Woke up with the sunlight, on this ‘fall-back’ day—for those of you overseas, we say ‘spring-forward, fall-back’ to remember which direction to reset the clocks for daylight savings time…
And though it’s starting to be slush now, there were fat pretty flakes descending when I woke.
I love winter—with all its troubles, I love the winter, when it really sets in to be winter, with snow, not just brown dead stuff.
The plaque welt grew to exceed the bounds of the nice mark I drew at 10 am with permanent marker—by about an inch and a half, but the good news is, the raised-edge, hardness of the welt, departed last night, and now it’s just redness. If it had been redness traveling up my arm, I’d have headed for the clinic and gotten attention, but it was traveling down, with gravity, and I think it’s just the nastiness ‘flattening out’… It’s still sore, but not when at rest: yesterday and the day before, it hurt just sitting there and not moving. So I’ll live.
Don’t think I want that shot next year, no ‘m. I’ll just take my chances with the flu. And I do rejoice at having decided to forego the shingles virus: having my veins afire from inside just would not be a Good Thing with the other one…
Did you ever find out if they gave you the high potency one? There are 2 varieties this year, regular strength and a stronger one. It would be interesting to see which they gave you.
I thought it was the pee-noo-moan-ya shot that got you? Either way, I’d say it is definitely off your list!
Clove oil is a traditional topical anesthetic for bum teeth, if Jane’s is becoming unbearable. As long as clove oil isn’t yet another household allergen.
I suspect this year will bring a long winter. I’ve had reports from friends and family across the US of early snow, even before Halloween.
It was the high potency flu shot. The pneumonia shot was the one that reacted. And Jane is as of this morning (thank you!) going on antibiotics. It’s just a nasty little molar abscess, but I’m very glad to get her on antibiotics. The great queen Hatshepsut probably died of a dental abscess.
Glad to help.
She’s already feeling much better.
Bless you, OSG, if you were instrumental in helping Jane. One does not like to hear of one’s associates getting ill.
HEY! Good to see ye again. 🙂 We’ve missed having minions about the place. 😉
You saw that episode of the Zahi Hawass show, too, I take it. If the dental abscess did kill her, it was pulling the tooth that did it. That released the infection into the bloodstream, and brought on sepsis. They’ve got some good shows on the Discovery channels. Do you watch the Morgan Freeman “Through the Wormhole” ones? And there’s these series with Dr. Ian Stewart, the Scottish geologist. (I swoon over that Scottish accent)
Anent weather, I saw a long range forecast just yesterday that had the NW much colder than usual. Button up your overcoat!
(I’ll be interested to hear how the Prius V compares in snow.)
“Anent” !! One of the (many) delights of reading this blog is the high number of logophiles amongst the followers (speaking). Also the broad diversity of interests.
So very glad to hear that Jane is on antibiotics. Abscesses can lead to horrendous problems…no joke about dying of a toothache!
I went through this a couple of years ago….I started swelling on a plane coming home from a clay conference, on a friday; my dentist prescribed antibiotics saw me first thing Monday morning; by 10:00AM I was at the oral surgeon having it drained. The worst part was not the root canal and crown but the 3 weeks of keflex. I totally recommend a good acidophilus probiotic….they were life savers.
Snow? We are complete opposites in this regard. I am fine with winter until about Twelfth Night, then the blue meanies set in. WE’re supposed to go down to 28 F tonight….our first real frost. I’ve covered a few plants I want to dig and bring in. Right now my sun room/plant room is full of greenery. One of my survival strategies is to work with plants when I am drinking my first cup of tea in the morning, which is what I do all summer only outside.
Stay warm and dry….I hope you get out easily tomorrow.
Is anyone else happy to off daylight savings and have a little more light in the morning? Yes, I know it’s the same amount of light; why is there such a psychological impact? 😉
Smartcat, what you need for the winter meanies is a nice marine tank. Gardening underwater. It’s always 80 degrees in there, and is good to sit and watch…
Yep, nice to get up to daylight…but at this latitude, it’s twilight at 4pm….
