Guitar thread

[Fraeg]

my 2x12 cab arrived and I am in heaven



Sounds simply amazing, I have a Celestion Texas Heat and The Governer in it.  Is is built like a tank, and the tone... ooooh the tone.  Last night i realized I was just strumming the same chord over and over just bathing in the sound.  By far the nicest setup I have ever owned.

[Sky]

Wow, that's a nice little setup there. Really nice.

Whatcha got for pedals?

[trias_e]

So I've been trying to learn classical guitar, and had been working out setzer's epitaph (one of my favorite tracks ever) from FF6 incredibly slowly and painfully. 

Then I found this awesome guy.  Been on his channel for about an hour now.   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5BgUsFa5nBI&feature=relmfu

[Sky]

I highly recommend this Willard book: http://www.amazon.com/Library-Easy-Classical-Guitar-Solos/dp/0825635047 It says 'easy', but that's in the context of classical guitar. There are some ridiculously challenging pieces in there (imo). I'm a tab reader, and I'll forego the lecture on how it's an appropriate form of notation for classical guitar :)

It's probably my desert island songbook and has been for the last couple years. I dip into other stuff, but I go back to that one and also the first Willard book I bought long ago, http://www.amazon.com/Easy-Classical-Guitar-Gig-Book/dp/0825628334 The gig book has some overlap, and a few pieces I prefer the notation in one or the other.

The first link will get you a solid repertoire of everything from Bach to Dowland to Carcassi to Sor to Tarrega.

[trias_e]

Awesome, thanks for the recommendations.  I'm actually taking a beginner's course in university right now which is unfortunately a bit too, well, beginner for me.   So having some books to jump ahead to will be nice.
 
I just wanna play this stuff right now though!  :D  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ytTyMGbDZA&feature=related

[Selby]

I just wanna play this stuff right now though!

It doesn't look like anything he's doing is overly complicated, if you had the tablature I bet you could work on it and figure it out ;-)  I've always wanted to find the music to some of those older games I heard that had impressive soundtracks... but it's not exactly the easiest thing to do in my experience.

[Fraeg]

Wow, that's a nice little setup there. Really nice.

Whatcha got for pedals?

Boss:  NS-2 noise suppresor, DD-3 Digital delay, MT-2 metal zone (kinda meh), Japanese made HM-2 (the later ones made in china are garbage),

Other: circa 1995 Sovtek Big Muff Pi (an absolute beast, amazing and well worth it if you can find one at a reasonable price, i have been told that what you can buy new today is not the same pedal at all), and an Ernie Ball volume pedal.  

Have a strat knockoff, and  a 1996 PRS CE-22.  I bought the head used and it was moded with an effects loop.
a crappy photo taken with a flash, this photo does no justice to the grain of the maple top on the PRS.

[Fraeg]

So I've been trying to learn classical guitar, and had been working out setzer's epitaph (one of my favorite tracks ever) from FF6 incredibly slowly and painfully. 

Then I found this awesome guy.  Been on his channel for about an hour now.   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5BgUsFa5nBI&feature=relmfu

a book i highly recommend that is just an awesome resource is The Guitar Players Handbook by Ralph Denyer   http://www.bestguitarbooks.com/the-guitar-handbook/   Hard to explain, it isn't say a "how to play the guitar book" but it is just an amazing resource for an absolute beginner or an accomplished player.

[Sky]

Nothing more humbling than trying to record classical guitar.

Probably shouldn't have started with a couple beers in me and the cat spazzing around the house.

[Raph]

I was in LA this past weekend and stopped in at McCabe's Guitar, which was a pretty amazing place. They had Dean Markley Pro Mag Grand pickups on sale, so I picked one up because only one of my acoustics has a pickup in it, and I figured this would let me amplify the Baby Taylor and the Gibson.

My Blueridge has an undersaddle. I tried the two side by side and it hammered home to me how crappy the undersaddle in this 20 yr old guitar is. :P Really no comparison. And by all accounts, the Dean Markley is no great shakes.

Now I am wondering what would be involved in getting a quality pickup into that guitar... It has a couple of small knobs built in, and I hate the idea of chopping a larger hole in the side to get one of those fancier setups... sigh.

[Sky]

I've just been using an SM57 pointed at the hole of sound.

And still being utterly humbled by the perfection required of classical recording. There's an entire wing of hell that forces guitarist to attempt recording classical.

[Raph]

I've got mics that I record with, for sure, but often when recording I like to have the mic signal and a line signal, so I can pan them to opposite sides, or if I want to accent a phrase, I can fade in the line signal, even apply effects to it... With the slide guitar especially.

