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Hi Zurf,

I've noticed the same problem, especially with Barre chords of the A minor shape. The finger bends at the knuckle and slips off the string.

I'm starting to think it might be some kind of double jointing thing. I have'nt a clue what to do about it to be honest.
Has anyone else noticed this?

Shane

Needle and damage done - Neil young - sounds harder than it actually is
The Blower's Daughter - Damien Rice -  open easy strum and sounds very nice. Cannonballs's great too.

Shane

I've had a tanglewood for a few years now and I'm very happy with it. Couldnt tell you the model but it is spruce and mahogany one piece dreadnought body.

Compare with my first acoustic - a yamaha - it is more difficult to barre chords but the sound is much better, it has a very good deep strong yet mellow sound, so much so that I often use very light picks so that I can hear my own voice!
It's lovely to play finger style on.
Its a good guitar to get your hand strength up to speed on - I picked up a yamaha recently the comparison was striking. It was like playing a toy guitar in comparison. Stick with it, Tanglewoods are lovely guitars and they reward patience!

Shane

Mrjay I know what you mean about Nick Drake.
I love his music but practically all his songs I want to learn are in awkward tunings (From the morning, parasite, place to be)
I'm very reluctant to tune up the B or high E string for fear of snapping them.
You can do Northern Sky and river man in normal tuning - the latter is especially nice (if you can get the rhythm down).

Shane

Good question - I have a few:

"Cannonball" by Damian Rice - still my favourite song to play
"Suzanne" by Leonard Cohen - a finger picking pattern I found here
"If you could read my mind "by Gordon Lightfoot - ditto
"Landslide" by Fleetwood Mac - worked for literally years on this one

I would love to be able to do
"Layla" - the unplugged one tabbed here.
"Here comes the sun"- Beatles

..and any one of many songs by the incredible Nick Drake.

Shane

"Horse with no name" by America has only two chords..

There are ways of cheating with the "B" chord! If you do an "A" shape on the fourth fret and hold down the high "E" string on the second fret with your index finger you get a kind of "B Lite" - you dont get the bass note of the chord but it sounds reasonable enough. Make sure you only strum the firstfour strings though!
Alternatively you can train the pad of your little finger to fret the D,G and B strings on the fourth fret and hold down the A string on the second fret with your index finger. This is trickier but you get the bass note which makes it a bit more genuine! Make sure you mute the high "E" string though (this usually happen anyway given the hand position).

You could also do another voicing of "B" - using the "E" shape barred on the 7th fret. Takes practice but it's still easier than the usual B barred on the 2nd fret!

Shane

I use one of two ways , depending on whether I really need the bass note in the chord.
The first way is as already set out above - do an "A" shape third fret and bar the high E string first fret, avoiding the low E and A strings.
Other way is where you need the bass note - do an A shape again but bar the A string second fret and deaden the high E string (this happens automatically in my experience).
If you have a flexible little finger joint you can practice flattening the top of your little finger over the strings on the third fret. gets easier after some practice.
I cant do the full barre either so I understand your frustration. Horrible, horrible chord. And B flat is even worse!

Shane

Hi John,

I have a Tanglewood too and have used both martin and D'addario strings on it, mainly because they were the most convenient to get. Although I cant say there was any huge difference between them, If I were to give advice on  it I'd say go for the coated strings, the more mellow sounding ones, whatever they are called (cant remember off the top of my head) . I think mellow suits this guitar better. But again it depends what you are doing with it - finger picking or playing loud in front of a crowd and so on.

Tanglewoods rule by the way - good choice!

Shane

B flat .... the chord from hell.

Shane

Hi,

I think song this works well in a 3 time strum, ie, down, down, up, down , up, down, reasonably fast.

Shane