Yet another guitar thread

[Raph]

The objective of the game is to keep a guitar thread on the front page at all times.  Should you manage to get multiples of them, you will be scored accordingly.

The lose condition is getting in trouble with a moderator.

Today's entry: a fairly messy newly written and recorded collection of riffs that can't really call itself a song.

http://www.raphkoster.com/?p=262

Post includes the requisite guitar geekery regarding tunings, etc.

[penfold]

Ive been playing all of a month now, and still learning the basics. I don't even own a capo, or an accoustic guitar yet. Can you even use capo's with electric guitars? never seen it.   Using Guitarport Online for lessons, mainly blues and shredding.  Also, a clip of Robert Fripp visiting MS a few weeks back to do the Vista sounds inspired me to play around with effects and loops, it never even occured to me to use a guitar as means to play ambient electronica, its been fun experimenting.

[Raph]

Yes, I use the same capo technique on my electric guitar, so it is definitely possible. I also can plug in my acoustic to get electric sounds off it (running through a digital effects pedal unit).

[Righ]

Ive been playing all of a month now, and still learning the basics. I don't even own a capo, or an accoustic guitar yet. Can you even use capo's with electric guitars? never seen it.   Using Guitarport Online for lessons, mainly blues and shredding.  Also, a clip of Robert Fripp visiting MS a few weeks back to do the Vista sounds inspired me to play around with effects and loops, it never even occured to me to use a guitar as means to play ambient electronica, its been fun experimenting.

Fred Frith famously used a capo to split the neck of an electric guitar, and with a pickup at the head end, and stereo pickups on the body, fed the three channels through different effects and controlled it all through multiple footswitches. Going to have to dig out the vinyl now.

Frippatronics. Long delays, live resampling and layering. Awesome. Better yet when you play glissandi and add sustain with an e-bow. I'll dig out the Steve Hillage albums too.

[Sky]

At least you didn't play the bass like most guitarists, just holding the root or fifth ;)

I'm not a huge fan of drum machines or loops, part of why I have no songs written lately...When I get a decent little recorder, I'll be laying down my drums acoustically, but there are a lot of restrictions on that, as I still live in an apartment (c'mon, housing bubble! POP). It's a headache just trying to figure how to record stuff solo, probably a scratch guitar track that I'll monitor to lay down the drums, then layer on bass and guitar later. I dunno, I'm just rambling now. Kinda like that guitar piece :P

Since it's monday morning and my brain can't do theory right now, what tuning is DADGAD? I've seen it around, but my slide guitar is tuned to DADF#AD. I'm not sure what that tuning is, either, but it sounds purty. I don't get enough time to play, let alone mess with tunings. I mostly play standard tuning.

[Raph]

At least you didn't play the bass like most guitarists, just holding the root or fifth ;)

I've been told I play the bass like a guitar, which makes sense, since that's what I mostly do. :) I do enjoy writing bass figures though.

I'm not a huge fan of drum machines or loops, part of why I have no songs written lately...When I get a decent little recorder, I'll be laying down my drums acoustically, but there are a lot of restrictions on that, as I still live in an apartment (c'mon, housing bubble! POP). It's a headache just trying to figure how to record stuff solo, probably a scratch guitar track that I'll monitor to lay down the drums, then layer on bass and guitar later. I dunno, I'm just rambling now. Kinda like that guitar piece :P

The drum machine is mostly useful for just setting a background, is what I've found.

I do work a lot with loops, but usually building dozens of them and layering in them in and out in interesting ways. I usually never just stripe one thing. In what you heard, there were four different drum loops, I think, and they play layered much of the time.

Since it's monday morning and my brain can't do theory right now, what tuning is DADGAD? I've seen it around, but my slide guitar is tuned to DADF#AD. I'm not sure what that tuning is, either, but it sounds purty. I don't get enough time to play, let alone mess with tunings. I mostly play standard tuning.

It's usually called "modal D" -- technically it's a Dsus4. Lower the G to an F# like you have, and it becomes open D major.

DADGAD is widely used in fingerstyle guitar because of the many suspended harmonies it evokes so easily. It was popularized by European guitarists in the 60's: Bert Jansch, Davey Graham, Pierre Bensusan. Michael Hedges got start with it, it's the tuning for Richard Thompson's "1952 Vincent Black Lightning," and it's the tuning for Paul Simon's "Anji" on the Sounds of Silence album. Modern players like Alex deGrassi will use it lot...

[Soln]

Raph, if you're into interesting tunings recommend you try "Nashville Tuning", which the  "simplest way to explain it is, you use the high octave strings of a 12 string set of strings on a six-string guitar" <clicky>.   It gives a luverly, full but bright sound.   Cf. Johnny Marr who used it a lot, and F#, the world's greatest guitar key.   But if you're a picker (Cf. Hedges), may not be your thing. 

[Raph]

I'm familiar with Nashville tuning. It gives a really bright sound. But you pretty much have to leave one guitar set up that way all the time, and I switch tunings constantly too. I have multiple acoustics, but one lives at work, one is my main guitar, and the last is for slide and stays in Open D. If I had yet another guitar, I might try it. :)