Guitar thread

[Raph]

New toy to help with the synth instruments that I have been using in my arrangements: http://www.amazon.com/ARTURIA-Analog-Experience-Laboratory-Controller/dp/B004SL8XFG

Setting up the programming is a pain, but already I can get WAY more expressive stuff from my fake strings and horns and the like.

[Sky]

New toy = cool!

I've got to let the budget recover from all the plastic toys I bought last year, then I think I'm going to start socking away cash for some upgrades to the msuic setup. Now that my basement's dry I can put in a permanent jam room down there. At the very least I want to get a decent drum kit.

[Raph]

Posted new tune: http://www.raphkoster.com/2013/02/10/the-sunday-song-freedom/

[Soln]

Johnny Marr has a solo album.  And he's touring.  Now.  And the album (first cut) is good.  i.e. "bright".      

oldhappyweepyguy.gif

[Raph]

Got my Blueridge and Gibson electric back from the shop.

Blueridge had the pickup replaced. They put a Fishman in, since it had the knobs in the same place. New saddle, too. The pickup is dramatically better than the old one. It moved the jack from the side to the endpin, which I will have to get used to. :)

The Gibson got a fair-sized going-over. The other shop had done a setup on it, lowered the action, and it resulted in bad buzz on the 9th fret. Blue Guitar went in and leveled all the frets, cleaned out the electronics, and in general babied it.

[Sky]

I've been slacking so bad on guitar lately. Have to get the chops back up to start recording again now that my 'studio' is unfrozen. With the basement waterproofed, I'm hoping to get it a little bit finished and setup up more permanently in there, so the guitars can adjust to that environment rather than the radical changes at each end of my (small) house.

Current project I'm slacking on: learning Bistro Fada. It's actually fairly simple to play, it's just remembering all the bits. Not sure if I'm going to incorporate Wrembel's picking style, he calls for a downstroke on every string change which is pretty tough for me. I just play and don't pay any attention to how I pick. Also working on La Pompe, 'the pump', the manouche style of playing chords. It's also fairly simple but you have to swing into it and I keep getting the accents wrong :)

[ghost]

So I inherited a pretty kick ass guitar from my mother in law.  I've never played.  Can you recommend any way to start on my own, Sky?  I don't really have time for lessons or hanging out at the guitar shop right now. 

[Chimpy]

(in before the Rocksmith plug by Sky)

[Trippy]

So I inherited a pretty kick ass guitar from my mother in law.  I've never played.  Can you recommend any way to start on my own, Sky?  I don't really have time for lessons or hanging out at the guitar shop right now. 

Can you read sheet music?

[Raph]

Learn how to make a G, a C, a D, an E, and an A.

Then to go a site like ultimate-guitar.com and find songs you know and love that happen to just use those chords. Do not try anything that has tablature yet. Just chords.

Then practice until you get to Carnegie Hall. :)

[Nebu]

Learn how to make a G, a C, a D, an E, and an A.

Then to go a site like ultimate-guitar.com and find songs you know and love that happen to just use those chords. Do not try anything that has tablature yet. Just chords.

Then practice until you get to Carnegie Hall. :)

After that, Am, Em, and bar chords.  Then you can play everything every written for pop music since 1980! 

[Sky]

What kind of guitar? What kind of music do you want to learn?

The downside to Rocksmith is you're not learning any real notation.

I should set up a google hangout for lessons to fund my KS habit :p

[Sky]

Been playing a bit of bass lately, picked up some Rush tabs and been messing around with that stuff. Wrote a nice jam over the A/F section of La Villa Strangiato. Messing around showing the old lady a few things and stumbled on an old piece I had written at the tail end of my professional stint (actually backed into it jamming over Southbound Pachyderm by Primus). So cool to have remembered that after all these years, the last attempt at a band had two guitarists with no clue of what to play over it. That's actually what convinced me to hang it up, nobody could write!

I've got to move a few things around but should be able to get my little recording set up in its more or less permanent home pretty soon, hopefully before I forget it for another ~18 years

[ghost]

What kind of guitar? What kind of music do you want to learn?

The downside to Rocksmith is you're not learning any real notation.

I should set up a google hangout for lessons to fund my KS habit :p

It's a Gibson ES-175 with a single pickup, as opposed to the model with two pickups.  As far as reading sheet music, I used to be able to, but haven't messed with it in over 20 years so it would take me some time to pick that back up. 

[Sky]

Bastard! That's a really nice guitar.

