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Guitar chord forum - chordie → Posts by James McCormick
Yes - I have a nice dulcimer that my wife bought for me, but I have never done much with it. It is a shame since it is a very nice instrument made a local gentleman who has since passed away.
Nevermoore, can you advise as to any good web resources for dulcimer beginners? I know there are many different tuning and stringing options. What are some good free sites with basics?
Help - James
Hi gitaardocphil. Native American (First Nations) music is alive and well.
However, the music (drumming & chanting) is inseperable from the dancing and sacred/spiritual expression that go along with it. The various tribal nations have in recent decades taken great pride in their unique heritages and celebrate their sacred traditions.
I have had the pleasure of experiencing some of the celebrations of the Choctaw nation here in Mississippi. The drummers/singers/dancers resplendent in beautiful regalia.
I also saw a group of Inuit dancers 'welcome' a US Navy ship to the port of Juneau Alaska in the summer of 1982. Seems that there had been a tragic run-in between the US Navy and the Inuits back in the days of the Alaska Gold Rush. A Navy patrol boat blasted an Inuit village into oblivion. Now, whenever a Navy ship comes to the port, the Inuit 'welcome' them at the dock with extensive drumming/chanting/dancing. The sailors had to wait on deck of the ship for a very long time while the Inuit delegation made their dance back and forth along the pier. When the dance was done, they just stopped and walked away without looking back.
There is a whole lot about this musical/sacred tradition that I do not fully understand, but I love it. Very powerful stuff.
Because the music, singing, and dancing are all inseparable it is hard to say just how just the music itself has influenced contemporary US music. James
Very much enjoyed it, Jeff! Are the lyrics and chords here at chordie? Would like to give it a wang and a warble myself. James
edit: Nevermind - just saw the song . . . maybe I should look more closely next time. I shall now proceed to wang and warble!
jimp1, Congratulations for taking the dive into creating music! This forum is a great place to find help, advice, encouragement, and friends.
Woody Guthrie songs are a great place to start honing your skills since they are very singable/playable. You can probably find alot of his music and similar Folk/Americana songs at your local library system. Check out their holdings because tons of folk collections have been published over the years.
Don't be shy about asking a librarian for help, you might find some real dusty treasures waiting for you on the shelves. The internet is one great resource, but certainly not the only resource. If you are lucky, your library may have issues of a magazine entitled "Sing Out!" which is full of folk music articles, songsheets, and other goodies. James
Hi jimp1 and welcome the chordie!
Couldn't find full lyrics and chords together for this great old classic, but did find a YouTube vid that clearly shows the chord changes:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ysfko8dBCU
Hi arkady - If I understand your question correctly, you want to move a Songwriting Forum song into your songbook? It is possible, but it is only a work-around method rather than a direct path.
Here is how:
You will 'edit' the forum song into the body of a song that is already in your songbook.
1. Pick a 'victim song' in your personal songbook, one that you can change into the Songwriting Forum song.
2. Copy the forum song's lyrics and chords and title and subtitle.
3. Go to your songbook and open the 'victim song' using the green 'edit' button at the end of it's listing.
4. Now, in the editing pane (the upper one) just zap everything in the victim song EXCEPT it's {t:title} and {st:subtitle} lines. If you delete these lines, the index will no longer recognize the page - so leave those lines intact and delete everything else.
5. Now, just paste the forum song into the edit pane just below the victim song's title and subtitle. Change the forum song's title and subtitle lines into 'comment' lines: {c:title} and {c:subtitle}.
6. Hit the 'save' button between the panes. The forum song is now in your songbook, however it is listed there under the title and subtitle of your selected victim song.
7. You can return to your songbook now and open the forum song now using the regular method, transpose, print, etc.
8. The forum songs should remain in your private songbook - don't publish that songbook, otherwise it would be the end of civilization as we know it!
Like I said, this method is just a work-around . . . but it yields a nice result. Let me know it you have any problems. James
Here is a tab - can't vouch for it's accuracy, but the source site seems to be quite impressive, so it is probably good to go:
http://www.voes.be/tab/johnfogerty_walk … icane.html
Hope this helps. James
Just checked the 'Songs' index and found at least 10 different listings for "Classical Gas".
Didn't look through all the choices, but there seems to be a variety of tab styles represented and you should be able to find one to suit your purposes.
Actually, the piece was not composed by Clapton (although he did record it).
Hi pappy and welcome to the chordie forum!
