Could you understand that guy? I’m guessing the language didn’t matter, because he did a pretty good demo of the guitar.
Not really, no. My russian is… fragmentary. Didn’t really matter.
Not yet. Been too busy with my day job and making other people’s guitars. I’ll get around to it, though. The body is still sitting on one of my workbenches waiting for the final sanding…
It’s interesting you should ask that right now, as I am in Windsor singing ‘Messiah’ this weekend, and I was hoping to get some serious practice in while I’m away from home. I have everything I need except the Dynarette cushion that I put on my left thigh to bring the guitar up to a better angle. Without that cushion, I have the neck at about a 40 to 45 degree angle to the floor. I’d rather have the neck at about 55 degrees; I find with the neck any closer to parallel to the floor, I bend my left wrist more than I would like.
I’ve never had the pleasure of speaking to Mr. Marino face to face, but I suspect that for a big guy like him, it’s easier to keep that wrist straight at an even steeper angle. For most people, the hand comes back up to the shoulder when the elbow is fully bent. So to get the neck up to that shoulder level requires a foot stool, cushion or strap. That’s part of why you see some jazz guys with their guitars up so high you can tell if they’ve had dinner or not…
The most extreme I’ve ever seen was this fellow - Gabriel Bianco. He’s a very tall, skinny fellow and he held his guitar almost at an 75 degree angle, as you can see from the video. Also note that while Mark Marino was using an a-frame, Gabriel Bianco just has his left foot about 18 inches higher than his right. I can’t imagine what his hips are going to be like by the time he’s 80. :eek:
Shazbot, I missed the edit window.
As far as loving avant-garde designs, yeah, I guess I do. I find there’s something really compelling about a luthier who makes a deluxe sounding instrument that also makes a real statement. I love it when a guitar just stands up and says ‘There’s no f@cking way they could turn out more than one like this - come wrap your hands around a one of a kind, baby!’
For all that, my collection is pretty tame - the 8-string is the strangest of the bunch, the rest are pretty much off the rack. That Vorreiter experimental design, though - that looks to me like a feature in some church architecture.
John Stowell is one of those vertical guys
Wow - not only is that really vertical, that’s really high - he has to reach above his head to get 1st position. I don’t know of his work - was he ever a bass player?
Happy to discover a new great guitarist!
Agreed - great music, but I can’t imagine holding a guitar that way. Thanks for the reference though, **CWG **- good stuff.
**Le Ministre **- your link is cool, too; always amazing to see a right hand like your guy Bianco - his hand barely moves, but the notes fire out like a machine gun. I do rest the guitar on my left thigh like a classical player - I started doing it in my 20’s for positioning reasons - but other than that, feel like classical guitar is just a completely different beast…
And as for fancy / avant garde designs - I love them in concept and love looking at them and appreciate their existence…but I tend to feel comfortable with the guitar equivalent of an old pair of jeans or favorite hammer…I don’t know how well I would do with an avant-garde hammer ;).
avant-garde hammer - great band name!
(One of the things I like about this message board is when I think of something else to say an hour after the moment has passed, nobody says ‘boo’ about it. In real life, this is the behaviour that has earned me pesky questions about how many aluminum pots my family had when I was a kid, or how much LDS I consumed in the sixties.)
WordMan, you’ve brought back a funny memory. When I started doing the demolition on what is now our house (Built somewhere circa 1908, it was divided into five apartments when we bought it - we took it back to single family, totally reframed, rewired, replumbed, insulated, etc.), I was using a wooden-handled hammer along with a pry bar and some chisels. One day early on, I set the hammer down, swept the floor into the pile, did some work with the pry bar, swept and then realized - I had swept the hammer into the pile of broken lathe, plaster crumbs and smashed tile. I went through the pile - couldn’t find it. Later that night, my wife suggested I take her hammer - some fancy new thing with a fiberglass-carbon thread shaft that was neon orange-pink. Well, I didn’t have time to go to the hardware store, and this would hit stuff just as well as the real hammer.