You still haven't said what you're interested in learning. Raph's hippy stuff or what? I've got a good mechanics booklist in this thread, but some people just want to learn chords and be done with it. I've set up my list to be more mechanics and agnostic to style, but it's also a bit more of an advanced learning path, ramps up really quick.

[ghost]

I'm mostly interested in learning Reign in Blood, in its entirety.   

Just kidding.  I really haven't thought about what I'd like to play that much, to be honest.  Maybe if I just started out with some chords, to get used to playing? 

[Sky]

Well, like Raph said, then. Learn the cowboy chords for C,A,G,E and D. With those basic shapes you can play pretty much everything else.

[Nebu]

It's a Gibson ES-175 with a single pickup, as opposed to the model with two pickups.  As far as reading sheet music, I used to be able to, but haven't messed with it in over 20 years so it would take me some time to pick that back up. 

I want a picture!

[ghost]

Okay.  I'll take one when I get home.  My buddy that is in a band down here (Band of Heathens) fixed it up and played it for about a year. 

[Engels]

Always comforting to know that a dentist wants to learn Reign in Blood. I'll be over here rocking myself in a fetal position.

[Sky]

At least he didn't say Angel of Death.

[HaemishM]

Neither song is very easy to learn. Mostly because it's played at WWWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHH!!!! speed.

[ghost]

It was either that or James Taylor.

[Raph]

I just looked up Angel of Death and it's actually not very hard, just fast. :)

[Selby]

I just looked up Angel of Death and it's actually not very hard, just fast. :)

Exactly! ;-)  Raining Blood is actually extremely simple once you get the speed down.

[Raph]

We jinxed him.

http://www.billboard.com/articles/news/1560534/slayer-guitarist-jeff-hanneman-dead-at-49
 

[Selby]

Sad panda =(

[HaemishM]

Way too young. I am /sadf.

[Raph]

I've been playing stuff with a group of mostly older acoustic folkies in a local park a couple of times a month. It's a Meetup thing. Well, the group is partially sponsored by the local Folk Heritage Society. And that means that the group got a performance slot at the little folk festival in that park this summer.

And our main organizer is ill. So I am now roped into helping out on this. We're the opener for the festival!

We have 3 weeks to finalize a set, with no leader. Should be interesting. :) At least it's all stuff like Oh Susanna and Home on the Range.

[Sky]

Request: Bury Me Not on the Lone Prairie.

Love that tune.

[Fraeg]

edit - already answered

[Samwise]

I don't post in this thread often, but I realized something interesting the other day and wanted to ask some other musicians if it's universal.

Playing music is maybe the only thing that doesn't allow me to mentally multitask.  With anything else I do, my attention is almost always divided, or at least can be, but when my mind is on a piece of music, I can't carry on a conversation, I can't think about work, I can't fit anything else in my head.  Doesn't matter if it's a song I'm working on learning or one I know by heart.  I think this is why when I'm stressing out about something my instinct is to grab a guitar; it's the only thing that'll shut my brain off (or at least repurpose it).

Is this something inherent to music, or is it just that my brain isn't wired as well for music as it is for other stuff?

[Raph]

Same happens to me, with the exception of doing patter to an audience. I can strum on repetitive chords and make announcements, but as soon as I have to actually mentally engage with something coming at me, I find it very hard to answer. My kids have gotten used to coming up to me, saying something, expecting a response, and not getting one. Sometimes, it takes me like 45 seconds to "break out of the trance" and actually answer.

[Ingmar]

I don't post in this thread often, but I realized something interesting the other day and wanted to ask some other musicians if it's universal.

Playing music is maybe the only thing that doesn't allow me to mentally multitask.  With anything else I do, my attention is almost always divided, or at least can be, but when my mind is on a piece of music, I can't carry on a conversation, I can't think about work, I can't fit anything else in my head.  Doesn't matter if it's a song I'm working on learning or one I know by heart.  I think this is why when I'm stressing out about something my instinct is to grab a guitar; it's the only thing that'll shut my brain off (or at least repurpose it).

Is this something inherent to music, or is it just that my brain isn't wired as well for music as it is for other stuff?

I don't find this to be unique to music; it may just be that nothing else you currently do requires that high a level of concentration. I find I get a similar result at kendo practice for example.

[Nebu]

My ability to multitask is directly related to how much I'm playing.  When I was gigging 4 nights a week on a consistent set list, I would often find myself mentally wandering while playing the bass, singling, and playing taurus pedals with my feet.  There's a point where you get SO in the groove that you stop thinking about playing altogether.

To be fair, this never happens during the creative process (writing, arranging, production, etc).  That always requires 100% focus.