Enough about brands/tonewoods... what about technique?

[garthman]

Nice thread, thanks Kwak. I think I used the following words in a thread about tonewoods a while ago:

 

A great guitarist sounds good even on a crap guitar but a crap guitarist still sounds crap on a great guitar.

[Queequeg]

You know, we got pretty close here a week or two ago. RecordingTrack1 posted a cover he did of 'Vincent'. He talked about his difficulties with it, and several commented, giving him encouragement, and there was no false praise as it is a work-in-progress.

Except that this was sort of new ground for this forum, it might have evolved further into a real discussion of the performance and just how that progress fro RT1 might go.

We very nearly made it with that thread. There was discussion of tempo and metronomes, harmonics. Many of the elements for a true discussion of technique were present in this thread. And lots of members chimed in.

That is the direction I would be most interested in seeing this forum grow.

Of course, I don't know if it will happen, I don't know if anyone else wants to take it in that direction (although I am guessing that maybe brahmz118 might) and I have no idea if anyone else sensed that newness and goodness in RT1's Vincent thread. But for me, it was almost groundbreaking & I thank RT1 for posting it.

[babablowfish]

OK. This is going to seem awfully lame to a lot of you, but someone out there might find this useful. I am strictly a strummer and singer; no picking - couldn't if I wanted to and I don't want to. (That said, I think I sound pretty good performing.) One of the "tricks" I use a lot is to play the open G chord with the D on the B string depressed with my ring finger and the G on the high E string depressed with my pinky. Then, when I play an open C chord, I just move my index and middle fingers over one string and keep my pinky and ring finger where they were. Moving back and forth between these 2 positions modified G to modified C is most of Ring of Fire and the basis for a whole lot of songs including Tiny Dancer, Levon, Catch the Wind, Darling Be Home Soon, etc. Try it, you'll like it. Or maybe you won't.

[garthman]

How's this for technique?

 

 

www.youtube.com/watch?v=6yq-VuteALM

[garthman]

Or this:

 

www.youtube.com/watch?v=tLxc_wsoPzs

 

The world's two best guitarists (with Gary Potter a close 3rd perhaps?).

[garthman]

Or maybe Gary is best. . .

[JasmineTea]

 

One of the "tricks" I use a lot is to play the open G chord with the D on the B string depressed with my ring finger and the G on the high E string depressed with my pinky. Then, when I play an open C chord, I just move my index and middle fingers over one string and keep my pinky and ring finger where they were. Moving back and forth between these 2 positions modified G to modified C is most of Ring of Fire and the basis for a whole lot of songs including Tiny Dancer, Levon, Catch the Wind, Darling Be Home Soon, etc. Try it, you'll like it. Or maybe you won't.

That would be G and C9. Try this, if you hav'nt already:

 

Play the G chord with ring on low G, pinky on high G. This frees your first and second fingers to fret C (B string-first finger) and E (D string-second finger) to form a C chord. You can move the ring over to the C (A string) if you like.

G:

3 3

x

0

0

0

3 4

 

C:

3 3

x

2 2

0

1 1

3 4

[guitarist21]

The problem is that now I use those alternate chord shapes more than I use the regular ones, just out of habit, and sometimes the regular ones are better. All my playing starts to sound the same when I'm not thinking about it.

 

Ellen

[JasmineTea]

 

What I would not want to see is a degradation of the forum in any way due to (unintended) frustrations imposed on those who can't, by those who can, perform with advanced skills. In other words, I would not want this place to become an exhibition hall for advanced players. If isolated to a sticky, that would be different and perfectly acceptable.

Good point, I had'nt anticipated that. There are all levels of players here, an entire array I imagine.

 

Knowing this place though, I think insults would be "frowned" upon, so to speak. Treated like trolls, to put it another way. I'd like to believe the better players are also mature enough, still remember what it was like to be new to the guitar.

 

Every situation should get an appropriate reply.

[JasmineTea]

The problem is that now I use those alternate chord shapes more than I use the regular ones, just out of habit, and sometimes the regular ones are better. All my playing starts to sound the same when I'm not thinking about it. Ellen

Yeah, but that's a good thing. Perfect technique is'nt always what's needed. Your "alternate" chords might be just the thing for someone.

[guit30]

Ok,

This is good, we have the gear that is sufficient, now what, what's your genre' , I took a stab at classical and that is a lot of work. If you love what you hear, the practice is important.