Lots of songs have "chaff" that is unnecessary and that can be edited out. About the only thing that cannot be changed (as far as I can figure out) are the letters of the song's title and subtitle. Seems that if you alter the spelling, the index can no longer locate the song - capital and lower-case letters can be altered, but not the letters themselves.
Yes, the {sot} and {eot} codes mean start and end of text. Usually, these codes are merely artifacts from the source site where chordie found the song. Usually, you can delete these codes without any ill effect.
Likewise, you will often see many lines of stuff that start with '#' and these lines can also be zapped. Occasionally, these lines may contain useful information and by deleting the '#' you can make the line visible.
Also, many songs have extra blank lines that can be eliminated to help them print more concisely. I have run across songs that have more 'junk' than song . . . once you play around with the edit feature, it gets easier and easier to improve a song's layout and content.
Some users copy the 'raw' songs into a text editor and make their changes there so they can work offline. I prefer to do my editing in chordie so that I can hit the 'save' button and see how my changes affect the layout.
If you can reply and include a link to a particular song that is giving you trouble I can take a look and maybe give more specific advice. James
I don't have a friend named Joni Mitchell, but I do have 2 resources for you:
http://www.songtrellis.com/sounds/viewer$3132
http://www.guntheranderson.com/v/data/twisted.htm
Both of these sites are good internet.
Songtrellis deconstructs songs down to the bare essentials of just the chord changes. It is amazing how many seemingly different songs share the same essential musical DNA.
Gunther Anderson's site is a labor of love containing loads of stuff you might not find anywhere else. Although he employs a somewhat unusual notation form, he also provides simple instructions for how to decipher the notation.
Great song - I didn't realize that she did not write it until now. Apparently, it is one of the few cover songs she ever recorded. James
Interesting question arkady . . .
I think we all recieve the same stimuli, but have a unique interpretation of it -
I have always wondered why certain rhythms 'feel' the way they do - what is it about 3/4 or 6/8 time that makes them feel so different than 4/4 or 2/4?
Is it a matter of conditioning or do these patterns of pulses connect to some fundamentally different primal elements within our brains?
Likewise, why do major and minor chords convey such different feels?
Why do particular sets of intervals (chords) seem to 'fit' with others?
In the Western cultures, we are conditioned to expect music to use our chromatic (1/2 steps between notes) scales. Other cultures (Middle Eastern, some Asian) use quarter-tone scales which seem very odd to our ears.
I think what all these questions are getting at is "Why is music appealing to human beings?" Why do we seem to need it or want it?
All interesting stuff to ponder . . .
'Capo 4' means to put a capo across the 4th frets. This merely shortens the string length and raises the tone of your guitar by two whole steps (4 half steps). You then play the same chords above the capo and they sound that much higher. Capos are typically used to alter the key of a song and make it easier to sing it in an more comfortable key.
I looked at the two version of 'Who Am I' here on chordie and did not see any indication that the guitar should be retuned to a non-standard tuning. Realize that songs out on the net have been tabbed or transcribed by people doing their best to figure out a song . . . sometimes there are all sorts of misunderstandings or mistakes on what you find.
Regarding the dark circles - if you mean the chord grids, then that merely indicates where each string should be fretted.
Hope this helps. James
Ok fender5190, now I see what you wondering about. Looks to me like the tabber is indicating you should play on only the top two strings here (B and e).
The tuning is standard (EADGBe) so playing all the strings would yield a rather discordant result. If the song used some sort of open tuning, that would have been detailed in the string names. Also, there is not anything to indicate a typical chord. Chords are usually noted with all the relevant fret numbers in a vertical line (or sometimes in parentheses above the tabs).
Since the fret numbers are slightly misaligned here, I would infer that you are to play the notes slightly apart (rather than simultaneously). This looks like some kind of descending melodic riff.
The thing about tabs (and simple chord grids) is that they really only make sense when you already know what the song sounds like. Unlike formal musical notation that can convey tone, tempo, attack, and other subtleties - tabs and chords can only impart a very rough interpretion which relies largely on the player's familiarity with the song to fill in the gaps.
Does all this make more sense now? James
Yep - jets60 is correct. Great song from a tremendously talented songwriter. If you are not familiar with John Prine's work, go to YouTube and you will find plenty of vids.
Prine's artistry is in telling stories and sketching unforgetable portaits of people and places. Great stuff that is not complex musically, but is rich in lyrical imagery, subtle humor, and dazzling insight.
