Meanwhile I’m still working on the guitar revival. I’ve still not rediscovered the more exotic chords, and a good D minor still eludes me, but C is getting there. There’s the beginning of callus on my fingers now, and there never has been pain: I play about 3-4 songs a day, and now am up to about 10. So finger-strength and flexibility will build, callus will build, and I’ll work up to a good clean C and Dm. B7 is still in the future.
If you’ve ever wanted to play guitar, filk is one of the easiest ways to start. Learn A minor and E minor and there are four or five songs you can play just with those: they’re both two-fingered, and they’re only one string apart from each other. View the music this way: those lines are the guitar strings, but upside down. If the note is high, arrange to strike the highest strings (the lowest as your guitar sits, which are the highest notes). If low, try to aim your hand toward the lower strings. Amazingly, the melody may surface. If you then learn G there’s a raft more songs you can do. And all of these chords are very easy to finger, requiring no finger-gymnastics. You can look up chord charts on the internet, or get a chord book that shows you how to hold your hand. If your guitar’s action is too high or its ‘voice’ is too high, get a capo, a little squeeze device that clamps onto your guitar neck and creates a new top fret (section) that’s going to sit a little lower than the maker made the real top fret do. Capo 2 is nearly standard with group-sings, to pitch it where ordinary humans live.
It’s not that difficult an instrument to do on a very basic, singalong level. Mastering it, now, can take many, many years. But even if you can’t read music, just play the chords and view the music as I suggest, and you’ll be amazed how your ear can find the tune.
Talking about music – I happened to see this really amazing and delightful video today.
It’s an amateur video of two teen boys having fun with the Beatles ‘Let it be’.
BUT… these two boys are classical music prodigies at one of the top music schools in the world…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K-5XOCMpUwA
Love it! Did you notice Nathan Chan’s hands? Wonderful!
I’ve seen that video twice before, and it’s just as wonderful, amazing, and fun each time. Those boys are having such a good time with the music and each other, it’s a joy to see and hear. Let’s hope they’re both as in love with music when they’re twenty or forty years older. 🙂 — That reminds me to see if the video connected with that is available. …Looking…
Off topic: I note we’re just four days away from Protector‘s release. W00t-w00t!
CJ, is there something about the Dm that prevents you from putting your fingers on the strings? 1st string, 1st fret, index finger; 2nd string, 3rd fret, ring finger; 3rd string, 2nd fret, middle finger. (counting strings from bottom to top, high to low, High E to Low E)
We need to start getting songs together for something like Tristen and Cefwyn, (what rhymes with Ninevrise?), not to mention stuff for Jane, such as Deymorin, Mikhyel, and Nikki……
Joe, I just nailed the pesky bugger, and thank you. The biggest puzzle in guitar is where the heck you put which finger to fit them all on the fret, and as you know, the Ibanez has a narrow neck.
I’m pretty good at tune-smithing: I used to be a member of BMI — my old band director would have a good laugh if he knew the one of his band of pirates to actually have music published was me. Although I was his substitute conductor on occasion when he had to go down to the office: dunno why he thought I could do that, but I did.
Which is to say, if you can compose some quatrain verse in 4/4 (4 beats to the measure) or 2/4 or even 6/8 or the like (triplets) with a small refrain, or if anyone can, in the persona of any of the above folk, I can put tune to it. I’m not good at poesy. But this is one arena in which fan-writing is very welcome.
I’ve been trying to play “John Barleycorn Must Die” with the guitar (my 6-string Sigma) capoed up to the 7th fret. I didn’t think my fingers were that fat, but I have trouble getting the Am chord and the G chord at that far up the fingerboard. Well, it’s okay, I’m not in concert. I am sure that Jane’s guitar would be even better for that song, since it’s got a wider neck.
My guitar teacher, who has been a member of a well-known (in bluegrass circles) musical family group, tells me that I don’t have to play fancy chord arrangements in order to play a song. Most of our chords are the standard A, Am, B, B7, C, D, Dm, E, Em, F, Fm, G, and G7. But then, I’m not learning how to play lead, but rather rhythm guitar, so I’m the backup for him when he plays lead or plays banjo. He says simple is better, you don’t have to remember which way you put your fingers for a particular chord if you play it the same way all the time. He does insist at times that I play the modified G chord, index on 5th string 2nd fret, middle on 6th string 3rd fret, ring on 2nd string 3rd fret, and little finger on 1st string 3rd fret. It gives a brighter sound to the chord, and in some songs, there’s a transition to a “half C” chord, which moves the index and middle fingers to the 4th and 5th strings respectively, and then from there you can go back to the G, or on to a D chord without having to reposition your entire left hand.
I’ll see if I can’t haul out the one I did for Angel with the Sword.
It’s taking lots more digging than I thought. I’ll put up the first quatrain and see if that amuses:
Drunken Rede
TAMurotake
Know the lover that you court
At the obscure verge of night.
Know it’s good, that you’re wise.
Or at least it feels alright.
There are five quatrains, but I no longer have them off by heart.