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I watched the luge accident.  It was awful.  I knew as soon as I saw it that the kid was dead.   He came off the luge at the bottom of the run going about 130kmh, hit a pole, and came to a complete stop almost instantly.   It reminded me of Dale Earnhart's fatal accident.   All that speed and no where to scrub off the energy.

Tragic.

Fundamentally that's it.   The reason it works is because of the major scale.

If you look at C major, it's  C D E F G A B C

Take a look at the notes.   The F is the fourth note and the G is the fifth note.   When we refer to the IV or the V, that's what we mean.   The circle lets us find the IV and the V easily, for any scale.   Simply pick the root, and the next note in a clockwise direction is the V, and the note behind it is the IV.

G, for example.

G A B C D E F# G

Check it out on the wheel, and see it work!

As you work into it, you'll find that *every* note is available this way.  Walk three over, and you'll find the VI, for example, which will give you the relative minor.  It's a handy thing to have.

It is *exactly* this kind of response that drives me to do the things I do.   It makes every minute I put into this worth while.   

Your fingers are going to hurt no matter how your rig is set up.  It's a simple fact of life.   The 1st order of business for anyone learning to play is to get rid of their monkey hands, and turn them into player's hands.  That hurts, and requires dedicated practice.   A difference of 3/32 of an inch isn't going to mean a whole lot in that regard.

I know guys that carry extra saddles in their kit and change them out with every gig in order to compensate for temperature, humidity, and other environmental factors that can effect the neck.   But these are dudes that have been playing for years, and understand what that means, and how it effects their playing.   We are not such people.   What I'm hearing you say is that "I can't practice effectively because my guitar isn't set up perfectly."  And I simply don't believe that.   You can't practice effectively because you're not practicing enough, as is common with new players.

Having a well set up instrument is nice.  But unless it's *seriously* mangled, it's going to be just fine for your needs.   The old golf adage of "It's not the arrow, it's the Indian" is just as true with guitars.   You could run out and spend $5,000 on a perfectly set up Martin or Taylor, and you are still going to have sore hands, you are still going to struggle to fret properly, and you are still going to sound like a n00b.  An experienced player could pick up your rig right now, and they'd sound like they knew what they were doing.   

I have a Tak I'm working on that had the nut come lose and rotate under the strings.  The result was an action at the nut that was more akin to a dobro than a guitar.  But it was playable, even if it wasn't the greatest feeling neck in the world.   A bad setup sucks, but it's not the end of the world, and it shouldn't stop you from practicing.

I tell new students the following when they tell me their hands hurt.

"Your hands hurt?  Your hands don't hurt enough!"

You don't have to be a masochist to play, but it helps. 

Bars full of singing Irishmen is one of the best things about the place.   A sing/song is a traditional aspect of the society.    I knew I loved the place when I walked into a packed pub and 300 people were singing "I would walk 500 miles...." at the top of their lungs. 

Study your 7's and extended 7ths (9th, 11th, and 13ths) and you'll be fine.  Jazz is a great way to expand your chord vocabulary.

I always try to find out what retail is for a new one.

http://www.google.com/products?q=Simon+ … mp;show=dd

I don't know if you can find your guitar in there, but it's a good place to start.

"Strumming pattern" doesn't really have any musical meaning.    Rhythm, tempo, and dynamics do.  Chord charts (and tablature in general) don't have a good way to describe those things.

That is, for any given rhythm, there are usually a couple of ways you can strum it.   Understanding how standard notation describes rhythm is a great thing to know, as it can accurately describe the rhythm that the song needs.  It's up to you as a musician to come up with a strumming pattern that matches that.

Yeah, then he's not playing G.

This is one of the things I don't like about "rote" teaching techniques, and why I think it's so critical to lay down a foundation of basic theory as early as possible.   Just a little bit of theory, and this kid could have figured it out on his own that he wasn't playing what he thought he was playing.  "Yeah, that's a D, but *why* is it a D, and find me two other D's on the fretboard.

Well, I would apply Occam's razor, and guess that it was simply a typo. 

I'm not sure what you mean by "old chord theory," though.  Diatonic scales and their related chords go back at least to the 1600's.   

The sus vs add thing still won't work.  In a sus chord, there is no 3rd at all.  In an add chord, there is.  It would be entirely appropriate to play Amadd4 (or 11, if you like), but there is no such thing as AmsusX, or A major sus 4, either.   The 3rd is where the major/minor quality comes from.  So a sus chord is neither major or minor.   Amsus4 to Amadd11 is still more than just moving the D up an octave, as you add the 3rd as well.   Does that make sense?

Yep.  This is how you would notate an inversion, which is what this is.