Have fun learning this song and you will then probably want to try some of Prine's other stuff. As you might guess, I am a big fan of Prine's music. James
Adolescence is a time of heart-breaking anxiety. Kids want to be accepted and respected. They want to be individuals, but have not yet acquired the life experience to be comfortable with their individuality. The 'cool' ones are just as terrified and self-conscious as all the other kids - but they are just better at swaggering about and pretending not to be afraid.
All the advice above about finding something you love to do and then learning to do it well is excellent. Also, the advice about conducting yourself in a manner that shows you have self respect. So, if guitar appeals to you then focus your intellect upon learning as much as you can about music in general and guitar in particular.
Non-musicians and non-artists find it very easy to deride people who chose to pursue the expressive arts (music, theater, art, poetry, literature, etc.). However, you will eventually find other persons who share a passion for creating. Creative people are few and far between, so don't expect everyone to understand your passion - just do what you do well, and you will find kindred spirits. James
daddycool, I apologize for the polysyllabic verbiage utilizing obscure vocabulary and arcane colloquialisms. Forthwith, I shall endeavor to constrain my eloquence and temper my expostulations! James :^)
Hi fender5190 and welcome to chordie. I wnat to help, but am unsure exactly what you are looking at.
Perhaps you are looking at some 'tabs' that show which fret of which string to play. In that case, the 0 means play an open string. Generally, with tabs you will play the strings with numbers. Google 'how to read guitar tabs' for lots more info on this topic. Tabs are great for showing riffs and licks and embellishments, but some people don't like to use them.
Or, perhaps you are looking at the chord grids that appear on most song pages. The 0 means play an open string. The x means don't play that string (or mute it). The dots show which frets to hold on which strings. A number off to the left of the grid (like 5) means start on the 5th fret with the fingering. Go the 'Resources' page (see the tabs right below the chordie logo) for a very complete chord chart. Clicking on the individual chords here will also show you alternative fingerings for the chords.
Hope this helps. Let me know. James
You're welcome sanguine - wonder why the email didn't work? James
Thanks, Jerome & arkady - glad you can dig it!
I expect a visit from Homeland Security any day now.
Arkady, the only reason I can finish so many songs is that I start so many and play with them every day. This one 'fell together' from some scribblings and random rants from my notebook.
So, don't feel like you have to finish one song before starting another. Get ideas down when you have them and scribble, scribble, scribble. Some ideas will lay dormant and others will progress quickly to completion. Don't let one idea get you bogged down - you can always come back to it.
Work with your ideas every day. Work when your feel like it, and work especially when you don't feel like it. At least that's what works for me. Look forward to seeing your creations when you are ready to share. James
Will, I'm sorry you don't understand it - but since it is satire regarding American politics, I really wouldn't expect a loyal subject of Her Majesty the Queen to appreciate all the references.
Suffice it to say that it is just a song by someone who disagrees with many of the policies of the current American president. I like the 12-bar blues format since it provides a nice template for lyrics - in fact, come to think of it I have posted several political commentaries in recent months that utilize the 12-bar structure . . . maybe I'm getting in a musical rut? James
Carl Rove is a political operative and long-time friend to President George W. Bush. Although Rove has long been associated with a wide variety of questionable campaign tactics and behind-the-scenes skullduggery, Mr. Rove continues to hold considerable influence within the present American administration. So, here is a little political satire dedicated to the pResident:
Hi jealous guy - There are several sites offering lessons, tips, and other features. Go to Google and search 'bass lessons' - lots to look at and pick from. Bass is a great instrument. A knowledgable bassist can turn a blah band into a powerhouse. James
The spam seems to come in waves. Some days none, and then some days tons. Forum moderators and administrators ban the ISPs and delete spam as soon as possible. We are all volunteers and do our best to keep the crud out - but we can't monitor every minute.
Reporting spam really helps get rid of it quickly - thanks for trying to help. Sorry you were offended by the crud. James
#1 definately - It is always a pleasure to see an artist performing their creations. Judging from the comments on YouTube, this song is a phenomenon. Apparently, I'm not swimming in that current of the mainstream because this is the first I have heard of it.
Great song - would like to hear more by this guy because he has something to say and he says it with real verve. James
Tons of Uncle Tupelo here (including "Acuff Rose"):
http://www.gumbopages.com/music/uncle-t … f.rose.txt
Have Fun! James
Guitar chord forum - chordie → Posts by James McCormick
