I’ve got a question?? I write songs , record them on a digital recorder, but when I go to put music to them I can’t play the songs with the guitar with the same “flavor” or right key, I’m not real sure, and then the songs come off sounding “stiff” Discovering the blues helped because “that” is often the sound I’m after in my soul. Any suggestins???
I’m going to soon start recording a few songs for my family. I have a new Zoom H4Nto use. Records 4 tracks onto a flash card. It’s popular for band practices and songwriters. Amazing tech for an old picker like me from the 70’s and early 80’s.
Need some ideas for my tracks. I was planning two guitar parts. Open chords on one and then playing the same chords a few frets down. Pretty much what I do anytime I play at church or in a group. If one guy is playing G-C-D I’ll capo onto the 5th fret and play D-G-A Don’t want to step on what somebody else is playing. 
The two guitar tracks can be combined into one track and that leaves three tracks still available.
I’m not very good at lead yet. Eventually as I lean, maybe I’ll record a lead track. Learning lead guitar will take me quite awhile.
Would it be worthwhile buying a used bass/ My local shop has some for under $300. I’m not a bass player but I know the strings are the same as a guitar’s 3,4,5,6 strings. Except an octave lower. E A D G I was thinking about just playing the root note for the chord changes. Anything more and I’d have to take some lessons. Would that add much to the recording?
Then there’s a vocal track. That may be sung live to my recorded accompaniment while I video tape myself. Haven’t decided yet. I want some of my performance live. But still want to make use of todays multi track technology.
what else can I add in? I’m open to some ideas.
I am not a studio guy, but will give these a shot
EZ Rider - I am not following you: are you saying that you write the song and record just yourself singing, then when you go back to add a guitar track, the guitar and the vocals don’t sound correct together? Typically, I work on a song, both guitar and vocal together and make sure they work. Then I lay down a master guitar track - the main chords - working with a “click track” - i.e., the metronome built into the recording equipment. If I am playing with the click track, and using the chords that I know work, I can then record the vocals on a next track and they can work together.
aceplace - a few things: don’t feel the need to fill in all the tracks. 1 track of guitar+vocal, if reasonably well recorded, can be just fine. Having said that, yes, a vocal, a couple of different guitar parts, a bass and some minor computerized drums or percussion are a common set of tracks. Work out the whole song, then set up a click track - record the “open chord” guitar and then put an “up the neck” guitar part down, as well as a bass part. Finally, you can record the vocal, and consider adding a bit of additional percussion.
Someone like picker is better for this stuff, since he is a studio pro, but I am not sure he is posting much lately - perhaps ping him via PM to alert him to these questions…
Thanks WordMan.
This is one of those projects that I can have fun experimenting with. See what sounds good and what doesn’t. I can even add tracks and remix months or years later. I want to learn lead guitar and I know that takes patience. Being able to record that part separately makes a big difference, Would be pretty cool to have a few completed songs someday. I just want to get better as a musician and this gives me a reason to push forward. Practice more and study.
You make a good point not to add music tracks just because they are available. A badly played bass track is worse than no bass at all. I’ll be careful with these electronic percussion boxes. They can sound fake or even cheesy if over used. Or they can really add something important to a song.
A local guitar shop is going out of business and someone said they had a bunch of ukulele’s at discount. I’ve been wishing for a little guitar to have for traveling with and they don’t get much smaller than a uke. Dropped by and picked up an Oscar Schmidt tenor ukulele. Have had great fun the last few nights playing and learning!
Here’s a dumb question. I have calluses on my fingertips, of course. This past week my wife has been wanting me to play Christmas songs, so my play time has increased quite a bit. After last night, the tip of my ring finger was very sore to the touch, and is still sore this morning; not on the surface of the skin, but underneath the callus, if that makes sense. I’m not sure what this indicates: bruising, perhaps. Any remedies?
No remedies really except time. It’ll go away in a few days. Your finger should be tougher afterwards and less prone to “bruising”. This is not uncommon if you play either more intensely or on material that isn’t your usual repertoire (and I’m guessing you don’t play Chrstmas songs in July), and it’s temporary.
Yep; pretty much sums it up. Good luck with your playing in the meantime, Chefguy.
Happy Holidays everyone - hope some fun guitar is involved. I will get a bit of playing in, if my son doesn’t spend all the “music units” in the house today banging on the piano or playing his guitar ;).
I am still exploring a haggle, where I might trade a guitar or two to pursue a guitar. Need to see if I can flip a rare book I have to add to the pot. Would be a fun “holiday” gift. Yeah, that’s it…
ETA: and wguy congrats on the uke - they can be really fun.
