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Guitar chord forum - chordie → Posts by Astronomikal
When a song calls for a B, I'll sometimes make a "cheater" B, i.e. make an A-shape on strings 2-3-4 (fret 4) with fingers 4-3-2, and then fret string 1 on the 2nd fret with my index. Then just play strings 4-1.
Sometimes, though, the tone is too high. In that case, I just do like Zurf suggested and substitute a B7.
Cam: I've tried a variety of strings on my Martin D-35. I've pretty much settled on Martin SP's (medium gauge phosphor bronze). In my experience they sound fantastic for about a week, and after the stretching period they settle in to something less than fantastic, but still quite good. I play usually 1-2 hours per day and find that I need to change them about evry 6-8 weeks. That may be a bit too high maintenance for some people, but I don't mind it.
Thanks to everyone for the feedback. I've tried it on and off, no results to report yet.
"Learn Barre Chords Fast by The Revolutionary Astronomikal Method". Only $25 (then send them a popsicle stick and some rubber bands).
Contact Per for advertising opportunities.
LOL! Oh man, that's BRILLIANT! Why didn't I think of that?
OK everybody, forget this thread ever existed. I'm going into business.
Good day:
I'm one of those who is trying to learn barre chords. I've been playing off and on (more off than on) for about 35 years, but only got serious about it last summer. I can chord pretty quickly and effectively, but I never practiced those infernal barre chords. Consequently, I pretty much suck at them.
I read a post by manicbassman in another thread, where he said: "when I'm going in and out of barre chords, I've learned a different set of fingerings for the normal chords that would be those I use for barre minus the first finger. The first is kept ready to barre with when sliding up the neck"
So I got to wondering how I could follow the bassman's lead and "learn a new set of fingerings".
I had a brainstorm and wanted to see what you think. Somebody has likely thought of this before, but I've never seen it until the idea popped into my head.
My thought is that I should splint my index finger to keep it from being used. Nothing fancy, a pencil and two rubber bands or pieces of tape will do. This will force me to use fingers 2 thru 4 to make the A, Am, D and E. (I know I should also learn to make the G, but for other reasons.)
Does this sound viable? Anyone ever tried or heard of anything like this? Feel free to laugh. I did.
Peace,
'nomikal
Thanks for the info, pix. My wife and I took a road trip today to check it out.
It has nice balance, it wasn't warped in any way and the finish was essentially like new.
They wanted $800 for it, but I could have probably talked them down to $650 or so. I tuned it and played around on it for 30 minutes or so and finally decided to pass on it.
A few things:
1. The neck was exceptionally narrow. Maybe Steve Vai has little hands, but I didn't like the feel of it as much as I do my Martin, which has a wide neck. (My hands are big.)
2. The finish was very flat and shallow (not glossy), similar to a Martin DX series. I knew my skin oils would wreck it fairly quickly.
3. Your suspicions were correct; It sounds OK plugged in, but without an amp the sound was unimpressive. Could have been the quality of the strings, which I could tell were ready for a change.
A couple of other "unusalities" about it: There was no pick guard (which I'll admit I didn't really notice until I saw it "live"), and the hole is oval, not circular.
Anyway, somebody will buy it. It's a nice guitar and I could tell it was well cared-for, it's just not for me.
Thanks again,
'nomikal
Hey, folks:
I have a 2009 Martin D-35. I love it. I'm a relative newbie and I usually play it at least two hours per day.
I've changed the strings on it a few times since buying it in August, and I've tried a few different brands (D'Addario, Ernie Ball and Martin) so far.
All of them sound GREAT -- but some for only a few days, at which point they seem to go totally dead. I had heard and read good things about the D'Addarios but I was disappointed. I took them off after only a few weeks and replaced them with Ernies. They were OK for a while, but didn't last as long as the original (Martins) that were on there when I bought it. So I put Martins on it again, and they've been on there for a couple of months now.
The ones in my experience which seem to hold the nicest tone for the longest time are the Martin SP Phosphor Bronze (medium gauge). It has me wondering if that is because my guitar is also a Martin. (?)
