Well as you already know, I enjoy the challenge that comes with playing some of John Mayer’s tunes. I love the chord progressions that he exposes us to. He also brings the high difficulty of playing guitar while making “Pop Music”. I honestly hope that other musicians, who make pop music, notice that the bar is raised VERY HIGH because of this man!

Anyways, Neon is the song that I find that is the toughest song to sing and play at the same time while USING FINGERS ONLY. I actually am still in the process of fine tuning this song, if truth be told. I can play and sing the song to the level of any hack can but if it ain’t perfect … well, I refuse to play it live. Nothing worst then people listening to you live at a venue and knowing by the look in their eyes that you are just another guy playing guitar. I must admit that I am very hard on myself but that’s the way I’ve always been. When I do master and play it live, this will be such a natural high that I will find it hard to contain myself.

The song that I’m trying to reproduce is a collage of many of his versions of this tune. I am working on the acoustic one first then playing the electric one will come easier, I hope! There are many little and subtle things that he does version to version that I want to incorporate into one version. In all honesty, I think that I am not that great at improvising solo’s at all. I fuck around but I am nowhere near the level that I really should be!

So below is a great version of Neon done live by JM and I want you to play this over and over again and please give me your input on the difficulty of both playing and singing this song live.