So far, we’ve been playing as if you only had one finger on the right hand (or two, like Bruce Langhorne). If plain strumming — whether with a plectrum or one of the fingers — is guitar playing’s equivalent to the pathetic one-button Mac mouse, fingerpicking is more like an advanced gaming mouse, or the vim editor, where the whole keyboard is available as “buttons”.
Sure enough — you may get along fine with one button most of the time, but if God had intended us to strum, he wouldn’t have given us five fingers, now, would he? Anyway: we have them — it’s stupid not to be able to use them.
Just a quick note to say that I haven’t abandoned the lessons series, I’ve just been having a Christmas and a headache.
What remains are: Two days of fingerpicking glory, one more chord lesson covering the thousands of chords remaining; a brief look into open tunings (with an obvious focus on Blood on the Tracks); a batch of licks and tricks; and a final lesson summing up some things that might be worth a word or two in addition to what has already been said — tuning, chord family characters, etc.
“Died and were reborn,
and then mysteriously saved”
Bob Dylan: “Oh Sister”
I can’t begin to tell you how much I’ve been looking forward to this post: the post where the ugly duckling, despised by everyone, turns out to be a swan.
All it takes is to tune the sixth string one tone down, and something wonderful happens to the D major chord.
Let’s take it from the beginning and summarize the charges against D:
It uses only four out of six strings, giving it an unnecesarily crippled, thin sound
it has the third at the top, which is not necessarily bad, but requires some extra care.
Below that is a rigid octave/fifth skeleton, which — again — is not wrong per se, but …
“let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth” (Matthew 6:3)
“there should be no schism in the body; but the members should have the same care one for another” (1 Cor. 12:25)
Jesus and St Paul may not be best known as guitar tutors, but their advice, if taken together, not only becomes a mystic almost-contradiction (of the kind which probably makes sense if you’re a true believer — Merry Christmas!), but is actually sound advice. The problem is precisely how to combine the two statements.
A good strumming technique depends on the two hands being able to work together at doing things separately, without regard for what the other hand does.
Strumming techniques
As always, Dylan is our guide. …
My order has been messed up. I had intended to stick to a steady left hand — right hand — left hand etc. rhythm for the remaining posts. Today was going to be some more flatpicking/right hand techniques, but I realized that we need one more group of chords in place before we go further.
So: get ready to fail, sweat, and swear, with …
The first major hurdle: Barre chords
Dm7, one of the chords that were presented on Day 6, introduces the concept of the barre chord: a chord where the same finger is used for several strings at the same time. This two-string mini barre — xx0211 — is the simplest possible variant, but before the …
If less is more, is “lesson” the opposite of “moron”, or is it even more stupid?
More Chords
Forget all about which hand is most artisty — today it’s all about chords.
So far, we’ve covered most of the “simple” chords. Here are the ones that are left:
o oo o o oo o oooo
====== ====== ======
|||1|| |||1|| ||||||
—— —— ——
|23||| |2|||| |2||||
—— —— ——
|||||| |||||| …
It’s been said about guitar playing that the left hand is the craftsman, but the right hand is the artist. I first read that when I was a kid, struggling with some classical guitar etudes or whatever, and I thought it was a great quote — only whoever said it must have gotten the hands mixed up. Surely, the left hand must be the artist?
But no: even though most of the rehearsal time — at least as a classical guitarist — is spent on figuring out fingerings and practicing transitions between chords, that’s “just” craftsmanship. It’s the right hand that makes the music. Rhythm, as we discussed yesterday, is of course the main right-hand task. But also the sound quality …
My original idea was to write a post in this series each day for two weeks. Obviously, I won’t be able to keep up that speed, but I’m sure you can find things to practice on even on days without a new post.
One of the reasons why it takes longer than planned is of course that I can’t keep from blabbering on about theory and such. It’s an occupational injury I have, but I also happen to think it’s a good thing to know why things are the way they are.
You can take it or leave it. I try to separate the theory from the practical contents, so that if you just want the chord shapes and the hints on …