The recent lessons have been working on some lead riffs, without much in the way of chord changes, so I haven’t gotten this sort of workout in awhile. My wife always wants to do the xmas songs several times, sometimes two or more songs. The chords in this book are simple, but the repetition takes a toll. Also, this is on my new Taylor acquisition, which is in desperate need of new strings (it has the original steel strings, which are four years old). These strings seem to have toughened over time: do guitar strings anneal with use? Maybe I’ll switch to the nylon acoustic until I can get these changed.
Well, they don’t technically anneal, because that would require high temp and a slow cool down. The do work harden, which has an opposite effect. This is most noticeable when the strings are first put on and tuned to pitch. When I re-string, the first thing I do after bringing it to pitch the first time is work harden each string a bit by using my fingers to pinch and bend the string while working my way along it. It takes some of the brightness out of a new set of strings, and it makes them stay in pitch from the start.
(Jeebus, 4 years? I don’t change strings unless I break one, but that’s a damn old set of strings!)
ETA2: And I have noticed that boiling strings (hey, I used to be poor) does return some of that slinkyness to the strings, but nothing like annealing does.
Yes, back when I was broke, I found boiling used strings brought back some of the brightness to the sound also.
We used to call work-hardening ‘annealing’, even though it’s not the same thing other than in a very slight sense. Old habits and all that. I watched the Taylor video on restringing and the guy did a stretching after the first and second tuning, so I’ll give that a shot.
Do give it a shot – you’ll love your instrument all over again. And, yes, it might be a bit bright at first, but I really like the “honeymoon period” when I have new strings on, after the tuning stabilizes (which really takes little time) and they’re still lively as heck, and you may also. New strings are like Christmas, every time, so go celebrate with a new set for your axe(s). You may not realize the need for updating strings if you’ve traditionally been a nylon player.
(And BTW I hope your Strat is on at least its second or 3rd or more set by now. If not, get on that, you’ll love it. Electric strings get dull much more quickly than acoustics sets because of the smaller gauge.)
Interesting about the electric strings. I’m not yet very aggressive in my attack, so perhaps they’re okay at this point.
Could be – only you can judge when the strings are dead enough to replace. I find that the wear from handling the strings on the fingerboard matters much more than picking. A simple test on an electric is to run your fingers under the strings along the fingerboard. If the strings have a bumpy, uneven texture underneath vs the top, I find that it’s very much time to replace them.
Yeah, like squeegee says, when to change strings is a pretty personal thing. Lots of people only like a fairly new set of strings. I don’t like the short period of extra-bright tone, and really only like a new set of strings after they’ve been on the guitar for a day or so of playing. Bass strings, even more so. I don’t change them on the bass until the frets have worn a groove in the string.
And there are several string cleaning products out there (or you can boil them), but by the time the strings have the nasty crust on the back of them, even I’m usually thinking a new set is in order. Bass strings don’t seem to get the crust on the back, just gunk in the windings. I think the thin strings on a guitar scrape dirt and skin off more efficiently.
So I was thinking about guitar frets, and I was wondering: what do you all prefer? What should I prefer?
To back up: I’ve mostly been attracted to Fender instruments, which as far as I can tell have jumbo frets. I find them comfortable, but I’ve never thought about it much. Meanwhile, I acquired a Gibson Les Paul a year or so ago, and it has very thin frets. They also feel comfortable, so whatever. But I find that if I press down very hard on the strings (I tend to have a hard technique when I get passionate in a song), then strings go out of tune from pressing down so hard. I very much like the guitar otherwise, so I’ve adjusted my technique and it’s all good, but it makes me wonder why I’m hitting this.
So, questions:
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What size (jumbo, medium, thin, whatever) frets do you prefer? Why?
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Are the problems I see using the Les Paul because of thin frets? Something else? The fret height seems normal, no different than my Tele or Strat, so I’m surprised that I see the issue at all, but the fret size is all I can see that’s different.
On reread, and to clarify: the strings don’t go “out of tune” – they bend slightly when you press too hard on the fingerboard and so seem out of tune. If played with a more delicate technique, pressing more lightly, this doesn’t happen. Either way, the strings stay in tune afterwards vs before.
ETA: also, from what I can google up, it seems that bigger, jumbo frets are accused of causing the issue I describe, where pressing too hard on the fingerboard causes bending. Which stonkers me since all my other jumbo-fret guitars don’t do this, and my LP with thin frets does. Ideas?
When I read the post where you bring this up, I was a little flummoxed, because yeah, jumbos are a little worse for this problem. I only have the problem of bending out of tune with a guitar that is strung with strings that are lighter than I am used to. It’s just hard to get them to press straight down when I’m changing chords quickly.
Maybe your LP is strung with lighter strings? Either way, I’d try a heavier gauge than it has now, and see if it fixes it. A set of strings is less than $10, so I think it’s worth a try.
squeegee, you might try checking the neck bend and string heights on your LP also. Does this sharpening of pitch occur on all 6 strings? This also might have something to do with the fact that a LP has a 24.75" scale and a Strat has a 25.50" scale.