Acoustic Newb

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Comment by Arlie Box on Wednesday

F#m7 is pleasantly exotic, & a bit dark to boot
:)

Comment by Edward Sparks on Tuesday

I love the quote:  "relatively exotic key of F#"!

Comment by Walt Pilcher on May 21, 2012 at 5:53pm

Thanks, Edward.  That's about the clearest explanation I've ever seen.

 

Comment by Edward Sparks on May 21, 2012 at 4:15pm

Don't know if you all saw this...it's simple and useful!

May 21, 2012

Use a Capo to Suit Your Voice

The most basic and important use of the capo is to change the key of a song to suit your voice. If you know a song in the key of G but find that G is too low for your voice, you can simply raise the pitch of the whole song by capoing. Put the capo at the second fret, and if you continue to play the same fingerings like nothing happened, the song will come out in a higher key. To know what chords you’re playing, you’ll have to raise the name of each chord by the same amount that you’ve capoed up the neck. So, if you’ve capoed up two frets or a whole step, your G fingering is now sounding as an A chord, your C fingering is now yielding a D, and your D fingering is sounding like an E.

If you’re trying to raise the key of a tune in E for your voice, using the chords E, A, and B7, capoing to the first fret will put you in the key of F, and capoing to the second fret will put you in the relatively exotic key of F#. Capoing three frets will put you in the key of G, which presents you with an interesting choice. You could continue to play the song using E, A, and B7, or you could remove the capo in favor of using the familiar first-position G, C, and D chords. If your voice feels just right in G#, you could keep playing E shapes with the capo on the fourth fret, or you could use open G shapes and capo at the first fret.

Here’s a chart that shows what chords you get with the five basic open chord shapes as you place the capo on frets one through seven.

By David Hamburger

Comment by Rosemary j. Lambin on May 12, 2012 at 12:44pm

Hi, Mark,

I am so sorry about the loss of your father. When you lose someone close to you, it really does seem surreal. I hope that having the guitar has given you some comfort during this very sad time,

Rosemary

Comment by Edward Sparks on May 12, 2012 at 9:01am

Mark, My Dad passed away in 2009 but had a massive heart attack over a decade earlier that almost took him then. When I thought we were losing him the first time I wrote a song about the experience.  To this day when I play it people smile with the first two verses and then almost cry when I get to the third.  I too still get a little choked up at the end. Music can be very theraputic and healing if you ask it to be.  My sincere sympathy for you and your family.  Here is my song:

 

(You Don't Need) No Medium

I saw the ghost of elvis in my hospital room

At first it was strange but he brightened up the gloom

He said he missed his mamma and his blue suede shoes

He seemed sad so I told him there are thousands missing you

I saw the ghost of john lennon in my hospital room

At first it was strange but he brightened up the gloom

He smiled and gave me that look the on he would shoot at paul

I just sat there wondering if he was there at all

You only need to need to be about to take a fall

No you don’t need no medium for a ghost to make a call

Of course it helps if your heart it is in need

No you don’t need no medium you just need to believe

I saw the ghost of my father from my hospital bed

At first it was strange and I was frightened by what he said

He said “come and join me son it’s all you have to do”

He seemed sad so I told him “I can’t say how I’ve missed you”

You only need to need to be about to take a fall

No you don’t need no medium for a ghost to make a call

Of course it helps if your heart it is in need

No you don’t need no medium you just need to believe

 

© M.Edward Sparks / Pepperland Productions 1993

Comment by GNuck on May 12, 2012 at 8:01am

Mark, my heartfelt sympathy is with you and your family.

My Dad taught me three chords on the guitar, G, C, & D when I was 12 years that got me interested in playing. I lost him in 1975 when I was 25.

You and your family are in our prayers.

Gary

Comment by Arlie Box on May 12, 2012 at 7:46am

Mark

I deeply regret hearing of your father's passing.
My father was very influential in my guitar playing, and I am just recently discovering the influences he had made in my playing. He played Guitar, but I was # 5 of 6 kids, so at the time, we were well over a generation apart in musical tastes.

It is wonderful to read that rescuing the Takamine has been helpful for you in this time.

I was wondering, since it may not be practical to take the Guitar on the flight home, if there might be a child (niece, nephew, neighbor) close by, that wishes to learn to play the Guitar, and could benefit from the instrument that you put back into working order, rather than letting it sit in a closet.

It may be a good thing for both the Guitar, and the child, and perhaps you as well, knowing that this poor broken-down instrument that you gave a new life to, could bring some more joy into the world.

Arlie

Comment by TheValleyGirl on May 12, 2012 at 7:22am

I'm very sorry to hear about your father, but yes, the guitar is surprisingly therapeutic. A great escape.  Again, my condolences on the loss of your father.

Comment by Mark on May 12, 2012 at 6:46am

My father passed away suddelny and I had to drop everything and fly back home.  , the saddest part is that we already had a trip home shceduled,   just had to move it up by a few days.  So now here I am, all the funeral arrangements are done and there's nothing to do but stand around and wait.  I decided I needed something therapudic to distract me from dwelling on the surreal situation of losing my father.   I got on craigslist and bought an inexpensive takamine jasmine from a kid here in town.   It was in dire need of work.  The action was impossibly high to the point of being unplayable.  So I bought a cheap allen wrench set and went back to my sister's house to work on it.   It took me quite a while, using the few primitive tools I could scrounge from my sister's garage,  (fortunately she actually owns a belt sander and quite a lot of useable, albeit old hand tools)  I've got it playing pretty nicely now and am only waiting for the local music store to open this morning so I can get some new strings for it. 

 

When I bought the guitar, my only thought was to get a guitar to play as a form of therapy.   I had no idea how much the process of working on the guitar would benefit me. Just having something to focus on has kept me sane...

 Both of my brothers play and I'm hoping I can get them to sit down with it for a bit in the next couple of days.   My wife and I are going to be here for over a week after everyone else has gone back home.  She will be busy with her siblings planning and arranging her parents anniversary party. 
This is going to leave me at loose ends with hours and hours of nothing to do and nobody to do it with.

I really think I'm going to be glad I've got a guitar to sit down with during that time.    The best part of this is it's cheap enough that when the time comes to fly home I can just leave it in somebody's closet and not worry if anything happens to it.

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