Rudi

If you dont know, how would anyone else?

thumb osteoarthritis: Had this in both thumbs for about 3 or 4 years. Until last year it never interfered with my guitar playing. Now it does. Now I cant use the thumb-over-the-top technique to fret the bass E. I use it a lot in fingerstyle. The thumb just doesnt bend enough anymore, and if I try it hurts too much anyway. For soloing and band work. I only discovered yesterday how I minimise thumb use. Normally the thumb grips the back of the neck when the fingers press down on the fingerboard. This became severely painful and I didnt know how I was overcoming it. Now Ive noticed that the missing thumb support is replaced by the elbow of the picking arm (right arm). My right elbow uses the entire guitar as a lever with my body acting as the fulcrum. So by pushing the guitar body backwards, the neck wants to swing forward, and providing enough support to enable my fingers to fret properly. All the while, my left thumb is doing almost nothing. Theres nothing I can do about the 'thumb-over-the-top' thing though. Maybe re-arrange some fingering? Probably not but I'll try it on a couple of rags and see what might be done.

back to business.. Sail On Sailor - Beach Boys

Fine Rob, I see what you mean. Y'got me. Thanks.

Rob She's Got The Jack - AC/DC. Help me out again mate. I'm not seeing any link to Call Your Bluff - Rumpke Mountain Boys ?

Call Your Bluff - Rumpke Mountain Boys

Oh so it was you Mike? ... so did you close this window in a reckless sort of manner?

Before going up a grade, its worth checking the string fits in the nut before changing. Usually it can be widened with a little folded emery or sandpaper. If you have any shim, you can wrap the emery around that. I like the 2015 Gibson adjustable nut / zero fret feature on the solidbodies. It looks like brass and is a great innovation I think. BTW, the adjustment is up & down, not string width. You would still need to widen those with emery when changing up.

I Predict a Riot - Kaiser Chiefs We still play this one occasionally

tumbling dice - rolling stones

We all get confused. Dont worry about it. Glad to help. If you havent got enough info here, or I misunderstood & didnt give you what you needed. Just shout. Ok?

Zack 7th fret G string is D not E and D is not in the Phrygian scale of B. So you either mean the 9th fret (E) or the 8th (D#). It never occurred to me to use this key-scale combination. If it works though, go for it. I'm puzzled at the notion of being stuck at one position on the neck. Why cant you just continue to use Phrygian elsewhere on the fretboard? If you havnt learned the finger positions just figure out where the notes are and practice them. up & down the fingerboard. Here is a vid I came across showing Phrygian. It demonstrates it the way I explained Dorian. I get the impression that you are ambitious, full of energy and ready to take on anything. Really, Just1L had the best advice. Trust your ears. If it sounds right then it is right. No-one is going to stand up and shout 'Hey you just played a wrong note'. Mistakes aside, if it sounds great to you, it will sound great to most everyone. Musical rules are not rules at all. They are guidelines. Ragtime broke almost all the rules, and now Jazz has formalised most of those broken rules into new rules. It will be broken again. Its part of how music moves forward. From Phryian you can move on to any other scale. If you are using the scale over E then I assume you mean Emajor. In that case change to any scale that can be used in E major. It will work fine and the change will probably sound dramatic. good luck Rudi

Hell In A Bucket - Grateful Dead Sorry if I posted this before... .... no I'm not. Its a great MusicVideo

