Nick

There was an article in one of the guitar magazines which had suggestions on cheaper acoustics - unfortunately I can't find which one. I would try out one of these in a shop - Yamaha F310 - and if you like it I would think it would at least be ok. I have an old Yamaha FG180 that I bought in about 1972 which is still fine. The new ones I don't know a lot about but it is a big selling guitar and at £68-£80 youcan't go to far wrong.

When I started singing I used to sing in the lower register of my voice as it felt comfortable and is most like my speaking voice - so it's what I'm used to hear. If I sang higher then my voice started sound funny and light to me so I used not to do it. Record your voice and see how it actually sounds - don't worry about pitch or anything just what the notes sound like and you might find that you produce a much nicer sound higher than YOU think you do. (My speaking voice is reasonably low - if you listen here the first voice is mine) A bass voice goes somewhere from a D up to about middle C - which was about where I would sing. As I've got used to my voice and practiced a bit and used it, the range has shifted upwards and I find I sing things now which take in much higher notes (up to about G above middle C) than I used to and that I actually prefer the tone of my voice in the higher range rather than when I was dropping an octave and mumbling away. I try and sing All Right Now in A and that I do find a struggle given my voice and the range of the song - lowest note is an F# and the highest a C natural one and a half octaves above - warmed up I can probably hit the A but not the C. I have tried singing it an octave lower which easily fits in my range but it doesn't sound right. So I usually just change the top bit a little so that I can do it. If you want to be Frank Sinatra then singing in predominantly a chest voice is great. For pop or rock etc it's worth experimenting as I think they normally refer to the range from about D through to C at the top end as the money range. A lot of it is down to how you hear your own voice - record it and you may find you want to sing elsewhere. Once my voice broke, Hark the Herald Angels at Xmas used to be the one where I wasn't sure what to do. Normally it is done in G and the highest note of the tune is an E - and I was never sure whether I could get there or not so ither throught or at a certain bit I would drop an octave which doesn't really work! The E is easy to sing now so it wouldn't be a problem if I wanted to sing Xmas carols. Practice and experiment. If you can sing in tune and are happy in one part of your voice just practice and try other bits of your voice. Lee Marvin on Wanderin Star worked well

I saw Paul Gilbert last week playing his guitar with an electirc drill which I hadn't seen before either If you look on his Marshall you can see the Black & Decker drill

It's in Eb so I guess they detune half a tone cos it's what bands like that do It becomes obvious then that you play E shapes etc and chords like 076780 and stuff like 00777x and x07600 lets pretend that we have detuned our guitar then we have themes like B B B A G E (that goes same same same dwon a bit down a bit up to the E) The soloing is all pentatonic stuff over very few chords Good fun but Lazz s right use your ears

What you are after is a Third Hand capo - Capo (beats a second hand one I suppose!)

I use Reaper increasingly and there is the ability to create drums on it. I haven't used that particular part of it but if it's anything like the rest of the program it will be fine. It's a free download for evaluation which will work forever without limitations but you will probably feel the same need to pay for it after using it for a while!

They turn up in a lot of acoustic tunes as well as rock (but usually with the two notes doubled or trebled) and are used a lot in accompanying session tunes. I used to listen to the beginning of Dylan's 'The Times They are a Changin" and wonder why it didn't sound quite right when I played it and that's because the first chord has no third. 'Lord Franklyn' played like John Renbourn makes use of it. There's a tune I love called Canyon Moonrise written by an East Coast American Mandolin and guitarist called John McGann (Canyon Moonrise chords etc). I was in touch with him via email a couple of years ago discussing the tune and the chords that he plays with it. He plays a 079900 chord for the E and likes the ambiguity of the tune that moves from major to minor and sometimec could be either rather than defining the harmony by choosing one or the other. A lot of DADGAD music (and things in CGCGCD tuning) also uses the same ambiguity and that adds to the distinctive sound of those tunings and the music they often accompany. It's interesting to experiment playing a song with major chords or with the equivalent dyad and compare and contrast. But "power chords" tend to be associated with rock as John has so eloquently and succinctly described already.

My wife was given a Levin acoustic guitar at some point in her life which is an ancient acoustic thing. She likes singing Joni Mitchell songs so I learnt some of them. Quite a number of them have a transcribed dulcimer part that you can emulate on a three or four string guitar so I took a couple of strings off and have a four string guitar. At the moment it's tuned to F#G#G#G# as that is the dulcimer tuning for 'All I Want' from 'Blue'. I tune it DADA when I play 'Carey' (or if I'm in a surreal mood)

Are you recording in a submarine? Or in the bath or shower room perhaps?