 

I need to work on a formula for practice, I'm off from my worship team gig for the summer, so I have not played so much. I practice mentally alot, going thru chord changes and scales in my head. Now, that I have a guitar that plays like an electric, I need to get into a routine, those loopers and Fender Jdec amps must be neat, but I can't afford those and don't need them. I can practice leads and scales alone, what I do is limit myself, making it more fun is setting up my compressor and playing it thru my stereo, really sounds neat.

 

But, practice is what makes you good. When I know I'm playing, I will get the songs out a couple of days ahead of time and go over them for 2 days. What is frustrating is that I go into my group, give them music for songs that they have known forever and they act like they don't know them. Being a worship leader is a challenge, but the end result is fun when you can nail a song

Jim

[riffmeister]

here's another variation on the JT theme:

 

3 3

X

0

2 2

0

3 4

 

3 3

X

1 1

2 2

1 1

3 4

 

3 3

X

2 1

2 1

2 1

3 4

 

3 3

X

1 1

2 2

1 1

3 4

 

3 3

X

0

2 2

0

3 4

 

chromatic.......and purdy.

[Cripes]

So.....?

[JasmineTea]

 

So.....?

Good question.

 

. . .

[Cripes]

So...what say I pick up one of those little cameras, record a camera angle showing my digits as they busy themselves along the strings, with appropriate discussion of what I'm doing, and post it here on this thread? That all seems academic - after I figure out the camera - so what would/should the subject matter be? At this point it is all just a good idea but besides freedom to post whatever, should there be some basics included? I mean, there has already been some chording illustrations on this thread and that might be one area of basics. I know there are all sorts of techniques I might offer in that area. Seems to me a picture/clip of them in motion is tons better. Not everyone would/could do the camera thing but I'm game enough to try. Besides, it sounds like it would be challenging and, if I'm not careful, fun.

[JasmineTea]

Your call. Keep in mind questions will be asked about specific places in the song, and having a way to reference those places may be needed.

 

I thought of the camera thing, avoided mentioning it, seemed inevitable. I wonder if there's some other angle on this?

[Cripes]

Good point about references. I suppose references could be tied to the counter normally seen in clips - "At 1:15 into the piece..."

 

Questions...some might be hard to answer with words alone.

[kwakatak]

 

Your call. Keep in mind questions will be asked about specific places in the song, and having a way to reference those places may be needed. I thought of the camera thing, avoided mentioning it, seemed inevitable. I wonder if there's some other angle on this?

 

 

FWIW, you don't need an expensive video camera. Most digital cameras nowadays have the option of recording movies in AVI format. The problem with that though is that the microphone is not too good and you need separate software to convert the movie into a more compressed format.

[JasmineTea]

How about a nice friendly bump for this thread, eh?

[flip333]

OK. Since its friendly and all.

[Cripes]

So.....I checked into web cameras. Read lots of testimonials about this brand and that brand and none of them mention anything definitive about the quality of their sound capabilities. The lot averaging about $45.00, how good could they be? Kwak's right. So, they may be cheap but at least they won't work well enough. The alternative is to go digital motion recording with a good camera and mic and that requires an additional decimal point to the right, on averages. Still, I'm game. I should know how to do this stuff anyway because we're all headed in that direction.

[JasmineTea]

 

that direction.

My question is, where are all these peeps who were saying we should talk/post more about playing and less about tone/gear?

 

So much for that idea...especialy if it's gonna mean buying a camera and actualy playing the guitar in front of us all..?

 

But, I still think Kwak's idea (or at least the spirit of it) is a good one.

 

Carry on.

[Cripes]

It only takes one person to get the ball rolling. Imagine...I post something simple in a fingerstyle exercise and those who have questions will pose them. Those with criticism, constructive and otherwise, will also step up. Good or bad, contemplative or reactionary, there will be something for and from everyone from the novice to the advanced players on one post. It can be built upon from there.

[JasmineTea]

It only takes one person to get the ball rolling. Imagine...I post something simple in a fingerstyle exercise and those who have questions will pose them. Those with criticism, constructive and otherwise, will also step up. Good or bad, contemplative or reactionary, there will be something for and from everyone from the novice to the advanced players on one post. It can be built upon from there.

Sounds good.

[kwakatak]

FWIW, I'm working on uploading some test AVI's taken from my Canon A520 camera. Putfile has raised the file size limit for AVI format to 200Mb. The videos are converted to Flash video format (FLV) and they aren't available for viewing until they've done the conversion behind the scenes

 

As for general A/V quality, I'd say that it's OK but certainly not the best by any stretch. You can hear the guitar pretty clear but there's lot of ambient pickup. I chose a medium shot so you can't quite make out the precise details regarding finger position or hand movement technique.