Re the Prius in snow, we’re curious too. It’s a totally different mode of driving: you have to be feather-light on the brakes (never tailgate a Prius. They can stop instantly. Really instantly.) And you drive by spurting the gas, then slacking back so that the motor will go into coast-mode: it’s a light car, and it coasts like nothing you’ve ever driven. I leave our driveway, get up to speed, and practically roll to the bottom of the hill to our grocery, which is a couple of miles from here. When it’s rolling, the gas consumption is 99 mpg. When it’s climbing back up the hill it’s between 15 and 30, depending on where you put the push on. If people could see what happens to their gas mileage on jackrabbit starts, (as you can on a Prius) they’d drive differently: that’s coins ka-chinging into the gas company’s profits. We got this car in July, with a full tank, and we’ve done one fill plus 8 gallons and will not refill again probably until December. We were filling the Subaru about every 2-3 weeks, and it got 25 mpg.
Anyway, the flu shot hit me today: I meant to get some work done, but I crashed and burned all afternoon, just no energy to get out of bed: went after Jane’s prescription, and she’s turning all bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, but I’m just falling over. Feeling better, though.
Our snow all melted. The ground’s still too warm; but in the big push the day that tired us out, we got the place winterized, the fish are put to bed for the winter, and have their heaters going; and we are ready for the white stuff!
My ’02 Prius got just over 46mpg on its last tank. I try to avoid snow (and grades over 6%), in order to keep both of us happy. I concur on the jackrabbit starts – but I frequently am halfway across the intersection before the speed-demon in the next lane can get moving.
Good to hear things are more manageable and getting better. I was quieter than usual all weekend, didn’t do the chores I wanted, but got a few other things done. So, chores still to do.
I dislike meds, from having had some yearly crud each winter as a kid and teen, but thankfully, as an adult i have (usually) been sick less often, such as the last few years. Meds tend to either knock me on my butt or get me wired, initially, so I try to avoid them unless necessary. Heck, two cups of coffee in a row make me jittery as all get out. Tea or sodas don’t, thankfully.
Except for a couple of brief cool spells for a few days, and rainier than usual lately for a few weeks, it has been typical to above average, i’d guess, for our winter so far. I’d welcome colder weather here this winter.
I was surprised: i was asked to lead, host, judge a forum fanfic challenge upcoming (Farscape, TerraFirmaScapers.com) and said yes. I’ll be posting the challenge prompt in a day or two, after thinking up a couple more seeds. It’s been a while since I looked at other people’s writing. I hope i’m ready for it and no longer burnt out. My reading still isn’t back to normal, which i miss. I rewatched the Peacekeeper Wars movie, and was reminded why i love Farscape, so this bodes well. It got me to look at my old fanfic notes, which also helped. The writers there, some have gone on to be published with.original fiction, so it should be a fun challenge to check submissions and (awk!) pick a winner.
In south-central Wisconsin, we’ve had a little snow (nothing that stayed) already, but did not have frost until October 21 (average frost date used to be Oct. 7, is now Oct. 10, and getting later each year). But, when the frost arrived on Oct. 21, it was a killing frost (mid-20s).
I love winter, too, and don’t mind the shorter daylight hours at all. Because I have such problems with heat and sun sensitivity (and my skin reacts to sunscreen), I rather dread the arrival of summer, even though I enjoy gardening. My solution for gardening is to wear long pants, long-sleeved shirt, and a wide-brimmed hat, and to douse myself with water as often as needed. Hydrotherapy!
Smartcat – Have you ever tried the full-spectrum “happy lights” from Verilux, or their equivalent? They’ve helped some of our friends and family members cope with the darkness of winter in Wisconsin. Our indoor plants that don’t get enough light from the windows like the lights in the winter, too. I try to remember to give the kitty grass a good dose of extra light each day, because it helps the grass stay green and tasty for quite a while – judging by how long our cats will continue to graze on each planting.
Still, I think the fish tank sounds like a perfect solution to the winter blahs. Warmth, life, and light! I’d like to have a tropical tank when I live in a place with enough room, but will start with a small fresh water tank – baby steps.
Hi Kafryn…I have a thousand watts of gro lights in my sunroom. I am also putting a set of lights that will come on at 15 min. intervals in my bedroom. When I have the plants arranged I’ll post a few photos on my blog.
The fish tank sounds cool……perhaps post Christmas?