No. It looks like John has taken down all guitar articles/tutorials. I can PM him if needs be. Its probably not neccessary as you are obviously pretty advanced anyway, and my ones were aimed at earlier leaners. Essentially my method is to extract other modes & scales from the major scale. Doing things this way is initially confusing but it will save you from learning several different types of fingering for each scale/mode. If you can play 2 octaves of a major scale, you can extract minor, dorian, mixolydian etc. from it. Maybe you know this? If not, here is an example: Play 2 octaves of the C major scale. To extract the Dorian mode from it do the following: Begin playing one full tone up from C, which is D. Continue playing the scale, this is D, E, F, G, A, B, C (D) and stop at the D octave. You have just played the Dorian Mode in the key of D. The point is you have used a familiar scale to play a less familiar one. You can use fingering you have already learned. The only difference is that you begin & end from a different point within the major scale. In this example 'D'. To figure this out when you need it, you need to reverse the thinking. In other words, if you have to play Dorian in the key of 'A', then the major scale you need for this begins one whole tone down from 'A'. This is 'G' so as long as you play notes from the scale of G major, you will be actually be playing all the correct notes for 'A' Dorian Mode. The other guys in the band will be playing in D obviously. You will have to end your phrasing on one of the notes (D F A) from Dm to finish though.

I can only suggest simplifying your practice. It sounds like you are overwhelmed by it. I reiterate that a major scale is good to practice as it can be adapted so easily. Part of the way I used to teach was to use the major scale as a key to others. I even did some tutorials on it here once. I'll have a look for them now.

Are you hung up on technique?

Hi Zack, Lost or feeling bad about what youre doing? Its common to go through periods of feeling useless and then elation when your playing goes well again. Practicing scales shut away somewhere can be pretty miserable. Maybe you dont, but it sounds like you're in a rut. I have a few quick suggestions. 1/ Find someone to jam with. Another guitarist or bassist. Keys or even a drummer. Maybe find a jam night at a nearby bar. Preparing to go public can really inject some energy into your practice, and more importantly, order your thoughts. 2/ Get a project. compose a tune & record it. Use it as a backing track. Practice along to the radio. A new song every few minutes will test how quick you can find your way into it. 3/ If 1 or 2 are out for now. Formulate a different practice routine. Practice something simple. Something you know and dont have to struggle to play. In other words try to enjoy your playing. A major scale is fine. Some blues is fine. Try to put some feeling into it. I rarely practice just scales, but I tend to use mixolydian and dorian mode more often when I do. The reason is simple, it fits more tunes than most other stuff. I like to play along to a chord pattern and change the scale along with the chords. Its a change from modal playing and more like a jazz approach. It also gets you thinking. Good luck with breaking out of this slump & finding some purpose. Let us know how you do. Rudi

‘Hard Guitars & Easy Guitars. I love ‘em both. As a young’un I wanted ever lower action, lighter gauge strings, lighter string tension and all the things that go to make playing easier. More than that, I needed these things in order to play properly at all. I don’t recall exactly when it was I realised that I didn’t need those features anymore, but it took a little while to sink in. Moreover, I now seem to be able to play any guitar at full throttle regardless of its set up. The Spanish guitar is full scale, with a very wide neck and very high action. At first, everything about it was a challenge, but within a few months I had managed to adapt my most technically difficult composition to this guitar. I had to adapt my technique because the 26” scale meant I could no longer span the frets needed to perform it properly. I had to invent a ‘new’ technique in order to play it at all. The work was worthwhile because that piece sounds much better on that guitar than it could on any steel strung model. Likewise the Archtop was difficult because the heavier string gauges created such high tension. The only thing to slow me up on that was the realisation that the notes didn’t ‘ring out’ properly at higher speeds. I now make a point of allowing the archtop full voice by just slowing up a bit. Make no mistake, both these (and other) guitars are more challenging to play. The Spanish is a challenge in terms of maintaining accuracy. A quick chord change is likely to find the frets but miss a string along the way. It’s a serious issue with high action & wide fingerboards. The archtop took more physical strength to play and made my arms & hands tire quickly. It’s also more difficult to judge intonation, because when using thick wound strings past the 12th fret, you just cant feel those frets anymore. The string cannot bend into the fret recess. But these ‘hard’ guitars don’t really slow me down technically whether fingerpicking or using a plectrum. I’m able to play both just as fast as the super easy PRS and higher end Jacksons. Even trying to master a 'hard' guitar is liberating, because it expands your range of what you can play & therefore the different (& even techniques) timbres available to you. Preference. I get great satisfaction playing the higher action / higher tension Hagstrom Deuce. It requires some effort to bend the strings. More than 2 hours straight and I would start to struggle with it. It’s masculine. You can play anything on it, but it somehow suits Chicago blues or balls out rock. By contrast the PRS demands the very lightest & most delicate touch. It’s every inch a feminine guitar. I could play it all day and night without complaint.

