version for us all to enjoy, @Beatlebug?
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2.48pm
Moderators
15 February 2015
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5.46pm
13 January 2019
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~7.25pm
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15 February 2015
Offline I’ve just used my modly powers to capitalise the word ‘Skies’ in the title and it feels like such an itch scratched.
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1.23pm
Moderators
15 February 2015
Offline Did they slow this song down? Because the recorded version is in D-flat, and I tune my guitar down half a step to play it, and I always assumed Paul did as well (it’s easier to sing also), but I’m hearing an early take and it’s in D and a little faster. The home demo, however, is in D-flat and slower. So I’m wondering . . .
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2.48pm
17 June 2021
Offline ‘Calico Skies’ is a beautiful song.
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4.55am
8 January 2015
Offline I must say I’ve never dared to learn this one, full of what I call “Paulisms” by which I mean his style of playing which is different and difficult for me to approach. His double-thumbing and fingering strumming technique and his effortless chord fingering would be enough to admire but then he goes and sings an awesome melody over the top of it 
And in some ways this is a simpler approach than Blackbird yet more complex in others, I see the two as related. Blackbird ‘s strum is more continuous, Calico Skies only breaks into that for the choruses, but its chords are harder.
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I definitely find it harder than 
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