Wow, smartcat – your sunroom sounds amazing!! Could you post a link to your blog here? I’d really like to see some photos of your plants. I don’t have much of a green thumb (have killed some plants by mistake at times), but I’ve had very good luck with a phalaenopsis orchid my sister gave us a few years ago. The blooms last for *months*. I’m careful to measure the amount of water I provide the plant, and thus far, it seem to be happy living with us.
Are you thinking of adding a fish tank to your household? I’d be very interested in hearing about your adventures. For me, it’ll be a few more years before I will likely have enough time (my job is about a 60-hour/week commitment – I enjoy what I do, but I have to be careful to allocate my free time wisely).
A musical question: Some time back, discussions here and elsewhere had me getting curious about the possibility of learning the guitar. I looked at prices and concluded I didn’t know beans, and should have someone along if/when I was ready to devote the time, learn, and practice.
I had thought I still had a guitar stored in the closet, but was it cheap or at least good enough to learn? The main issue was, I was sure it was out of tune and would need to be tuned.
Well, in bopping around the house this weekend, I saw the guitar sitting there, all lonesome-like, and I’ve just looked it over.
Hey, it’s in remarkabley good shape, considering it’s been sitting in closets for years and years, not played or tuned. It needs a light going-over with a damp cloth to clean it up, but aside from what looks like some importunate paint spattering, thankfully little, a scratch or ding or two that may simply need cleanup, hey, I think this-here ghee-tarr is actually in good shape. — It is, however, somehow missing a string, the outside rightmost string as you face it with the neck up. It most definitely has not been tuned in years and I’d need a tuner, advice on how to tune it myself. If I know what it should sound like, I should be able to get it there. I don’t have much formal instruction on reading music, and none on guitar, so I don’t know if you just tell me, but I can hear fairly accurately when two tones or pitches are the same. Or at least, I’m confident enough to try. But I’d need advice on getting a tuner, and strings, and I’ll need to buy picks, a strap, and a case. I have no idea if I need to buy a (forget the name, a clamp musicians use on stringed instruments) either. I don’t think I need to bother with a case or cover yet, but would later. And advice on what to get to learn to play the darn thing.
This guitar dates from when I was 12 or younger. I don’t know if it was my dad’s or uncle’s before I was born, or if my dad bought it specifically. My earliest memory of this guitar was my dad saying he’d tried to learn to play when he was younger, and I think he had some ancient-looking, to me at the time, sheet music. But I didn’t get any tutoring or lessons, and the guitar sat in the closet (not my closet) for years, before I moved it, and it’s sat there neglected, all but forgotten and ignored since, almost passed over when I was earlier thinking of learning.
So I have what looks like a serviceable, perhaps good, at least beginner’s level, guitar, and I don’t know, it could well be better than that. I’d like to find that out too, if possible. This is an acoustic guitar. It could date from when my dad was young, in his teens, possibly during or after his Army service, so any time from the late 1940’s or early to mid 1950’s as an oldest starting point, on up to my late childhood when I was around 10 to 12, thus about 1976 to 1978, for its latest origin date. It’s very plain and ordinary looking, unremarkable, neither especially handsome nor ugly. It’s in good shape, mostly because it’s been in a closet unharmed. As I said, with a little cleanup, a new string (or all six new strings) and tuning, I think it would be ready for me to learn. I don’t see any indication of maker or brand, except the word Maxitone at the head where the tuning keys are.
I’m not sure of the construction. It appears to be all wood and metal, except I’m not sure what material is on the fret bar at top near the head and at the base, the foot of the guitar. The strings are metal, I think. They are not, ah, animal / biological. — I’ll try to remember to take photos this week and post them, if that’d help identify it.
I tend to think this guitar was new or nearly new when I first saw it. It’s been too many years for me to recall, but I don’t think this was presented as a gift to me, more like introduced, maybe to see if it was a hit, love at first sight, or just an eh-so-what thing. (And that in itself is a strange approach, knowing myself and my parents.) — I sang in our small church choir as a kid and teen, as much by default as anything else. My parents met in church choir and singles class, both amateurs, so, y’know, I went with them to choir practice and then sang too. I loved that. I had a year and a half to two years of piano lessons as a young teen in junior high, but didn’t have the maturity to stick with practice. (What, do the same thing over and over again? I thought I knew it. Why repeat so much if I already know it? … Why? Because, kid, you only think you know it. If you can’t play it from memory without looking, you do not yet know it.) This, despite that I liked it. I was overconfident of my ability and immature. (However, during the same time period, I excelled with my first foreign language class, and that became a lifelong love.) I don’t get why my parents would not have talked up the guitar more or given some lessons or signed me up with a teacher. I don’t think I’d asked about it, but I did love singing and did love music. It’s just a puzzle why my dad (or mom and dad together) took the approach they did, not like them, and not like how I could be motivated to learn or to become interested.
