[jorgemac]

Hey Matt, I’ve been through it a few times and each time the exercises get easier. I just did chapter 6 exercises while watching football today and came to the realization that those exercises did more to allow me to stretch my pinky that almost anything else I tried in the past. Hope it helps you understand the fret board a little better. If u are dazed and confused the 1st time through just start it again as soon as you can are comfortable with it. I usually go through it in an afternoon, a couple of times a year, now and always pick up some little tidbit that I missed before.

[jorgemac]

Gotcha, Every one of us will swear that we are playing the very best string available and each of us know we are absolutely correct in our string judgement and ya know, we are…

[jorgemac]

Pete I agree with you as I haven’t seen any daily/weekly lesson involving public domain songs. I think we study a wide variety of popular music from artist’s that I, mostly, have admired. I give Tony credit for evolving the song selections from the sites beginning roots where there may have been more of a bluegrass or country feel to the songs. I actually would be fine with some more of that. I would even tackle a simple classical piece just to change things up.

Another thing to mention is if you play a 1, 4, 5 and relative minor progression you are not required to use the same version of those chords. I use minors, sus, dominant and diminished chord tones all the time just to give progressions some more texture and tones in place of major chord tones all the time. I take our daily lessons and change them every day as anyone who follows my comments knows. We just played the Jimi Chord on Friday. hard to find a better chord progression than that, even if it is a minor dominant 7th with an added flat 11th tone. That definitely isn’t boring. If all I had were potatoes to eat I would be bored but if those potatoes are au grat’n then we are flying high.

[jorgemac]

One of my many guitar teaching books is Fret Board Freedom by Troy Nelson. It is set up like our lessons where you play a lick a day but it has 7 days a week lesson and the same lick, same note, are played in different positions on the fret board. It is set up to be 1 lesson a day for a year.

It does help you recognize that there are different positions on fret board that you can find the same notes to play the exact same lick that your started Playing on Monday. It does use the caged system to help explain how you can find all of these positions. It was very interesting and I have revisited the course probably once a year to just brush up on different lick shapes.

[jorgemac]

I strung the Santa Cruz strings up on my all mahogany larrivee Custom -03 and wasn’t excited about the tone. All of us know each guitar either likes or dislikes the string set you put on. It’s like they(the guitars) have their own personality can reject or really dig a set of strings. Guitars seem to have their own personality and can accept or reject that “special” new string set you know will work wonders on your guitar. So strange.

[jorgemac]

Hey Marty,

welcome and hope you learn to enjoy this site as much as so of us O.G.’s do. If you are new to guitar you will want to start out with a set of strings that you can learn to hold down next to the frets that don’t discourage you to think this is too hard and you stop practicing. Start out with a fairly light gauge string. 10’s or 11’s. You are going to get blisters, just a rite of passage, and start to form calluses. At the early learning stages the brand isn’t real important until you start to form an “ear” for guitar tone.

The Yamaha FS or FG 800 is a good 1st guitar. If you can afford to have a set up done by a local guitar tech. It will help you progress faster. as you will not be fighting the guitar, but learning to play the guitar. Make sure he shows you how to string up your own guitar so you don’t have to pay extra every time you change strings.

It is like a zen thing to me and I change strings at least once a month, but I’m weird. Most people go a lot longer that that between string changes.

Do some google research on guitar strings. Every guitar picker will swear to you that there brand is the best string to buy. I string all of my steel string guitar with D’addario XT strings and they are the best . Just saying. Good luck

[jorgemac]

Good question. I think you would want to have a clean pick attack. No interference from your fingers. Because I use the index and middle fingers to hold the pick on the backside I did have to make some adjustments to have a clean attack angle, The said I sometimes do allow the middle fingernail to stroke some of the downstrokes just to achieve a different tone when striking the strings. I’ve worked on this especially when muting strings by lifting the fret fingers up slightly so that I achieve that muted string tone.