I never looked back - I didn’t lose that hammer once, as the vivid neon colour stood out from everything that surrounded it. The shaft held up, there was some funky ergonomic-ness about the shape of the claw that made it much easier to pull nails out. When I did find the wooden handled one when we finally started shoveling out all the debris, I hung it up on the wall downstairs. I had come to love having a girly, avant-garde hammer.
Why does that read like Winston’s feeling at the end of 1984: he loved Big Brother?
Great story. Function is as function does. I got one of those clip-on SNARK tuners a couple of months ago - a bright, fancy color; all whiz-bang. I clipped it on the end of one of my vintage acoustics and used it to tune up. It was so easy that I just kept it there, clipped on the end of my peghead. Whenever I question the tuning, I just flick it on, do a quick check, and get back to playing.
But if someone had told me that I’d have a bright blue digital tuner hanging off my old beat-up guitar the entire time I played it, I would’ve scoffed…
I don’t know his background. I first found out about him when I bought my Hofner guitar. He did endorsements for Hofner (don’t know if he still does) and the guitar came with a promotional video featuring him playing different Hofner models. So I bought a couple of CDs, including one where he’s a sideman on a CD called “White Men Can’t Monk.” He’s a very cerebral player. He’s fun to watch because he’s got this huge stretch, and a light and deadly accurate touch.
I thought I knew what D chord is.
Then I saw that D can also be this:
E A D G B E
x 5 7 7 7 x
and I started to wonder how do you build D chord that ends up looking like this?
My guess is - you start with D tone on 5th fret and build around it. But how do you go about “building” around the key? 5th’s? 7th’s? As detiled as possible please…
That’s a barre chord. Basically, think of an A chord - you fret the D, G and B strings at the 2nd fret, right? Now, imagine moving that shape up the neck; if you played that shape further up the neck, you have to “barre” the full set of strings with your index finger and then play the chord shape. If you make an A shape at the 7th fret, you need to barre the chords at the 5th fret (the job normally done by the nut of the guitar).
Does that help?
ETA: here is a link to an article about Prince’s gold-leaf covered Strathe is using on this new tour…
Hey, Guitarfetish has a new thing. It’s a briefcase-guitar stand.
http://store.guitarfetish.com/Black-Tolex-6-Guitar-Folding-Case-DELUXE-version-Folds-to-briefcase-_p_2189.html
Nifty!
… I’m staring at the website, waiting to buy ‘my’ guitar. I know I can’t do it till after Christmas. God, I’m a yutz.
On the other hand, the 585 is a freaking delight to play compared to the Pig with Lipstick. Which is pretty much what I expected. It just rewards precision. Which I don’t quite have.
Guitars not included?
Wordman explained the movable properties of that type of barre chord (using the A string as your root); I’m sure in his next post he’ll explain the movable “E” barre chord (I’m passin’ the mic to you, W):).
I would like to mention that on the chord diagram you posted, you’ll notice that both E strings have been muted. If the low E string was stopped at the 5th fret w/your index finger, you would have D/A, a D chord with A in the bass. Since A is the fifth of D, this would be a second inversion. This would give you a fatter sounding D chord, though not as fat as if you detuned the E string to D and played it open.
If you stopped the high E string at the 7th fret w/presumably your ring finger, you’d be adding a B to the chord, which is the sixth of D, thus giving you a D6 chord.
If you’ve got good control of your ring finger joints and can play with your index finger barred to stop the 5th fret of the high E and keep your ring finger from dampening the E string (don’t look at me, I’m a bassist and sloppy guitar player), you will have a D chord still, but with one more note (a high A). Is this how a lot of you guitarists out there do it?
FYI, newcomer, the voicing in your picture includes an open A, that’s the second inversion I mentioned. Usually, a D played as an open chord is just played on the highest four strings. The notes, in low-to-high order are: D A D F#. On your chord diagram, the notes are also: D A D F#, just played on a different part of the neck.
You’re on the path to discovering CAGED - an acronym for remembering the sequence of major chords as you go up the neck. Here’s how it works…
I’m assuming you already know the 5 ‘open’ major chords in first position. These are also known as cowboy chords, campfire chords and folk chords. They are - E Major, A Major, D Major, G Major and C Major.