I don’t remember my dad ever playing it. I think he strummed a chord or two, if that. I do remember the sheet music looked much older than it should have, even if he’d had it in his late teens and early 20’s. :: shrugs ::
Why didn’t I take to the thing and try to figure it out on my own without any instructions? Because that was not typical of me, especially as a kid. Even with something I was avidly interested in, there were supposed to be books and things and someone to show you how, to teach it. I wasn’t usually the hands-on, no-reading-the-instructions type, and not the head-banging garage band type of boy, either. (Too bad, I think there’s use in that approach too.) There weren’t kids in the neighborhood to form a band with anyway, and I don’t know where the guys at school were who were at that stage of banging on instruments and forming a band with their buddies in the garage. So this is why I didn’t become a great rock-and-roll or country or classical musician. 😉 (I wish I’d stayed with the piano!)
So, here’s this guitar, winter’s near (I’ll try not to say “Winter Is Coming!”) and it seems like as good a time as any to get what I need and start.
I’m in Houston, but I have no idea of the local music stores or who / where I’d find someone to tune this guitar. I’m game to try it myself, and I think as long as I have the source sounds to aim for, I should be able to get there. My ear is generally good enough, or at least I think so, to match until the two sounds are equal.
So, raw newbie advice, please? Tuner, strings, other necessities? Learning / self-teaching materials? (I have a Mac desktop and an older Win7 laptop.) — Aha, I think the word has come to me, but I have no idea of the spelling. the musician’s clamp is a “cay-poh,” probably spelled capo or capeaux and pronounced American-style instead of European Continental style, capo, head, or whatever a capeau (instead of a chapeau) would be. Er, linguistic tangent aside, do I need to get a capo, and what do I get? What about guitar strings? How do I even string the one, let alone all six if I need to restring the other five? Total newbie here.
Ouch, callused fingers, here I come?
Somewhere, Chet Atkins and Jimi Hendrix, among others, are probably laughing their butts off right now. 😀
Hi Ben….You should replace your strings with a complete new set. Strings go dead after a while. The music store where you buy them should have someone who can show you how to change them. I play a classic so I use nylon strings. They might be a kinder option for a beginner.
You can buy really good tuning gizmos for not much money…..eventually you’ll be able to do it by ear. A good capo is a must.
Once you learn three or four cords you’ll be able to accompany many. many songs.
Look on line….there are some good instructional videos and books out there.
Happy strumming!
P.S. That’s some cute stuff you sent Jane and Co.
Thanks, SmartCat! Heh, it was fun finding those for Jane and CJ (and Wiishu!) and thinking, “Hey, that’d be so neat.”
Also thanks on the musical suggestion. Hah, local music store? I’ll have to *find* one. C’mere, Google and Yellow Pages. (No luck from my regular cabbie, darn it.) OK, new strings and a capo at least, and a strap and something to cover it. (No idea how much a case runs, or if there are bags.)
I may have photos of the guitar later today, for sure this week, after a light scrub with a damp cloth with soap and water and a tbsp. of bleach to be on the safe side. How long has this poor nice instrument sat there in closets, unplayed? *Years!* Too long. It must be played or sold/given to someone who will use it.
NO BLEACH! just a wipedown, not even with soap and water! it’s fine furniture type finish!
Use a little Pledge on a cloth if you haven’t got anything else.
