For What It's Worth

With this lesson I'm not sure David when to use the different strums, guess that will become clear with the MP3s - yes, I am as thick as a brick.

Mark, I'd be grateful for some links of classical &/Or flamenco to play, thanks!

BTW I had an ID crisis and changed my ID to Aretha

Hi !

I'm starting to get the strumming down okay. Allthough it's hard to keep it going through the entire song without mistakes.  

I have a question about the muting. I've been practising it by itself to try to master it. I can do it on downstrokes okay, but it's very hard to do it on upstrokes. I know it's not part of the rythm for this song. But I like to experiment a bit :)

Anyway, the first few strings on upstrokes is difficult to mute. Is this a technique that should be mastered on upstrokes as well ? If so, anyone have any tips ? :)

i found this fairly easy actually, although i have yet to listen to the mp3...hopefully im on the right track at least :)
ill get a listen to how its done properly as soon as i get out of this autocad lecture

Thanks very much for the MP3s David (and Paul for getting them up) , much appreciated, everything is pretty clear now. Just need lot's of practice.

I'll leave any tips for strumming to the experts (no offence meant) - I did have a suggestion for strengthening the fingernails , that is silica supplements, usually horsetail herb, you can get it from the health shop, really it does help if you are deficient  :)   (Steve Brown had a question on that)

I am still mostly working on getting the chord change quick. Does not seam like a good idea to start on the patterns until I can do the change in a relaxed way.

All this bussiness of moving several fingers at the same time is a bit of a trouble. Should one go just by "finger memory" or should you feel the frets and strings to know when you right? Calluses are a big drawback when it comes to feel anything :-[.

I have tried a couple of fingerings for the A chord, and currently I use Davids version, but one drawback with that is I get an ugly rasping nois moving the middle finger along the string. My first instinct for the A cord was actually to use the pinky, ring and middle. I will do some more practicing, and well see were I end up.

With all open chord changes, I think it's a good idea to plant one finger first, then move the rest of the fingers using the first one as a pivot.

Often one can plant the guide finger before changing the chord, thus not only providing an anchor, but also a nice voice leading effect.  For example, when changing G to C:

e|----3------3------0------2----
B|----0------1------1------1----
G|----0------0------0------2----
D|----0------0------2------0----
A|----2------x------3------x----
E|----3------3------x------x----
     G      Gadd11 C      D7

Planting the index finger on the 1st fret of the B string makes the change to C much easier and smoothes the chord transition as well.

Thanx for the tip!

I think I to some extent are using a leading finger, mostly the index. To move it in advance I guess one should give some thought to which one to move. Maybe next time :)

Great lesson!  I love this song.  It makes for a good sing along...if anyone can remember all the words.  In the recording, someone gets the tedious job of playing harmonics throughout the entire song.  Does anyone happen to know how to play that part?  Someone showed me once, but I can't seem to remember the right notes.

Thanks,

Olive

Hi Helgi:

could you clear this up a little:
"For example, when changing G to C:"

How are you fingering the G chord? Are you fingering the e String with your pinky or ring finger?

Thanks.

"For example, when changing G to C:"

How are you fingering the G chord? Are you fingering the e String with your pinky or ring finger?

Well, the trick with moving the index finger will work with either of those fingerings.  

For the record, not that it matters, I usually finger G with ring finger on the high e-string, middle finger on the low E-string and muting the A-string, index finger free.

I usually don't really want that B note on the A-string, it just muddies the sound IMO.

Sometimes I want more of a G5 sound, in which case I finger the high e-string with my pinkie and the B-string 3rd fret with my ring finger.

Occasionally I want both ring and middle finger free, in which case I use my pinkie on the high e-string and ring finger for the low E-string and muting the A-string.  This last one is a little tricky, but worthwhile learning.

Helgi brings up a good point about pivoting your fingers.  You should also think about the thumb behind the neck as a pivot.  It shouldn't move much at all with open chords.  Economy of motion when changing chords is the key.  It still occurs to me today when I'm playing something that I'm moving too much or moving a finger that doesn't need to be moved.

I'd just like to point out that David is speaking figuratively here, not literally:
Obviously, how hard you slap the strings will dictate how much "pop" you get. Please, don't go slamming your hand against the guitar and then writing me that you've broken the poor thing! Use your head and experiment a little. You can get different sounds depending on where you make contact with the guitar.

:D :D :D

Thanks for starting my day with a good laugh, Greybeard! Good one!   ;)
In the recording, someone gets the tedious job of playing harmonics throughout the entire song.  Does anyone happen to know how to play that part?  Someone showed me once, but I can't seem to remember the right notes.

Olive, if you're going to try this all by yourself on a single guitar, you'll want to try something like this:

Measure 1 (or all E chord measures):

Beat 1 - downstroke on E chord, let ring through second beat

Beat 3 - play harmonic on 12th fret of high E (first) string, let ring through first half of beat 4

Beat 4 - on the second half of this beat you might play an upstroke on the E chord

Measure 2 (or all A chord measures):

Beat 1 - downstroke on A chord, let ring through second beat

Beat 3 - play harmonic on 7th fret of high E (first) string, let ring through first half of beat 4

Beat 4 - on the second half of this beat you might play an upstroke on the E chord

If you need a refresher on how to play harmonics, check out the article "Harmonic Convergence:"

https://www.guitarnoise.com/lessons/harmonic-convergence/

And just to make things interesting (as if you need another exercise, right?), sometimes I'll play the progression like this (all harmonics on the first string):

E chord  /  12th fret harmonic
A chord  /    7th fret harmonic
E chord  /    5th fret harmonic
A chord  /    7th fret harmonic

and on and on....

Hope this helps. Now I've got to go back to using my head...  ;)

Peace

Thanks for the tips David.  I'll have to play around with this and see if I can get it to sound reasonable.   :D

Hi!

I have been working on this song several nights now, and i think i have the rhythm now. It is hard, though, to get a consistent percussive sound. I seem to always have a string ringing somewhere, usually high E. My hands are quite small, i guess. Any advice?

I find this song VERY hard to sing, I guess it is not in my range? Or the melody is repetitive and i am unable to 'catch' it? I am not sure what the problem is, but there are some songs i really love, like this one, but i just can't get my voice around.

Finally, i want to comment that i love the choices of songs around here!!