Triple-o

“Dogs and Sailors keep off the grass”. Well, they probably removed all those signs, if they had any, since the naval base closed. The song,”Sailing to Philadelphia” by Mark Knopfler. This song really looked interesting, but Mr Knopfler’s choice of chords, F#m11, and not the way Steve taught it and E add 9 soon dampened my enthusiasm . Maybe, the only thing that I will walk away with from this song is how to spell Philadelphia.

“Wonderful Tonight”, another song you can work on fairly early. Again “Musicnotes” for the sheet music and you might google “six string fingerpicking” Wonderful Tonight YouTube video to help.

Until I picked up the guitar I had totally under estimated the members of the Beatles Band. When I set down a little while ago to learn the song “ Here comes the Sun” by George Harrison. I was blown away. After I played the intro I was lost for words. I thought to myself how did they do it.I would love to have just a fraction of their talent. I heard that when George Harrison met John Lennon for the first time, Lennon had a guitar with only 4 strings and he didn’t know it was supposed to have 6. Stories like the time they drove across town to meet a guy who knew a B7 chord. The Dictionary’s got it wrong when they defined the word talent, they wasted about 40 words, they could have managed with just two. The Beatles. Great song, capo at the 4 fret. A song you can start working on pretty early in your fingerstyle journey. You can find the song tab at musicnotes.com

Pink Floyd’s 1973 album “The Dark Side of the Moon” had on its far side a song called “Money” The Ka- Ching helped make the song interesting along with its odd meter. The first part of the song is in 7/4 and it changes to 4/4 just before the solo.I think that 7/4 is usually played as a measure of 3/4 plus a measure of 4/4. This song screwed kids up for 30 years as far as astronomy goes. I guess in the scheme of things it didn’t’ matter, because the history books of the time weren’t much better. Not so sure things have improved. I was surprised to hear the other day that half of Americans believe astrology is a science.

“ We used to drive In a yellow camino listening to howling wolf, he liked to stop in Lake Charles”. I am here in the Southwest heat, but at least I am dry with a roof over my head. I should really stop complaining. My heart goes out to those in Lake Charles and all the folks that were in the path of “Laura”.

I practice 99.9% of the time sitting in a 100 year old oak chair, 45 to 60 minutes a day. I take frequent breaks and have no issues with the hard old chair. Used to think about buying a nice soft chair, but never did. In the evenings, sometimes I lay in a reclining lawn chair out side and In about 15 minutes that gets pretty painful. Very annoying to the birds. The Curved Billed Thrashers give me the evil eye. Those bright orange eyes, no doubt in my mind that his grandfather was T Rex. The best think I did was switch to the classical guitar position with the use a foot stool, but the same old chair. Years ago I tried using a strap and I thought I was holding it like Buddy Holly fairly high, “guitar elbow” soon came knocking on my door. I put the guitar back down on my leg, removed the strap. I am not 100% sure if holdIng the guitar higher was the cause.but I had been playing 3 or 4 years without a problem I just made the connection and changed.Using hot and cold packs the elbows recovered.When I do stand with a strap the guitars feel the same as sitting in a classical position. Pretty much sold on that position. Some guy on the internet named Tom Hess stated holding the fretting arm and elbow high or horizontal could cause forearm pain. In golf I think they would call it a “flying elbow”. The classical position moves my elbow out further than the leg position, but hasn’t caused a problem using my steel string guitar. I play a steel string acoustic 14 frets to the body, hybrid classical 12 frets to the body and a Strat and Tele all in the classical position. Years ago I took some lessons from a guy that played in the classical position and at the time I thought it very odd to hold a strat that way, I asked him why and he said after years of playing his right shoulder started hurting, so he switched positions so he could continue to practice and play without the pain.He may have been the reason I took the time to change positions, since he demonstrated that he could play as good as any professional in that position, well then again he was a professional. Changing by the way was real easy, I mistakenly thought it was going to take some time. Well, this has been a long break, back to the Eb minor scale.

Soon as I get my amp back, I’ll give it a try. The only reason I got them was for tinnitus and they work great.

Just take Five. You’re right this post is about the Jazz standard “Take Five” and odd meters. I understand that the rule is to break it down. 5/4 breaks down to 3/4 and 2/4 per measure.The beats on 1 and 4. Interesting song, found a good lesson on YouTube “guitar reference and take five”

Here’s a song, in the key of F that could test your capo ability, if you choose to capo up. The song also has a rhythm pattern I hadn’t seen before. The melody is 12/8 time, played with 4 slow beats to the measure. At 72 bpm it sounds slow, but it moves right along. Sheet music at musicnotes.com

Thanks, when I listened to the song a few times It became clear what the slow in 4 meant? Just what it says, 4 slow beats per measure.