Cm7 tuning - interesting. I think there's a John Martyn tune that I've played in something similar. I sing a Dougie Maclean song in Cm tuning (CGCGCEb) which I like and Jericho by Joni Mitchell which I love has a CGDFBbD tuning which is slightly odd but sounds good. I have an older acoustic that is usually in DADGAD or Open C or Open D but tend to tune the main guitar I use around the various tunings as the mood takes me. The idea was to use the second for open tunings to save me but it hasn't really worked out that way as I prefer playing the other one! (It's a very inexpensive guitar but has a nice feel and I like the sound - I play in a band with a guy who has a really nice Martin acoustic and he reckons I was very lucky with it, in that it's sound and feel are out of range of the price I paid for it) I would think to tune the E string down to A# must sound pretty odd as it's a long way down. There is a traditionally tuned Spanish guitar around as well and I have another guitar which is currently tuned to F#G#G#G# but that's another story

1 Reaper 2 Cakewalk Guitar Tracks 2 3 Audacity - rarely for anything other than straightforward things and never bothered to try multi-tracking 4 Zoom H2 recorder

I use Martin Phosphor Bronze Acoustic Guitar Strings Medium (13-17-26-35-45-56 ) on my acoustic (occasionally 12's the next gauge down). I like to fingerpick or bash away in sessions and mediums suit me fine. Harder to bend up a tone though! I have a friend who strings his acoustic with 10's and it feels weird playing it. I normally use Stringbusters - good delivery and reasonable price but have noticed better deals on ebay. I came across this link from a guy in the UK who uses them - Webstrings - recently and reckon that a dozen sets delivered from the States would still only be about £24 which is cheaper than the £3.60 a set I currently pay I have to say that I very rarely have strings break before I decide to chane them - is there something with the set up of the guitar that is causing it? I play a lot in alternative tunings (DADGAD - DADGBE - CGDGBE - CGCGCE - CGDGAD - DADF#AD) and still rarely have a string go even though some are going up and down up to 4 semitones

We've just put up a Myspace page for the new band that we've formed called - Eric Pope and the Cardinals So far there is not much there just a Demo of 15 songs and tunes that we will be using to hopefully generate some gigs. Irish based music but with some self written numbers by Mark Kane the lead singer (who has been playing in the States for the last 12 years). Let me know what you reckon - pretty different to Box of Goats!

Because that's the last note of Falling off the Edge of the World. I happen to know as I checked at the time as I used it as a gauge of my own voice to se what notes I could hit and not. The Del Amitri song in the original is in E and the high note in the bridge was always a struggle so I worked out it was a G# as another measure. (How are you, btw?) Very well. Lynne was waiting to hear back from you about dates for gigs and things.

My range is from a C1 to an A4 but the range that I will use and sing in is from a D1 if I try to harmonise and sing with people and sing in a bass range to about an E3 and I use that note on a number of songs I sing - I can sing a few notes higher but rarely do when singing with acoustic guitar. My range a the top end is still expanding and the F,F#,G are now reasonably Ok but the G# and A which I can reach are poor in quality. I've gone back to practicing singing scales and exercises recently and think it is having a positive effect.