Playing at speed: As a young’un I wanted ever lower action, lighter gauge strings, lighter string tension and all the things that go to make playing easier. More than that, I needed these things in order to play properly at all. I don’t recall exactly when it was I realised that I didn’t need those features anymore, but it took a little while to sink in. Moreover, I now seem to be able to play any guitar at full throttle regardless of its set up. The Spanish guitar is full scale, with a very wide neck and very high action. At first, everything about it was a challenge, but within a few months I had managed to adapt my most technically difficult composition to this guitar. I had to adapt my technique because the 26” scale meant I could no longer span the frets needed to perform it properly. I had to invent a ‘new’ technique in order to play it at all. The work was worthwhile because that piece sounds much better on that guitar than it could on any steel strung model. Likewise the Archtop was difficult because the heavier string gauges created such high tension. The only thing to slow me up on that was the realisation that the notes didn’t ‘ring out’ properly at higher speeds. I now make a point of allowing the archtop full voice by just slowing up a bit. Make no mistake, both these (and other) guitars are more challenging to play. The Spanish is a challenge in terms of maintaining accuracy. A quick chord change is likely to find the frets but miss a string along the way. It’s a serious issue with high action & wide fingerboards. The archtop took more physical strength to play and made my arms & hands tire quickly. It’s also more difficult to judge intonation, because when using thick wound strings past the 12th fret, you just cant feel those frets anymore. The string cannot bend into the fret recess. But these ‘hard’ guitars don’t really slow me down technically whether fingerpicking or using a plectrum. I’m able to play both just as fast as the super easy PRS and higher end Jacksons. Ok you cant bend strings on them, but then you cant use flamenco styling on a Les Paul either. Even trying to master a 'hard' guitar is liberating, because it expands your range of what you can play & therefore the different (& even techniques) timbres available to you.

Ive had a look at your link and added a question there.

Robert Conti: Just watched the link. Can you recommend his tuition Mike?

Interesting Mike. Like you I was playing in virtual isolation and re-inventing wheels all the time. Unlike you I didnt chase speed, but phrasing. Nevertheless, I thought I was fast anyway. There are some 'ordinary' hammer-on-pull off licks that I never learned, but I would really like to, even now. Its because they are played so fast that I cant figure out whats happening. Tapping. I never really wanted to make sounds like that. Just as well, because I cant. Yes I know its easy, but when Ive done it, the effect is kind of 'dull'. No big deal. Sweep picking (I am talking about the neo-metalists sweep picking, not the normal old fashioned sort when it had no name): Now that sounds great, and I even had a go at it. I incorporated it into my practice time and after a month I got tired of it. I got tired because its 'just one thing'. By which I mean its not versatile. It would take months of work for just a few microseconds of use. And if your like me, you would use it just once in a whole night of playing. Blink and you've missed it. So by modern standards I am certainly not fast, but I can change position on the fingerboard PDQ and accurately. The accuracy comes by looking 1st just before changing. The speed (maybe) comes by letting go. No friction is better than reduced friction.

As for the original topic of friction or drag on necks. I got into this again yesterday and it occurred to me that if the theory is true (a satin finish neck will enable faster positional change), the front of the neck will be an even bigger problem because there is more friction and drag from wound strings. Now we all know that this happens because you can hear that 'swish' as fingers drag across the strings. Its on enough recordings. This will create more drag than a glossy neck. So why not change to flat-wound strings?

I've heard somebody say that a pickup too close the strings will reduce sustain. The theory being that the magnetic pull will reduce string vibration. I have no opinion about that. I dont know.

Mountains of the Moon - Robert Hunter