Lately I’ve been working on understanding the capo. It seems easy at times and very confusing at other times? Using an article in Acoustic Guitar and a guy named Woody Guthrie, things are looking up.I have one of his song books and “’ Ramblin’ Round” through his songs I see he apparently used a capo on most of them. Throw in a capo chart and the trinity is complete. So, if you have the “Do Re Me” you might pick up one of his song books.His song lyrics are sort of a history lesson of his time. Down in Texas my gal fainted in the rain Down in Texas my gal fainted in the rain I throwed a bucket of dirt in her face just to bring her back again

Ed Sheeran’s song “Perfect” as a 12/8 time signature, but above, it says slow in 4. Can anyone shed some light on this?

Thanks, I kept looking at Clam and I new something was wrong, I just couldn’t put my finger on it.

“Well flash your warning lights all you like” How did I manage not to hear a song with a line like that., “Tiger Feet“ by the English Clam Rock Band Mud. In case you’re like me a little intro might be necessary.The band was formed in the sixties and their song Tiger Feet rose to number 1 on the charts. I read where they wore Tiger feet at a “Top of Pops” TV program. Again a music show I never heard mentioned before. I am not sure if clam rock means they were “Teddy Boys”. Which is also a term I never heard before, sounds like it might have been an equivalent to todays “Steam Punk” culture.Glitter Bands, I read that was a step up from a Clam Band. Sounds like the early Nashville cowboy performers with their “nudie” Suits.

Thanks, took a look at it on “musicnotes com” looks good. I also noticed that bit of instructions on the sheet music that had puzzled me before “Gm7 implied harmony. The light bulb turned on and I think I finally understand. the reason for the *information. The song is in the key of Eb, but the implied harmony is the minor key Gm. Since Eb and Gm use the same key signature they are giving you a heads up. I think, not 100% sure.

“Over the Hills and Far Away” , if you are working on hammer -ons and pull- offs you might enjoy practicing the famous riff in this song from the 70s. You can see the first page of this song at musicnotes.com YouTube as a lesson search 365song and song title.

I was watching Joan Baez play this song and I couldn’t help but notice something different. At first I thought one of the chords she was playing was. F/G, but, that is not one of the chords in the song. Then I realized what she was doing is going from G to C by leaving her ring finger on the G note and bringing her pinky up to fret the C note. Her hand/finger movement just looked so smooth. You can tell she has been playing a few months.🧑🏻‍🦳 Another strumming patterns beginners should learn. The way Dylan did it in the 60s.

That’s one of the good things about them. They aren’t effected by the weather, rain heat or humidity or dryness like wood. They are hard to scratch. Great for the camp fire.

No, I am not going to tell you a scary story, or maybe I am if you own a guitar made with HPL’s (high pressure laminates). Paper thin layers impregnated with phenolic resins that are heated under a ton of pressure. Ok, a short ton. I live in the “Great Smoky Mountains”, well officially called the Rocky Mountains, but with all the fires the smoke is drifting in, one could easily get confused. I’ve noticed lately that my guitars seems to be going out of tune more often and the “oasis” is constantly going dry and the camels are falling like flies. I was wondering if the high pressure over, Wait, wait, wait, high pressure, that’s what I was posting about, oh yea, high pressure laminates . When you “bang” one of these guitar, even though the HPL’s are rock hard, that also makes them very brittle, hit it on your oak chair when you get up and it could, kinda shatter. (if you work on Maggie’s Farm not that kind of shatter) HPL guitars could be impossible to fix like new, repairs are hard to hide, maybe a thick camo paint job would do. Think, Humpty Dumpty!

That was the third thing I noticed when I stated wearing hearing aids.First, was that my tinnitus went away, 2nd, the birds are way too noisy and 3rd, my guitar playing sounded really bad. The mornings when tinnitus wasn’t too bad I leave them out until after I practiced.Now, after about a year I am pretty used to the sounds and they don’t bother me anymore and the acoustic sounds fine. Funny thing though, my classical guitar sounded about the same if not a little better.

Thanks, I am going to take it to a tech. I think I should start looking for a replacement..

I was working on the A major pentatonic scale making connections from the 5th fret to the 14th fret. I played through this at least twenty times to get it under my fingers.Then all of sudden I realized that the first part of what I was playing’ was in essence the famous lick from “My Girl”. Twenty times I played this lick and never heard it. I was so focused on connecting patterns that I wasn’t really listening to what I was playing. I needed to “stop and smell the roses” It’s a lesson I won’t soon forget.

Anyone ever use a uv light in a dark room to inspect a guitar? I heard that it will show all defects and any repairs made to the guitar?

Very good, I can’t play that good using too hands.🖖 I seen a pretty good YouTube Lesson with tab and it really looked easy, when I tried it I realized that timing was everything, its not as easy as the tab made it look. Pink panther by guitar logic.

How are you muting the A note?