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Post by Gripweed on Dec 29, 2009 7:34:16 GMT -5
Me! Been playing for about a year. I have three guitars: a cheap generic acoustic that's fallen apart, an acoustic Fender Starcaster, and a blue Ibanez electric guitar. The amplifier is the 15-watt Peavy VYPYR,
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Post by inlovewithcrow on Apr 9, 2010 11:32:34 GMT -5
Belatedly signing on this thread. I was given a thirty-buck plywood guitar 18 months ago, now, and took right to it. After nine months, I bought myself a used 500 buck acoustic guitar that I like a good deal. No desire to go electric. I still don't know what strings I prefer--working my way through brands/gages/etc. I practice/play two hours per day, without fail, and I'm getting...well, maybe not "good" but I no longer drive the mice back out into their burrows with my playing. Barre chords are seeming normal to me now, hammer-ons and pull-offs and slides are all under the fingers...mostly I'm working on developing some blues chops. I play classical songs, too. And campfire sing-along stuff.
Next song I want to work on (and it'll take me months to get it) is Janis Ian's Welcome To Acousticville. "That's what I love about the blues/you never know who it is gonna choose."
As to talking about brands rather than the art...I've encountered this many times in life, with photography (like it's the camera brand that makes an artist--ha!), people who are tone deaf but buy 5000 dollar speakers for their stereo system, etc. I do have to say, 99% of the people who are obsessed with brand/gadget rather than art are males. I wonder why.
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Post by Continuing Legend on Apr 10, 2010 16:11:41 GMT -5
I gotta say, I'm pretty impressed - it took way more than 18 months for me to get used to them. they used to be my worst enemy.
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Post by Bix Dugan on Apr 10, 2010 20:19:12 GMT -5
Guitar-related stuff has such cool names, like Pig-nose amp and Telecaster.
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Post by inlovewithcrow on Apr 14, 2010 14:13:24 GMT -5
I gotta say, I'm pretty impressed - it took way more than 18 months for me to get used to them. they used to be my worst enemy. Blush. Thanks. I'm really enjoying the process. And finally, at this decrepit age, I've developed patience, which really helps me when learning something difficult, which the guitar can be if you take it beyond strumming four chords in one pattern. (I've seen it written that it's an easy instrument to learn a little but one of the more difficult ones to learn well.) Though I admit it took me until fairly recently to get that two-barre chord, you know, the one where you bar across 5 then across 3 with your ring finger. I've never had penis envy, but I tell ya, I envy many guys' huge hands now that I'm a guitarist. I learned the guitar opening to "message in a bottle" recently and I'm still going, yeah, sure, I hold all those down at once?!? You gotta be kidding me! And I just learned the Clapton opening to "Hey Hey"...but I'm playing it at like 40% speed and thinking, "never ever ever will I play it at his speed." Though "never" is a long time, and I may get it one day. It won't be easy, though. There's SO much to learn, isn't there? It's a fascinating instrument and I'm finding its difference from the other instruments I play just riveting, the way the theory expresses itself in shapes on the fretboard. I'm still in the honeymoon stage, I think.
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Post by mummifiedstalin on Apr 14, 2010 16:28:18 GMT -5
Some of my favs. You, too, can learn these with a little (heh) practice. I did, anyway. I'm a total sucker for solo fingerstyle stuff, especially percussive/rhythmic based. Too much fingerstyle gets a bit new-agey.
And I can't do this (yet), but I love how it sounds:
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Post by callipygias on Apr 14, 2010 22:53:47 GMT -5
Good Lord, this deserved its own post. It's own thread, really. That is not only unGodly creative, but it actually sounds good, too.
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Post by mummifiedstalin on Apr 15, 2010 11:42:21 GMT -5
Yeah, Andy McKee's awesome. He'd put out a couple of albums that didn't do much. Then he did those youtube recordings from that session, and all of a sudden he's minor phenomenon in geetawr circles.
He doesn't just do the percussive and hammer-on style, though. That's certainly one of the things that's set him apart, but he also does some cool harp guitar things (which he learned from Stephen Bennett).
Lots of other people are doing the "percussive" guitar thing now, though. Vicki Genfan is pretty cool:
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Post by inlovewithcrow on Apr 19, 2010 13:56:51 GMT -5
ooh, cool stuff. Though I'm getting Hand Envy again. Man, barring and then doing stuff with your pinkie four and five frets up. Aliens?
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Post by mummifiedstalin on Apr 20, 2010 8:27:31 GMT -5
If you're really having that much trouble with bar chords, it might be your guitar, especially if you're still learning. If it has really high action, you can get it lowered if you want. Take it to a guitar shop, and they'll figure out the best way to do it for your instrument. It could just be some screws on the bridge. But they might also just file down the nut or part of the bridge if they're unusually tall...that's kinda cheating, but it works.
My first acoustic had freakishly high action, and I was so used to nylon strings that it was almost impossible for me to play. But a little adjustment made it much easier.
Barring that (ha!), you can also just play with a capo at the 1st or 2nd fret, which usually lowers the action, at least up closer the head.
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Post by Continuing Legend on Apr 21, 2010 7:31:55 GMT -5
ooh, cool stuff. Though I'm getting Hand Envy again. Man, barring and then doing stuff with your pinkie four and five frets up. Aliens? Oooh yeah I have kinda small hands and I can barely stretch past five frets. I'm also able to bend just the tip of my finger without bending the rest of the knuckles, and this is actually occasionally a problem for me, since sometimes my fingers won't bend the way I want them to.
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Post by mummifiedstalin on Dec 10, 2010 10:51:56 GMT -5
Just stumbled across this kid. This one's fun, but his original stuff is even better. Anyone interested in solo fingerstyle should just browse through anything at CandyRat Records. They have some really innovative and fascinating guitarists.
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Post by mummifiedstalin on Feb 4, 2011 0:26:55 GMT -5
Pure fun. I've always liked Don Ross, but this is a great, light-hearted take on an already fun pop song. This is what a good cover should do:
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Post by inlovewithcrow on Feb 10, 2011 12:56:28 GMT -5
I adore Don Ross. I wish I could see him in concert.
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Post by mummifiedstalin on Feb 10, 2011 13:48:11 GMT -5
Me, too. I think he's probably got one of the best right hands in all of "guitar world". He can cross between traditional fingerstyle, traditional flatpicking, and his own weird combo of rhythm strumming seemingly all at once:
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