So If you are allowing the finger to touch the string and it isn’t affecting your tone you are cool. I think I would make adjustments and see what kind of tones you can put together by adjusting that finger. You might invent a new guitar tone/technique. Who knows.

[jorgemac]

Hey Skyman, I agree that less is moh bettah(Hawaiian saying) when exposing less of the pick. It seems to be easier to control with only a small portion of the pick used to strike the strings. I was just practicing muting and it is much easier to use just the middle fingernail down stroke if the pick doesn’t get in the way, less pick exposed means less chance for a muting error.

[jorgemac]

On the home page for todays challenge you can bring up previous lessons by using the previous lessons calendar located below the start of today’s lesson.

[jorgemac]

Pete, the Taylor 214ce-N Nylon-string Acoustic-electric Guitar is supposed to be a good choice for a starter Nylon string guitar . The new ones are $900, take your time and Look for a used one.

[jorgemac]

That was just…special. Ol John P is smiling somewhere and laughing and enjoying your take on his song. Thanks

[jorgemac]

The number refers to the String thickness or string gauge. The higher the numbers the heaver gauge the strings are. Since you usually play with smaller bodied guitars you might think of using a lighter gauge. 11/53 or even 10/48. I usually play with 12/53 or 12.5/53 and change my strings probably once a month. That gauge is still considered light gauge by some guitar string manufacturer’s . The lighter gauge strings, 10/48 or 11/53 Don’t have as strong of a tone as the 12/53’s and do sound OK on the smaller bodied guitars.

The smaller gauge string can be easier on fingering positions for people with hand issues. If you have a guitar tuner you might just take the strings down a note to Treble to Bass string tuning position D, A, F, C, G, D tuning . The strings will not have as much string tension so this will be easier to finger. See if it helps you be more comfortable when practicing using your 12/53 strings. As you basically play guitar for and by yourself you can use the same chord fingers you always use but will not have as much tension on the chord fingering positions.

The coated strings last longer and do not lose tone as fast as regular strings, but do cost more. I have one parlor and also a mini Taylor that I play quite often but I do have them strung up to 12/53. I just like the tone better with the heavier gauge and don’t have arthritis or any other hand issues. As I have said on other threads I do exercise regularly with the therapeutic squeeze ball and the Chinese steel balls that Loraine suggested to me. She says they have helped here with co-ordination and strength. It was a struggle to get used to the Steel ball exercises but I do use them regularly.

[jorgemac]

Hey Pete, first just address me as Mac, that is what family and friends call me. Whatever floats your boat is the way for you to finger strings. If it works for you it is perfect.

When finger picking or using Hybrid picking I Do finger differently than when using a pick. When making the G chord I us my thumb on the bass E 3rd fret and it hangs over the Bass E enough to lightly touch the A string so it doesn’t ring out. I picked this up from some finger picking books and From Tony as he doesn’t always use the A string in his G chords.

My ring finger is on B/3 and the pinky is on E/3. For texture on the G chord i do release the ring finger and play the B string open and sometimes the the ring finger is up on D/3 for dominant 7th or D/4 for major 7th. When Transitioning to the D chord my ring finger is my anchor finger and does not move during the chord move to D. The middle finger is moved to E/2 and the index finger goes to G/2. Most of the time The thumb has moved down 1 fret, closer to the nut, to F# and becomes the bass note for the D chord.

It’s very easy to slide the ring finger down 1 fret to B/2 and for me, to move the middle finger to D/2 and the index to G/2 or leave the G string open for a A7. I practice so much that the 1st position chords are pretty natural to my hands and fingers now. If I stop picking every day it is weird how fast the muscle memory goes away, but it does return fairly quickly.

[jorgemac]

I use chinese steel balls and a theraputic squeeze ball to help strengthen and work the fingers. When I used to watch TV I had a guitar in my hands and formed different major and minor chords over and over and over in different keys.

[jorgemac]

Thanks Pete for the specifics.