Re restringing: you can break strings or hurt the guitar if you don’t know the right octave to be in, ie, the notes repeat every so often, and you can end up tuning it an octave too high and snapping new strings. My advice is to go to a music store and ask them to give your guitar an initial tuning. They can do it inside a few minutes. You need a tuner, and the best are the electric clipons; BOSS is a good brand. New strings will tend to drift out of key on their own, and we don’t know how good the machinery atop your guitar neck may be: sometimes that will let the key drift too…strings stretch, pegs loosen on some guitars, and most of all…it needs to be played. Get a ‘chord’ chart that shows you the fingering. A minor and E minor are 2 of the easiest to finger and being mid-neck are also two of the easiest to balance the guitar in your hands. So you need:
1. guitar wax —your local store 2. new strings—I’m supposing it’s a ‘steel-string’ six string, not a steel 12 (3) you need a chord chard. (4) a clipon tuner and a demonstration how to use it (5) your strings installed in the right octave for your first time. (6) you need an elementary how to play the guitar book and (7) a small ‘beginning’ songbook.
You didn’t say brand name. That could tell us a lot.
Our first snow of the season was the night of October 22. Not much, about 3/4″, and it didn’t last much past noon.
Ben, even Jimi Hendrix and Chet Atkins had to start somewhere. Have fun with it.
I’ve seen really inexpensive tuners, less than $15, that clamp on to the guitar. One of them is called the Snark, I have a Korg, which can use its internal microphone, or you can plug an auxiliary pickup into the input jack and tune it from there.
As for strings, I’d say you’d really have to experiment, but I wouldn’t go out and buy the most expensive, because they’re not necessarily the best for you. My instructor sells Martin “DARCO” strings, which cost me $6.00 a set, seem to last a longer time than the “Silk and Steel” I used to buy, but again, your resulst may vary.
A capo doesn’t have to be expensive. Depending on your guitar’s “action” (how high the strings lie above the fretboard and how hard they are to depress – Prozac? 😉 ) , you might need to get a more robust capo. I’ve seen decent capos that you can hardly detect on the fretboard, while others are huge monstrosities. I don’t recall the one I have, but it’s a spring-loaded pincer type that has a curved jaw to go around the neck, and a padded flat jaw that rests on the strings. It’s sometimes awkward to put on, but it works fine. Since there are no music stores in my area that I care to go into – the one caters mostly to electric players and I don’t care for his selection of acoustic accessories – I order through “Guitar Center”. Comparison shopping is always good to look.
Stringing the guitar – Take off one string and replace it at a time. Don’t pull all six strings off and then restring it, it’s just easier to go one at a time. If you have the peg behind the bridge that holds the strings in place, then it’s easy to string. Loosen the string until you can remove it from the tuning key post, gently pry the peg straight up. There should be a small brass ring (2 mm)that is held in the end loop of the string. When you replace the string, make sure you have the correct string – they usually now come in sets of 6, with 2 strings in each inner envelope. You’ll have the 1st and 4th strings in one envelope, the 2nd and 5th strings in the second, and the 3rd and 6th in the third. It’s easy to identify which is which, as long as you don’t take all 6 out at once. Strings are numbered from the bottom up, so the thinnest string is the 1st string or “E”, the 2nd is “B”, 3rd is “G”, 4th is “D”, 5th is “A”, 6th is “E”. Put the looped end of the string into the hole where you removed the peg, slip the peg into the hole with the slot in the peg’s shaft facing forward (toward the neck of the guitar), press it firmly into place. The free end of the string then goes onto the tuning post, I usually string about 8 inches through the hole in the tuning post, although it varies with the thickness of the string. More thickness means I have fewer windings I can put on the post. I start winding, carefully holding the string in place with one thumb while winding with the other hand. I’m not sure how to describe how I do it, since I like the windings to be be very smooth and look like the factory windings, but it involves not allowing the string to loop over the post (they tend to do that until you get tension on them) and holding the string so that the free end goes over the part of the string that has not gone through the post. (I know it’s not clear, but if you take a look at your guitar before you start, it’ll give you an idea of what I mean). When you’ve got tension on the string, but not too much, make sure that the string is in the proper slot on the “nut”, which is the small plastic or ivory piece at the very top of the neck, between the tuning pegs and the first fret. Don’t do anything to that nut, such as try to widen the slots, or file it down to make the “action” easier. Best leave that to a professional. Tighten the string, you don’t have to get it in tune yet, but get it tight enough that it’s not going to slip out of the post. Besides, strings need to stretch a bit, anyway, so this gives them a chance to do so. When you tighten the strings, please note that you turn the tuning keys away from you if you stand the guitar up in front of you. The 1st, 2nd and 3rd strings will be tightened by turning the key clockwise (using your right hand), and the other three strings are tuned by turning the keys counter-clockwise. Now if your keys are all on the same side, then they’re all turned the same way. Electric guitars with keys all on the left side would be tightened by turning the keys counter-clockwise. Most acoustic guitars have a 3 and 3 arrangement, so the first method is probably the one you’ll use.
