Robin June Nakkula's Page

Love the picture too, is that a white rat in the picture of your guitars. That's a cool picture.

 

Gary

Hi Robin;

 

Wanted to welcome you to my Small Body Guitar group. Thanks for joining and feel free to jump in with any comments or questions.

 

Thanks;

Gary

Hi Robin,

Nice to meet you here.  I have a D-28-12 too.  It is currently in for a neck reset and will be tuned down a whole step for songs too high for my voice!  My wife calls them "the children!"  Edward

I've been filking for a little over 20 years. I used to go to the Star Trek cons and filk after midnight. Now we have a filk con right here in Mississauga, ON called FiKONtario in April. I spend most of my time in the dealers room selling my music jewelry and watches and this year I added ukuleles. I have some nice custom made ukes and banjo ukes for sale as well as some more lower priced standard fare. My web site has a "For Sale" section but I am working on a new Ecommerce site coming soon.

It's me again: I forgot to mention that one of the features in Coimbra style is a really violent right-hand picking, with frequent use of the bass strings, even for chords. Lisbon style is milder with lots of expression produced by left-hand string manipulation (portamenti, vibrato, legato) and ornaments (apoggiatura, mordente). Now, I guess it would be very difficult to do the job on heavy gauge strings. In fact, the difference is not only in the dimensions and stringing of the two instruments, but also in the repertoire and playing technique...

Dear Robin,

First of all: I'm very sorry, only today I saw your comment in my Portuguese guitars album. I don't know how this happened...

Using capos in Portuguese guitars is a problem, because of the octave pairs of strings. The capo will stop the thicker, low octave string, but will fail to stop the thinner, hi-octave string properly, just like it does in common 12-string guitars. Besides that, you must bear in mind that almost all Portuguese guitars have radiused, arched fretboards, but the radiuses are very different from instrument to instrument, depending on the constructor (old instruments tend to be more arched than recent ones). So, it's really difficult to find a capo that fits in your guitar's fretboard. Apart from that, Coimbra guitars are stringed with higher gauged strings, so, a Coimbra guitar with a capo in the 2nd fret will not sound like a Lisbon guitar. Besides, the Portuguese guitar neck joins the body by 10th fret, so, if you use a capo, you're going to shorten the playable area even more. Now, Portuguese guitars are leading instruments, not meant to play accompaniment chords, so, you will need the whole fretboard to play. But, in an extreme case, yes, you can capo them. Now, what will the listeners say... well, if you play for an audience of purists, they'll probably throw eggs and tomatoes (verbal ones, I mean). But if you're playing for common people, they'll probably just listen and it will depend only on what you play and how you do it... 

Now, how did you come to know Portuguese guitars to the point of knowing there are two kinds of them?

Hey Robin, You went to the best Guitar shop around, that's for sure. Marty and Don are great!

Welcome, Ms. Nakkula! Do friends call you Robin or Robin June or "late to dinner" or what?
(Please call me Sam.)
Sounds like you might be a really good player. Do you sing also? Matbe a little Joan Baez, Judy Collins, Janice Ian, or even Ian & Silvia.
I currently play and sing old folk-rock, country, and soft rock. A long time ago, I knew some folk music.
Great to have you in the group. (We need more ladies)
More later.

Sam Lester