[Trippy]

I was in LA this past weekend and stopped in at McCabe's Guitar, which was a pretty amazing place. They had Dean Markley Pro Mag Grand pickups on sale, so I picked one up because only one of my acoustics has a pickup in it, and I figured this would let me amplify the Baby Taylor and the Gibson.

My Blueridge has an undersaddle. I tried the two side by side and it hammered home to me how crappy the undersaddle in this 20 yr old guitar is. :P Really no comparison. And by all accounts, the Dean Markley is no great shakes.

Now I am wondering what would be involved in getting a quality pickup into that guitar... It has a couple of small knobs built in, and I hate the idea of chopping a larger hole in the side to get one of those fancier setups... sigh.

There are pickups that have soundhole mounted controls or you could just use an external preamp/DI.

[Raph]

A new piece recorded with a harmonic capo. ( http://www.weaseltrap.com/ )

http://www.raphkoster.com/music/AugustTimepieces.mp3

Open G.

[Sky]

I wish I could play guitar as good as you :(

Might be my favorite of yours yet.

Talking with the fiancee, we were discussing a local band made up of siblings that is actually three or four incarnations, an irish band, an allmans/southern rock band, country, etc. They invited me to play with them looong ago, and the topic recently was sitting in with the irish incarnation, because they play at the place we stay in VT. I believe I framed it as "you know, if I play the Inn with them, I'd get paid to vacation in VT and get a room for a night or two," which went over pretty well.

Which is a long introduction to why I pulled out my celtic songbook, and leafing through it found the first song I want to learn. "Cock Up Your Beaver" My poor fiancee. To be fair, it's an archaic way of saying "tip your hat" (a beaver-skin hat). But so filled with awesome (and not a bad tune, either). I just want to announce the song at a pub.

[Raph]

I wish I could play guitar as good as you :(

Might be my favorite of yours yet.

Thanks!

Funny though, I think of myself as merely "pretty good." I am guessing everyone does, though. I don't think I can play a lot of the stuff you do.

Also it helps to write my own stuff. ;)

...found the first song I want to learn. "Cock Up Your Beaver" My poor fiancee. To be fair, it's an archaic way of saying "tip your hat" (a beaver-skin hat). But so filled with awesome (and not a bad tune, either). I just want to announce the song at a pub.

 

[Sky]

Fair enough on the playing your own stuff part. I just think I've lost my patience to work on a single piece of music for very long. I should probably start smoking pot again, at least then I had a pretty large volume of recording because I'd just sit and jam for hours. I'm also in an odd spot where I've got a lot of genre schizophrenia happening, which makes for some interesting parts overall but the individual components are suffering.

My speed and accuracy is way down, but my understanding and selection is on the rise. So it's rewarding on one hand, but utterly frustrating on the other. If I could have one wish, it would be that I could concentrate on actually learning proper theory and notation long enough for my understanding to catch up to my playing ability.

Anyway, enough self-criticism. Although I may cringe, I'll upload a song or two that I recorded a month or so ago (and alluded to earlier). Also need to get my foot switch working with my recorder, that would make things much easier...the interface is very clunky and I've got about 200 "Song045" "Song198" etc....

[Raph]

You know, I should share the chord forms for this piece, because it really is so stupid simple, much simpler than the classical stuff you have been learning. What sound impressive is mostly just regular semi-fast arpeggio picking on the right hand. I bet you would figure it out in no time.

Tuning: open G (DGDGBD). Originally played with a harmonic capo.

Verse:
002100 with a hammer on, 054000 with a hammer on
002100 with a hammer on, 054000 with a hammer on
032000 to 022000 to 000203 000023  000034
032000 to 022000 to 000203 000023  000304 000034 

Chorus:
Hammer on bass string 0 - 3 – 5 to bend on 2nd string at 7th fret
Hammer on bass string 0 - 3 – 5 to bend on 2nd string at 7th fret then 5th
Hammer on bass string 0 - 3 – 5 to bend on 2nd string at 7th fret then 9th
Hammer on bass string 0 - 3 – 5 to bend on 2nd string at 7th fret then 5th
(repeat all four)
000780 slide to 000890 to 000870 and back to 000890 then down to 000550 and 050050
020020 to 050050 then 020020 030030 040040 050050 (2x)
000000 to 200002 to 300003 to 400004
020020 to 050050 then 020020 030030 040040 050050
000000 to 200002 to 300003 to 400004
020020 to 050050 then 020020 030030 040040 050050  and hold