So finger through them for a few minutes. Here’s the first leap to make - consider them as shapes. By that, I mean as long as there is a finger fretting the correct string at the correct fret, it doesn’t matter which finger. The C Major can be fingered with 1, 2 and 3; 1, 2 and 4; 1, 3 and 4 or 2, 3 and 4. All of the chords are like this. (A fingering for the A Major chord which I find really useful is (1) - open, (2) - 2nd fret taken by the 3rd finger, (3) - 2nd fret taken by the 1st finger, (4) - 2nd fret taken by the 2nd finger, (5) - open. )
(Standard nomenclature with me - the number in brackets refers to the string. p i m a ch refer to thumb, index, middle, ring and pinky fingers on the strumming hand. I try to be really clear about saying ‘1st fret taken by the 1st finger’, though I sometimes get clumsy.)
So now that you see those chords as shapes, start playing with shifting them. Take a D Major - shift you left hand up one fret, keeping the fingers on the same strings and moving every finger up one fret. If you play only the ‘closed’ (eg. fingered) strings, it will still sound like a major chord, just built on a different note. It’s when you add the open strings that it’s not going to sound right anymore.
So now, play those cowboy chords with 2, 3 and 4. 1 is now free to barre or finger notes behind those chord shapes. Start with C Major - slide it up one fret and barre (1) - (3) at the 1st fret with your 1st finger. Play all the strings between (1) and (5) - simultaneously or one at a time. It’s now a chord of C# Major (can also be called Db Major, but let’s avoid confusion for now.) You can continue this all the way up the fretboard. As long as the fingers are positioned the same way relative to each other, it will produce a major chord, and the chord will be named for the note that your 2nd finger and 4th finger are playing.
So here’s where the CAGED acronym comes into it - start with C Major in first position, fingered however you prefer. Then place your first finger at the third fret, where the note on (5) was. Barre so that you have (1) and (5) fingered at the 3rd fret, and make an ‘A shaped’ chord with 2, 3 and 4. The chord is ‘A shaped’, but it’s a chord of C Major.
Now, put your first finger at the 5th fret and barre so that (2), (3) and (4) are fingered. With 2, 3 and 4, make a ‘G shaped chord’. Again, the chord is ‘G shaped’ but it is a chord of C Major.
Now, first finger to the 8th fret, where the notes on (1) and (6) were just fingered. Barre so that (1), (2) and (6) are fingered. With 2, 3 and 4, make an ‘E shaped’ chord. Once again, the chord is ‘E shaped’, but it is a chord of C Major.
Now, first finger to the 10th fret, where the notes on (4) and (5) were just fingered. Barre so that (4) and (5) are fingered. With 2, 3 and 4, make a ‘D shaped’ chord. Once again, the chord is ‘D shaped’, but it is a chord of C Major.
And finally, if you have room on the neck, move your first finger to the 12th fret, where the notes on (1) and (3) were just fingered. Barre so that (1) and (3) are fingered. With 2, 3 and 4, make a ‘C shaped’ chord. This is a chord of C Major, shaped like C Major, but sounding an octave above the standard C Major folk chord.
The sequence repeats in the same order for all of the other chords -
E Major goes - ‘E shaped’, ‘D shaped’, ‘C shaped’, ‘A shaped’, ‘G shaped’.
A Major goes ‘A shaped’, ‘G shaped’, ‘E shaped’, ‘D shaped’, ‘C shaped’.
Etc. etc.
You may now notice that the F Major that most folks learn as their first barre chord is an ‘E Shaped’ chord barred at the first fret. I’ll leave it to you to figure out the next few shapes on your own.
This is either something you already knew, something you were on the verge of figuring out on your own, a slice of irritating gobbledegook or the start of a mind-blowing obsession for you. I hope it’s the latter.
Well done, Le Ministre.
For a few pics to go with his great overview, try here: Guitar chord - Wikipedia
Ministre, thanks. I’m ‘on the verge’ and had run into the term (CAGED) before and it didn’t make sense. Does now.