I have fallen in love and now have a new constant companion - not another woman but the Zoom H2 Handy Recorder which I bought just over a week ago after some discussion on another forum. It now goes with me in my pocket wherever I go or sits on the desk - coffee table etc just in case. It's a digital recorder with a 4gb card giving stereo recording up to CD quality on either 2 tracks or 4 (it has 4 mics in it) for up to 6:30hrs at CD WAV quality or 46 hours at 192kbps MP3. It cost me £138 and I love it to bits. It's about the size of a 3 yr old mobile phone and there is a review and some pictures here: review H2 I've used it to record myself; myself and wife singing and playing; session/singaround in local pub; band practice with the new band I have joined; and it has performed well in each. There are some examples underneath each of which have no processing apart from normalisation of the files in Audacity and are as recorded. Recorded as WAVs then saved as 320kbps MP3 files. I now have some pretty simple settings that means I can plonk it down on the table press the record button and that's it. Really handy little thing and the best bit is the quality which just does my head in given its size. portability and ease of use - see what you think. Others of you may have similar - Finn I think referred to his on a post somewhere Some examples from different places I've tried it. Mostly folky - jazzy - countryish stuff so far: You might need to click CTRL + left click to allow it to play depending on your settings ACOUSTIC GUITAR - ACOUSTIC GUITAR/VOICE - INFORMAL PRACTICE Turned on and recorded to practice a new song. No particular care on placement or anything. No effects or processing except normalisation. First is practising a new song to sing at the pub that evening, second is a bit of a John Renbourn guitar piece I'm trying to learn Lord Franklin Catwalk by John Renbourn PUB SINGAROUND - SESSION Placed it on the mantelpiece of the fireplace recording with all 4 mics. No effects or processing except normalisation. First is fiddle and guitar playing Ashokan Farewell; second some singing and playing; ensemble piece Ashokan Farewell Sweet Bride They Can't Take That Away From Me NEW BAND PRACTICE More control than in the pub. This is from a band I have just recently joined. The guitarist/vocalist is excellent I think - first time I've worked with a professional musician and I'm really looking forward to see what happens once we start gigging Sam Hall Country/bluesy song

If you stick a pencil through the middle and spin it REALLY quickly it goes white and everything disappears. I've yet to work out what possible use that could be though And when I say everything disappears I don't mean EVERYTHING because then noone could be reading this. John >>If you evre feel like writing a guitar/bass guitar article for Songstuff..... Not sure I could think of anything that hasn't been done or said better already somewhere but I'll think if I have anything that might be useful. If it was on anything it would either be on accompanying singers on acoustic guitar, or can a bassist who loves improvising find a home in a traditional Irish band? (The answer to the latter is yes by the way but I'll post about that somewhere else)

On another forum I frequent there has been some discussion about where to put your capo either to play in other keys or to accompany another guitarist but in a different range of the guitar. I did a little chart for the chap but seeing that Shubb have a calculator that they charge £4.99 for which is naff and in the absence of finding a clear easy to use one I thought I'd design my own. So here is the 'Capo Circle' - see what you think and let me know.

I tend to use a strap on - whoops - clip on one now as I mostly play acoustically. As it work off vibrations I can tune while other stuff is going on without having to fight. I also find it useful on the bass as I can turn the volume down and tune it withot bothering a soul.

Do nothing hasty is the first thing. Trying to mend something with limited knowledge is often worse than doing nothing and letting someone fix it for you. I learned that one from bitter experience and see it all the time at work As someone else asked "What is not working?" Is this a drive that has been working until recently? To your knowledge what caused it? Does the machine boot up at all? If you turned on the machine now what happens and where does it get to? What is the operating system etc etc? I managed to retrieve all the data off a friend's Windows XP machine which had ceased to load Windows - it constantly rebooted. I have a copy of Knoppix (Linux operating system on a bootable CD). I booted up the machine using the CD and copied the data off then formatted it. The machine still works fine now and my friend has their data

Don't put your hand over the end when you fire it or you might damage your fingers. Still, you might be able to play the mandolin then

Persevere, Steve. If you have just got it I think you need to give it more of a chance. I bought a mandolin last year and when I started playing it was convinced that there was no way you could get your fingers to fit as it was so different to the guitar and (even more so) the bass that I am used to. After a little while though you start to get used to it and realise it is just different rather than impossible. As I think I have said before I still find it bizarre switching from bass to mandolin because the difference is extreme but you can get used to it. The frets do get mighty close as you go up but I am getting used to playing up the neck and it's amazing what you get used to. I recently found out that Joni Mitchell's "A Case of You" works really well on a standardly tuned mandolin and has some natty little chords in it (like 7-9-0-10 and 6-7-0-9 and 6-5-7-0 etc) where the finger spacings are really small - but you strangely get used to it. The other thing I found is that I can get up a reasonable speed on a mandolin playing single string runs whereas on a guitar I am much less fluent - very odd. Keep going and see how you feel in a week once your hand has got used to it a bit

Yes, but never played one There has been a lot of discussion about them on Mudcat.org that I frequent as well as here - try some of the threads here to get quite a lot of comments Also lots of reviews here

Is that "bounce" as in "Save live output to disk (bounce)"? I can't say I've tried it but there is a section in the manual about it. I've just tried it on a thing I'm working on and it failed the first time. I didn't actually play the track and it created a wav file that wouldn't play in media player. Second time I played back the track as I recorded and it was fine