1 Reply by tfsails

(31 replies, posted in Acoustic)

I cut my performing teeth with the belief that if you don't have the song memorized you shouldn't play it.  I've cheated on that many, many times.  I'd rather have it all memorized but I don't.  I can play a helluva lot more songs than I have the words memorized to, so I'll make a sheet with the words.  Only problem is, I don't own a music stand.   That's ok--I'm not gigging regularly, just a weekly open mic night.

Being the dirty old man I am, I try to find a really cute chick in the audience and sing to her.   This gigging thing is really fun and really easy when you have the audience engaged.  When the audience is ignoring you, as happens regularly in a bar setting, you just have to suck it up and bust your way through it.   That's when gigging is hard--very hard.

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2 Reply by tfsails

(18 replies, posted in Acoustic)

With a properly-tuned guitar, after you learn a few chords (you also need to learn the minors and sevenths of those chords) you'll be able to put on your favorite CD and play along with it.  Or at least be able to figure out most of it.  This is one of my favorite ways to entertain myself.  I'll take a CD, put it on, get my axe out, and play along with the CD.  The key here is having a properly-tuned guitar and practice, practice, practice.

Be aware though, that some acts "bend" their songs up or down and make them impossible to play with a "properly tuned" guitar.  I don't know why they do this, but they do.  An example is Tom Petty's "Last Dance With Mary Jane".  Proper chords for that song are Am, G, D, with the chorus being Em and A.  Do this against the song and it'll sound horrible.  Bending was done much more in the Sixties and Seventies than now, I think.   We just have to live with it and not get discouraged.

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3 Reply by tfsails

(35 replies, posted in Acoustic)

I don't own an Ovation, but I've played my buddy's at his gigs before.  I've got a nice, round pot belly and I find that the round-backed Ovation doesn't stay in place as well as my Martin does.  I have to say that I've never played his guitar sitting down so I don't know how it would do in that situation.  I don't know the model number but his is black without the traditional soundhole but rather several smaller soundholes in the upper bout.  It's a sweet player, though, as far as the feel of playing it, and it has really good projection plugged in.

My advice to the OP would also be to go out and play a bunch of them and buy the one that chooses you.  You'll know it when it does.

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4 Reply by tfsails

(2 replies, posted in Electric)

It's either two guitars at that point or an overdub.  One's playing the chordage and the other's playing the muted strings.  Interesting piece of music, from what I heard of it...

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5 Reply by tfsails

(2 replies, posted in Acoustic)

Do you mean for a piano keyboard?

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6 Reply by tfsails

(9 replies, posted in Electric)

I hate to sound like a broken record, but I will:  Practice, practice, practice!  It will eventually come to you. We all had this same problem when we were learning.  I've been at it for 44 years now, and I still have that problem sometimes.  Practice, practice, practice!

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7 Reply by tfsails

(57 replies, posted in Acoustic)

A trick I used learning barre chords was just what Gabby suggests.  I started playing the E, Am. and A open chords using only my middle, ring, and pinky fingers.  This led me to build up the muscle memory with those fingers.  After that, it was relatively easy to use the index finger to add the barre. 

An extra advantage to using the last three fingers is that you can alternate fingerings to give your hand a rest during a song. 

If I had it to do over again, I'd learn on an acoustic before going to an electric guitar (which is the way I learned).  The action on acoustics is generally higher than electrics, so chords are more difficult to play.  In fact, IMHO an acoustic is harder to play than an electric--period.  I'd much rather go from hard to easy than from easy to hard.

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8 Reply by tfsails

(27 replies, posted in Acoustic)

I don't think anybody likes the sound of their own voice.  I sure as hell don't.  I once recorded myself singing "Margaritaville" at my bandmate's studio.  We started listening to it and it sounded perfectly horrible.  Then we got to talking about something entirely different while the song was playing and a minute or two later I realized that it was blending into the background and was totally unremarkable.  "Unremarkable" as in not horribly bad and not horribly good--that told me that my singing was at least passable and not to worry about it. Since then, I haven't worried about it.

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9 Reply by tfsails

(275 replies, posted in Electric)

I'm pushing 61 mighty hard these days.  I started playing one brother's guitar using the other brother's 300-page thick book of Beatles sheet music when I was 16 and couldn't go swimming due to swimmer's ear during the summer of 1966.  I will continue to play as long as I'm able.  Fortunately, this fat, ugly, & bald-headed body of mine works so I'm in pretty good shape--should be able for quite some time.

