1

(10 replies, posted in Introduce yourself)

Welcome Novice 1!
Whern the bug really gets bad, you'll find the guitar grumbles at you if you walk past and ignore it.
Has you part of the US been affected by the blizzards?
   
from another recent recruit.

2

(13 replies, posted in Introduce yourself)

Thanks, Polyal - that's helpful. I need to have your suggestion on view to refer to as I re-twiddle, then I might have to ask a couple of subsidiary questions, if you don't mind.
It certainly sounds good, after I puffed some air through to de-crackle the pots.
Cogs

3

(24 replies, posted in Music Theory)

Olly, I hope you don't mind be dredging up this old thread I found- I'm really into nice chord changes.
I don't write much original material, but I often try to modify/rearrange songs I like.
The kind of minor-ish effect you mention is used in "It won't be Long" (Lennon/McCartney) (47 years ago?!)
It's in E. The chords for each bar of the verse go:
E       C7      E     C7      C#m     E       C#m      E     
C#m     A, Bbdim    E

The use of C7 make the tune change subtly from straight major to the minorish effect you were taslking about.
The song has an interesting, but easy to play ending too, with a held "E" on strings 1 and 6 while the middle 4 strings play chords sliding down each crotchet through G, F#, F and down to E before ending on Emaj7. When I heard the end of Stravinsky's "Firebird", I realized where the Beatles nicked this particular idea from.
Another similar I found was, to do 2 bars on the key chord, say C, then 2 beats on C#maj7 so a "c" is sustained through the bar before returning to C. This works well as a lazy bridge between 2 verses.
C to Abmj7 and back also works, and so does C to Ab7 and back- the latter being what "It won't be long" uses.
Another

4

(13 replies, posted in Introduce yourself)

Hi, Instructor. Thanks for the offer. I'm attaching a photo to help. I'll try to attach more, but an earlier attempt lost me the whole draft reply.
What is shown is the spaghetti nightmare near one of the tone controls. Each tone control is a dual pot which seems to sweep the frequency range. For each tone control there is a switch on the front of the guitar which selects 3 options, but are they peaks, troughs or what?

Instructor wrote:

Hi Cogs,

Welcome to the forum.  Go ahead and post up a pic of the control cavity and as many ways as possible to show the different wires and connections, and I'll see if I can't help.

Instructor

http://s3.postimage.org/1pmkiwmkk/DSCF4718.jpg

http://s3.postimage.org/1pmssld1g/DSCF4715.jpg

http://s3.postimage.org/1pn7ofhhg/DSCF4717.jpg

5

(13 replies, posted in Introduce yourself)

Hi Polyal
I'm attempting to send a photo (2nd attempt). It is a beauty, but unfortunately doesn't get the use it deserves these days, since I mostly play my acoustics. One mad idea I had was to add to the Aria a Shadow Nanomag pickup which (if the example on the Shadow website is accurate) gives a usable acoustic sound from an electric, usable enough for your average open mic session. My guitar mender was horrified when I put the idea to him!

polyal wrote:

hi cogs
i know what you mean ...ive only got 3 on mine ..they're all full up

have you tried googling it
[youtube]/watch?v=vwBO8fxJJYY..can you understand spanish[/youtube]

what a fantastic git is this the same as yours

i dont think this link is working
but theres stuff on youtube about it

http://s3.postimage.org/1pldixlqc/DSCF4719.jpg

6

(13 replies, posted in Introduce yourself)

Olly wrote:

Hi and welcome to the forum.

I have no idea on your question but I am sure someone here will help.

What music are you into?

Hi Olly. I could be seen as a musical tart! Rock, Jazz, Folk, Classical- anything with a chord sequence.
I was so desperate to perform that in 1966 when I was 17, I walked into a pub and just started playing. I was paid in beer. I've played in covers bands, sung solo in pubs and folk clubs, love working out chord solos of standards. I played with a band at Glastonbury a few years ago (not on the main stage!) Currently I'm in a duo with a female singer playing guitar (L'Arrivee L5 and 'weathered' 1970 FG180 Yamaha) and doing harmony vocals. We're doing local open mic sessions, but I want to get back into pub-gigging.

Hello back, James. Are you really a beginner if you've made 335 posts?
Anyway, re: tunes using just G, C and D
There are lots of folk tunes which only use 2 or 3 chords, but in case you want something a bit more rock-y, here are 3 well-known tunes which don't change chord too rapidly
1)"Love is a stranger" (Eurhythmics) can be done with just D and G
2)Sloop John B (Beach Boys and others) is good in G- it's an easy tune to sing. In G, the tune doesn't go up very high for the average voice.
3)Johnny B Goode (Chuck Berry) is also easy to sing in G and is good for getting used to the 12-bar blues format which is used in lots of classic rock tunes
If you have trouble working out where the chords come, let me know.
Advice re. technique-
1) Practice hard changing between 2 chords (any 2, but especially the ones used in the song) till you can do it smoothly and fairly quickly
2)slow down the tempo so you can play big chunks of the chosen song without making big mistakes
Good luck

jamesd74 wrote:

Just wondering what cords you need to learn, i have started to learn D, G, C. Does anybody know a song to learn for beginners and any advice on technique would be a big help.

Cheers.

8

(13 replies, posted in Introduce yourself)

Hallo to hundreds of potential new mates.
I'm looking forward to asking lots of difficult questions and perhaps passing on the odd useless nugget of information to others.
Question: I am trying to fathom out the exact workings of the tone controls on my early 80s (very beautiful) Aria Pro II RS850 electric. I gigged with it for about 15 years, but was never sure what on earth all the knobs and switches were doing. Is there anyone who had one of these or a similar model who can shed light?