So I'm looking for is some guidance. Here are the questions for discussion:
In your experience, are certain brands of strings better suited for certain brands of guitars? if so, what do you look for when matching them up?
I've heard your body chemistry (pH of your sweat and skin oils) can also make "good" strings sound bad quickly while leaving "bad" strings alone, which may lead you to a false impression of the quality of the strings. In other words, it's player-dependent in some cases. What's your experience here?
Again, looking for some help on a logical way to determine what are the "best" strings for my guitar and me. Is there any real method to it, or, is it a trial-and-error thing like I've been doing?
Thanks,
'Nom
Ibanez Steve Vai signature model - Euphoria EP9.
http://www.guitarworld.com/article/iban … tic_guitar
I don't think it's available any longer. I have a chance to pick it up at less than half the list price (used), but I'm wondering if I should even bother to go look at it.
Anyone played this one before?
'Nom
Hi, Tony. I'm a relative newbie myself (< 1 year).
One thing I've found useful that I don't think anyone else has mentioned is that there are thousands of guitar lessons on youtube.com. Pick a song you like, then type the name of the song and GUITAR LESSON in the search engine and odds are good that somebody has posted a video of how to play some version or variation of that song. There are also loads of tips for beginners, which you can find by searching for something like BEGINNER GUITAR LESSONS.
Another good youtube site is Justin Sandercoe's channel. It's a gold mine:
http://www.youtube.com/user/justinsande … p;rclk=cti
Ditto everyone's comments above about practice, plateuas, practice, toughening your fingers, practice, fretting, practice and practice.
Before you know it you'll be playing and singing love songs to your wife, and she will think twice before calling you crazy.
Peace out,
'Nom
I like to use "copy and paste" to transfer Chordie lyrics and chords to a Word document. From there I want to enlarge font and change some spacing so that the final document/song is easier for me to read and play from.
PROBLEM: When I try to change the spacing and make the fonts larger the lines and words often become jumbled and change positions. It appears that there are cells and columns or the like that I am changing.
Can someone explain how I can put my lyrics in the document and then make the changes I want. How can I change the format which is used on CHordie? Can I do it at Chordie? Or in Word?
Thanks for any help!
I do exactly the same thing. I often find incorrect lyrics, chords out of place or just plain wrong chords, so I copy and paste them into MS Word and edit them myself.
The trick is to copy and then go into Word and, instead of choosing "paste", choose "Paste Special..." and then choose "unformatted text". This will paste the text, but without the table formatting. You can then manipulate the text just like you would in any Word document.
There is a way to make a satisfactory Bm without a barre (similar to the grip for a 4-string, 3-finger F chord).
- Fret the high E and the B with the pad of the index finger fret 2
- Fret the B (also) with the middle finger fret 3 (I'll explain below)
- Fret the G with the little finger fret 4
- Fret the D with the ring finger fret 4
- Fret the low E with the thumb fret 2 and also mute the A with the thumb (This is optional. If you don't do it then just play the four high strings.)
I use two fingers on the same string in this chord for a couple of reasons:
1. Your grip is more secure when you fret both the high E and the B with the index (as opposed to just the E), and
2. This particular grip will allow you to alternate between Bm and Bsus2 simply by lifting the middle finger. (Example: the bridge in Bob Seger's "Mainstreet".)
I often find that techniques I learn or discover for myself, while they may not be the "right" way to do something, work just fine, and make my guitar playing more enjoyable for me. I'm not planning on being a pro, so if I find something that works I'm not too much of a purist to use it.
'Nomikal
Bad technique here. I grip the neck like a baseball bat, and when I fret certain chords the edge of the neck drills down into the base of my index finger. Over time it feels like it results in a deep bruise and hurts more than I want to admit. Again, just overuse. It gets better when I put the guitar down for a few days (which I hate doing).
Even with proper techique (thumb behind the neck), playing the guitar is not very ergonomically friendly anyway.
Thanks for the replies, everyone.
@christopaul: Yep, you're right about use of the thumb. I'm one of those who learned bad technique early. I hold the neck like a baseball bat instead of thumb behind, so I often use my thumb on the low E for a number of different fingerings because otherwise it gets in the way. ;-) I've never used it to mute the A, but I'll start practicing it and see how it works out. The bummer of it is that while I'm pretty good with my thumb, you can probably guess that I really struggle with barre chords. I guess it pays to be adept at both (practice makes versatility, right?).