Bridge:
xx000-11 to xx0005 to xx0002 to pull off on xx0000 (repeat)
007650 to 004320 to 007650 to 003210 032100 054300

Overall song structure:
Verse, chorus
Verse, chorus
Bridge
Verse, Chorus

[Sky]

Going off my last post, I try to turn a negative into motivation so I pulled out Cantiga's songbook to mess around with the Tarentella. Bob (the piper/founder) said they love to jam on it, and after messing around with it for a while I can see why. Learning the melody from notation is a bit slow, because I can't sight read the notation (YET), but it's good practice as the main melody is pretty simple and I know the song well. But just going over the chord structure and then playing it as a loose jam "in the style of", I can see the value of it as a jam platform: a good progression that has a major A section and minor B section. So many great choices for melodic improv over those, only held back by my aforementioned atrophied and stunted theory.

But I definitely learn better through jamming on concepts, so it worked my reading a bit and I'm still working on major key jamming. Trying to make it sound less Allman Bros, since that's where I opened the door to playing in major keys. In minor keys, I'm extremely comfortable and I can play a decent mixolydian (my trick is just to play a minor scale but use the 5th as a root).

I like open G, I used to play a couple blues tunes in that tuning. I should pull out the alvarez and set it up for that. Actually, I should probably raise the action and use it as a slide platform...

Oh, I also worked through a few of the celtic tunes, mostly scottish highlands in the section I was working through. Really cool arrangements, the guy explains what he's doing for voicings, since a lot of it is drone, he'll say "this part is the drone and melody of the pipes," etc. Totally different from the other stuff I'm playing, tons of hammers and pulls, which I love to do (I've favored legato forever), so it's difficult but lots of fun and puts a new sound in the trick bag. I think this is the right version below. I just wish it was ring-bound, going to have to unbind it and put it into a binder, best move I ever made for my classical sheet music.

[Sky]

Nothing more humbling than trying to record classical guitar.

Probably shouldn't have started with a couple beers in me and the cat spazzing around the house.

So, ok. Cringing time will be had by me now!   Here is a random selection of crap played slightly drunk, please be forgiving of the sloppy playing (and I'm not blaming the beer, hah).

Andantino Mosso - I put comment about the songs here, dunno this one is just one in the rotation
Capricho Arabe - Just the A section, without the evil B section...I'm normally much better since I play it alot...
Etude 7 Opus 60 - love this piece, but sooo badly played. Sorry!
Prelude - Good example of one of the shorter little ditties, tons of these 1-page, no-repeat jobbies in my binder
Rondo in G - called it quits after Bart attacks me at 40s in   Love the minor section of this tune

Listening back, I threw in my experiment on Capricho, it's normally AABCBA or something and on the 3rd A I've been playing it as a soft polka/roma beat so I just threw that in the truncated version.

[Raph]

These sound great to me. No cringing necessary. :)

[Sky]

Thanks! Quick recordings but I did finally grab Audacity to boost the volume a bit and add a touch of verb to moisten things up slightly.

Of course, my fiancee's favorite track is the one Bart interrupted  "It's so cuute" Makes me laugh because I hustled through the end of it before he could strike again. He was upset because I normally let him rub his face on the headstock between songs.

[Nebu]

Just bought this for cheap on eBay.



Pretty fun instrument to play and pretty well built.  Thin and fast neck, bartolini pickups that are very hot, and it slaps as well as it plays straight (though I'm a terrible slapper).  The range of sounds is amazing.  I still prefer my old Fender Jazz, but wanted something with active electronics to mess with and this was too cheap to pass up. 

[Sky]

Looks slick. I never played through actives, too hot for me. But then I liked solid state medium scooped, so whattoiknow.

[Miguel]

Grats on the bass Nebu!

I just finished my parts bass:  a Fender Geddy Lee clone from SX Jazz bass parts ($110 for the bass, and $60 for the blocked maple neck).





I have another fretless one from parts to finish as well.  Looking into a set of Nordstrands to go in both.

[Nebu]

Nice bass Miguel.  I like the Geddy neck.

Does anyone know some software for looping mp3 files?  That or some type of freeware tool that will allow me to A--> B repeat some music?  I'm trying to improve my guitar chops and it would help me learn some solos and look for patters. 

Thanks!

[Miguel]

Nice bass Miguel.  I like the Geddy neck.

Does anyone know some software for looping mp3 files?  That or some type of freeware tool that will allow me to A--> B repeat some music?  I'm trying to improve my guitar chops and it would help me learn some solos and look for patters. 

Thanks!

Probably overkill, but Audacity does this.