Best advice I can give you if you’re not sure, take it to a shop and have them show you. I know of one guy who thought the plastic pegs that held the strings in place near the tail were too long, so he cut them off, and couldn’t figure out why the strings wouldn’t stay in the holes. Don’t worry about what they’ll think in the shop, they’d rather you came in and asked and let them show you than to have you have to come in and be even more embarrassed because something didn’t work out right.
We ALL had to start somewhere and learn how to do it, so don’t think you have to be embarrassed about it.
Hey Joe. Gotta read through that a little later today and digest. 🙂 But if local prices (or Amazon) are that good, then I can afford to do this now instead of around Christmas. Cool! Additional bonus: It will puzzle the cats!
I’d also recommend a trip to the guitar shop and have the action checked. Most guitars have action difficulties and getting it right can make a bi difference. Too high or too low can affect playing quality greatly.
Earlier in my life I was a roadie and I have lots of guitar experience.
OK, the music store trip won’t be tomorrow, but Tue. or Wed. of next week is likely. It’ll require a little time, not a rush.
Update: The crud on the head behind the strings near the tuning pegs is all cleaned up now. Much better.
By experimentation, I found which way to turn to tighten or loosen the strings. But I’ll want a demo in-store besides Joe’s advice, so I have a better idea how to do things.
I have sent a query about friendly acoustic shops to my cousin who lives on Hazard St in Houston. Are you near downtown or out one way or another? (My cousin refers to her brother’s dwelling, way way out on the west side of town, as in a suburb of San Antonio!)
LOL, it’s a huge city. I don’t know offhand where Hazard St. is. But I’d appreciate the info! I’m “Inside the Loop (610)” on the NW side. I used to live in the Cy-Fair district / Champions area, further NW, with Tomball out further from that. Due to my eyesight, low-vision, I’m not nearly as familiar with where things are as I’d like to be. But hey, I can get map directions via the web or apps, and a (mostly) reliable cabbie. Said cabbie knew of one shop near my old part of town, but wasn’t sure if it was still there, since he hadn’t been around there in a long time.
I’ll be looking for local places. Guitar Center likely has a location here, and there have to be plenty of places. — Friendly is better!
Have you got a brand name on the guitar? Should be up on the top of the head, where the strings attach.
On the head it says Maxitone, a brand / maker I’m not savvy enough to recognize.
Photos are here:
http://www.shinyfiction.com/photos/guitar/
The tuning pegs seem loose to me, but by experiment, I found which direction tightens and which loosens, and this seems to work OK. I didn’t want to mess with it too much, even though it’ll need to be redone anyway. But now I’ve got the idea.
So yes, as Phil suggested, I’ll want them to check the loose action. I don’t want it overly tight, partly because of my hand/grip strength, but it doesn’t feel like it should be that loose, meaning the play or give in the tuning pegs.
The action is the physical distance between tne strings and fretboard, where you have to press down with your fingers. Too low an action can create a buzz; too high and it slices your fingers.
Maxitone is considered a modest-price ‘vintage’ brand, and it may have mutated into Ibanez, which is what I have and what I think Joe may have. Decent, not pricey, and what it will do for you depends on whether it’s been warped or otherwise needs work.
If it was stored strung with the strings under tension it could have affected the neck, over a decade, say, but maybe not: some necks have a steel rod inside: some don’t.
If you decide to learn to play, my recommendation is that you learn to play a simple song like Privateer, [I can give it to you] which uses 3 easy chords, and play it once, and only once a day for a week. Then start playing it 2x daily. This will let your left-hand fingers build up callus. And you will remember those 3 basic chords. If you play as I did, prepare to bleed for your art, but the once daily method, 5 minutes or less a day, should give you just enough stress to cause the callus to develop. Once you’ve got that, you can play with strength for quite a while with no more soreness than you had the first time. And once you’ve done it, you can regain your callus by doing the same for just a week or so, and your fingers will immediately lay down callus.