@jerome: He played the open A. This is what I thought was weird. In fact, if I remember correctly, he fretted the low E with his index finger and the high E with his middle finger. I thought it was pretty sloppy, but I'm not a guitar teacher, and I thought, well, maybe the teacher knows something I don't. Strike that -- he probably knows a great many things about the guitar that I don't. But still . . .
@stonebridge: I agree. The B is still in there, which is why I assumed that 3x0003 meant to mute the A string. I'm not sure what you mean by "muddy", but it's probably something I'll have to hear to understand.
Brent:
If you haven't seen this yet, you should save it to your favorites.
http://theguitarresource.com/guitar-chord-finder/
Some of the guys on this forum turned me onto it and I've used it many times.
-Nom
Hey, gang:
A young friend of mine is taking guitar lessons and recently I asked him to show me a G-chord on his guitar. When he did, he fretted the high and low E's on the 3rd fret and left the A string open.
Weird, thought I. A basic G (at least to me and probably most of you) is 320003.
He said that's how his instructor told him to do it. I didn't comment, other than to say, "good job".
???
It brought to mind a chord diagram I saw a while back in a songbook where a G was shown as 3x0003. I don't know how you'd play that, unless the idea is to mute the A string, but if you're going to mute it, why not just fret it to a B?
I guess what I'm saying is that to me it makes no sense to do either one of these:
- play the open A as part of a G chord,
- omit (or mute) the A string when it could easily be fretted to a B.
What gives? Ideas?
-Nom
Doug:
Thanks for the reply and the information.
The engineer in me has to ask: Any idea why, if a "+" means augmented, diminished isn't designated by a "-" (minus)?
Astro
I don't know that I can actually play 20 songs yet, but here are the ones I'm working hardest to learn:
Give a Little Bit (Supertramp)
Mr. Jones (Counting Crows)
Gentle on My Mind (Glen Campbell)
Don't Look Back in Anger (Oasis)
Angry American (Toby Keith)
Hotel California (Eagles - got the chords and strumming down; trying to pick it)
To Make You Feel My Love (Dylan / G Brooks / T Yearwood)
City of New Orleans (Willie Nelson's version)
I Saw The Light (Todd Rundgren)
I'm No Superman (Lazlo Bane)
If I Fell (Beatles)
Kiss Me (Sixpence None the Richer)
Mary's Prayer (Danny Wilson)
More Than Words (Extreme - again, learning to pick it the way Nuno Bettencourt does)
One Toke Over The Line (Brewer and Shipley)
Overkill (Colin Hay's acoustic version)
Hey, all. The rookie is back with another question.
I picked up some music recently (in a published book) and saw some notation that I've not seen before and I'm hoping you can tell me what it means.
The song is "Crazy" (Patsy Cline) and the version I have is written in G. There are two chords in it that are unusual:
G#o7, shown as XX0101 (see side note below)
and
C#o7, shown as XX2323
The "o"'s in front of the 7's are actually superscripts such that they look like degree symbols (as in degrees F or C), but I don't know how to show that here.
Side note: The chord finder shows this as Do7 (not G#), so my music may have a typo.
Anyway, two questions:
1. What does the degree symbol mean?
2. Which is right, the music or the chord finder?
Thanks.
'nomikal
Thanks very much to both of you.
Ark: I agree with marcalan, that's a great resource. Thanks for sharing.
Stone: Good point about the context. The chord is played between an Em and an Em7, so the best name for it in that context would be an Em#7.
Thanks again.
Hi all, first time poster. Love the site.
I'm a rank amateur guitar player, and I don't read music, but I assume this section of the forum is where this type of question belongs.
Can someone please ID this chord for me?
E = 0
A = 2
D = 1
G = 0
B = 0
e = 0
Basically, it's an Em with a D# instead of an E on the D string.
Thanks loads.
Astronomikal
Guitar chord forum - chordie → Posts by Astronomikal