[apocrypha]

So... just been given a very basic acoustic guitar by a friend. I used to strum a few chords, about 15 years ago, I used to be able to read music, albeit slowly as if translating a foreign language with a dictionary, and I quite fancy spending half an hour a day to try and learn some basic skill with this instrument.

Any recommendations for a book I could work through to help? Are the "dummies" books any good for this kind of casual approach?

[Sky]

Yes, the dummies books :) What kind of music are you interested in playing?

I need to make an amazon list of my usual recommendations.

[apocrypha]

No preference for music type really, I just want to be able to play it without making people shout at me to stop! I do listen to a lot of folk type stuff, so that'd be nice.

I just spent 30 mins playing the ~10 chords I can remember and jesus christ my fingers hurt!

[Sky]

Well, I can't help with the shouting, but practice might 

Raph might have better tips for getting up to speed on folky type stuff. I guess Guitar for Dummies would be a good start/refresher. If you've dialed in your chords, something like this series is nice. Lyrics and chords, but you've got to know the songs, no actual music except a melody example.

For the nuts and bolts, here's my stock "I want to learn how to play guitar" suggestions:

Fretboard Logic - An instructor friend recommended this years ago. This is the key that unlocked the last few years of my improvement and understanding of the guitar. Although I prefer the next book in this list now, I recommend starting here even though it's not as well-written and a bit primitive. It introduces the CAGED concept and once you get that under your belt, it opens up a lot of options for you.

Guitar Fretboard Workbook. I'm still dabbling with this. Basically the primer on the guitar fretboard, how to understand it and move around freely. I love this book so much. However, Barrett uses a 'pattern 1, pattern 2' nomenclature and I prefer the straight CAGED nomenclature, which is why I recommend the Logic book first. Since you already know cowboy chords, it will probably make more sense thinking of CAGED, then just translate Barrett's stuff into that system (it's easy enough 1=C 2=A etc).

Chord Tone Soloing - The second of the Barrett books. His teaching style resonates with me, and I like his workbook approach, so this list will be Barrett-heavy. Ymmv. This takes some of the concepts of the last book and applies them to improvisation.

Guitar Reading Workbook - Self-explanatory, workbook for reading notation on the guitar. I should really tackle this book a bit deeper :)

Music Theory Guide - Not guitar-specific, but as Barrett is an MIT guitar instructor, it's one of the more guitar-friendly manuals out there. Probably any decent theory guide will do, and you should learn theory (do as I say, not as I do!).

Library of Easy Classical Guitar Solos - "Easy" in classical guitar terms. Not necessarily easy for you or me. I've been working this book for three plus years now, and I love it. The classical stuff I linked upthread is all out of here. A pretty wide variety of eras and styles, lots of pieces from method books (Carcassi, Sor, Guiliani etc). Some real basic stuff to pretty tough stuff (for me, anyway), love the spectrum. Get frustrated working through a piece, and you can always move on to a dozen more easier pieces.


Addendum on CAGED: if you know those 5 chords, you can pretty much play any chord anywhere on the guitar. Going to take a bit of learning and practice, but it's well worth it and other guitarists will think you're all fancy and whatnot.

[Raph]

If you like old-school folk-type stuff, then I'd suggest RISE UP SINGING. It's just lyrics and chords to a giant pile of classics. That and a chord sheet will go a looooong way.

I also always recommend just picking up some stuff by people whose music you like. You'll be more willing to push through it.

For newer folk stuff, a lot of it is alternate tunings and fingerpicking, which is a bit beyond where you seem to be right now. So a lot would depend on who you listen to when you say "folk type stuff."

There's also ultimate-guitar.com and the like if you are looking for specific tunes.

[apocrypha]

Awesome, thanks guys!

I think the "strum along to stuff you like" approach is going to work well for me, along with a basic book - the Dummies one to start with probably. I listen to something like Mumford & Sons or Johnny Flynn etc,  and I can hear a lot of fingerpicking going on in that that yeah, is way beyond me, but I can also hear chords that I can probably look up and have a go at. I also hear a lot of banjos or something so, whatever :p

[Sky]

Nobody ever likes my books!  

You might check out acoustic guitar magazine, too. I dropped it because I was mostly using it for the chord chart/lyric and they only put one or two a month in. Most of the articles were either ads or aimed at beginning guitarists, so that might work for you. Lots of good basics like strums, easy finger patterns, etc.

[apocrypha]

Your books look great Sky, just probably a bit advanced for me right now! Think Dr Seuss equivalent level. 

I need to practise a lot to build up finger strength. I have such girly little hands.