I just got a Fender Telecaster--using it to finally learn how to play some lead.  I almost have "Money for Nothing" down.  Still only own two guitars--the Tele and a Sigma DM-2 acoustic/electric.

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10 Reply by tfsails

(5 replies, posted in Acoustic)

Since I'm such a lousy lead guitarist, I have learned to finger the chords and then pick several individual strings in the chord to somewhat give the effect of some lead licks.  What I see in your picking is pretty much that you're hitting all six strings all the time with every stroke.  This is not uncommon for the "less experienced" guitar players.  It's not easy to hit only the strings you want to hit, especially when you're standing up in front of a crowd, but it can be done.  Practice! Practice! Practice!

A pet peeve of mine about my own playing is that I have a tendency to strum one unfingered beat when changing chords.  I've worked very hard to eliminate that with some success.  I didn't really hear you doing that, but wanted to make you aware of it.  I hear it a lot from other guitarists.

Keep practicing, and keep up the gutsy work.  Before you know it you'll be doing that song just fine.  Jcellini was right--get the chord changes right and get the muscle memory while going slower.  After you do, you can speed it up as fast as your pick hand can go.

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11 Reply by tfsails

(14 replies, posted in Acoustic)

I think a lefty has to adapt more to the right-handed world than does a righty.  When I started playing guitar the only left-handed guitar I was aware of was the bass Paul McCartney played in the Beatles.  There was no choice: play righty or don't play.  But, I also bat and play golf (assuming you call what I do "playing golf") right-handed.  I'm left-handed but almost ambidextrous.  I've tried picking a lefty guitar but it just doesn't work for me at all.

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12 Reply by tfsails

(4 replies, posted in Acoustic)

Using a capo and changing the fingering also changes the voice of the guitar and can really add some zing to the song your'e playing.  Or, if you have two guitars, one playing normally and one capo'd up, it can add depth to the song.

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13 Reply by tfsails

(8 replies, posted in Electric)

I hope you enjoy yours as much as I'm enjoying mine!

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14 Reply by tfsails

(20 replies, posted in Electric)

Man!  Those are some good Tele players!  I can see I have a LONG way to go to get even halfway there.  The other night I played along with the Eagles' Farewell Tour #1 DVD, using both the Tele and my acoustic in electric mode, and discovered that when my left fingers get tired I revert back to old habits (squeezing the Tele too hard) and it starts sounding worse.  Gotta break the old habits.  On the other hand, I'm learning that maybe I didn't have to squeeze the acoustic quite as hard as I've been doing in the past.  I must be a slow learner...I've only been playing the guitar since 1966!  Practice, practice, practice!

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15 Reply by tfsails

(20 replies, posted in Electric)

Wow!  I had no idea this axe was gonna be so EASY to play!  I don't mean easy as in it made me another Chet Atkins overnight.  No, not at all!.  I mean that fingering chords on it and playing what tunes I know up the neck are a hell of a lot easier on the Tele than on the Sigma.  I gotta watch it or I'm gonna really get spoiled.

Thanks to all who gave me advice on playing this thing and what kind of pedals to get.  It kind of agrees with what my sons (one owns 12 guitars, the other nine) have told me.

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16 Reply by tfsails

(20 replies, posted in Electric)

From what little I've played it today, it seems to work better if I don't squeeze the strings as hard as I do on the acoustic.  That's gonna take some un-learning to get the hang of it, but I'm on the way.  It's nice watching football and strumming it with no amp and being able to hear both the guitar and the game.

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17 Topic by tfsails

(20 replies, posted in Electric)

At the age of 60, I just bought my first electric guitar--a Standard Telecaster.  All I have at the moment is a small practice amp for it, but when I got it home and started playing it, it sounded pretty bad.  My question is: it plays quite differently from my acoustic guitar, but I get the impression that if I keep working on it I'll soon learn to play it.  Has this been the experience of more accomplished Tele players in here?  Also, any suggestions on what kind of pedals to get?

I got it because I want to learn how to play some lead and thought the Tele had the tones I wanted more than the Strat.

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