HOpefully a guitar shop can put it into some sort of basic shape for you: new strings, and a first tuning, which will put the strings at the right tension—which you must ever after use an electric tuner to maintain. It’s easy to mistake the low note for the higher one (octave jump) so never take all the strings off at once: replace the strings (when ultimately you must) one at a time so as not to make a mistake about the tension.
So exciting! I also have an older guitar – mine’s an old Guild dreadnought 6-string. I used to play (and sing) a lot, but stopped for a goodly while when I went back to school, and just haven’t picked it up again for a long time. It’s been on my “to do” list (in the top 10, even) for a few years, so perhaps your enthusiasm will provide the necessary impetus to take it out again.
One of the reasons I love the guitar is that you can easily change the key so that the range of notes fits your voice well. My voice is quite deep – was so even when I was a child – so folk music was where I felt at home.
Have a wonderful time learning to play!
I’ve got 2 guitars. My 12-string Ibanez that I bought right after I got home from Shejicon3 in 2010, and a 6-string Sigma D28H that I bought in 1981 in Norfolk while I was stationed there. I forget what I paid for the Sigma – for a while, they were imported from Japan by the C.F. Martin Company as their more inexpensive brand. It has all of the standards of construction that Martin requires, I took it to a luthier (certified guitar craftsman) to have its action checked, adjusted to Martin standards, and he appraised it at about $450 – 500. I think I paid around $275 or so. It’s NOT for sale and I’ve had plenty of offers…..The Ibanez is a very nice feeling guitar, the action is outstanding, hardly any effort to depress the strings. The only thing is, you tune, then play, then tune again, then play. My friends tease me about that. I’ve not checked, but I wouldn’t be surprised if there weren’t videos on YouTube about how to change guitar strings. Just make sure it isn’t some smart aleck posting one that’s intentionally wrong just to screw people up.
Kafryn, your Guild sounds like a treasure. John Denver played Guild guitars, at least, his 12-string was a Guild.
My Guild D-35 guitar’s name is Gideon, and I’m very, very fond of him. [I had a Martin D-28 before Gideon, but it was stolen. That guitar–also a dreadnought–was named M’Lady. Who knows why she was female and Gideon is male in my mind?] Putting Gideon away when I went back to school, and then keeping him away when our nephew came to live with us, was difficult. Our nephew needed a lot of silence when he was studying, so our household became very quiet. He’s now at college, and has outgrown the need for such silence. My spouse and I are gradually reintroducing music into our lives, which is a great joy. Our household was never very noisy by most people’s standards, I think. When our nephew comes home from college, he now shares his musical discoveries with us. Such fun!
I hope to get re-acquainted with Gideon in mid-December, when the grant deadlines have past. I plan to take him into the our local guitar store for a checkup in the next week or so. If possible, I’ll stick to playing only a few minutes a day, as CJ recommends, so that my calluses will develop at a reasonable, and not very painful, rate. BlueCatShip has inspired me!
I copied down text wholesale this morning from this thread, so I’ll have it to refer to, likely next Tuesday for a guitar or music store trip.
Very pleasantly surprised to hear prices for strings and a tuner might be that good. Along with the other items suggested, that’s still likely less than what I’d thought I might be in for. I can pace it over a couple of months if need be too. This looks really doable and cheap for the amount of enjoyment from it.
Hah, I’ll be sure to let folks know how it goes after my trip next week. 🙂
Please do! I hope all goes well!
http://cheggo.edublogs.org/theatre-music-for-yr-8/stage-2-guitar-charts-chords-strumming-techniques/
Online. Zilch for cost.
Tommie, thanks, just now remembering to copy that down.
Thanks, Kafryn. Very kind of you too to say I’d inspired you.
I don’t drive there, I just get taken places. 🙂
My father grew up in the (small) Houston of the twenties. He wrote once of an odd feeling, when driving out of the city on a freeway that swoops overhead very near downtown, of passing over what used to be uneasy entire world in less than a minute.
I sent you e-mail with a possible shop.
That was supposed to nest as a reply to Ben, upthread a ways. Oh, well.