things twice

“I’m not God — I’m just a saint.”

Richard M. Stallman

The Phoenix > News Features > Tilting at Windows

Richard M. Stallman is a legendary figure without whom the world would have looked very different, and one of those few whose initials — RMS — is a concept, on a par with JFK and LBJ.

Within certain circles, that is. Outside of those circles, most people have never heard of him.

Back in the 70s he was a super-hacker at MIT, deeply involved in and committed to the creative movement where program code was shared freely, making everyone involved better coders thanks to the community.

In the 80s, when the commercial potential in computers and software started to rear …

This lesson is all theory, but it’s theory that you’re going to have use for more often than any other theory item so far. It answers two questions: “What the … does F#m9-5 and E+ mean?”, and “I made up this great chord, but now I want to write it down before I forget it. But what do I call it?”

You could of course call it Gerald, or write down the fingering, but if you want a piano player to know what you mean you might as well give it the correct name.
What’s (in) a chord?
So far, we’ve treated a chord mainly as a way to place the fingers on the fretboard, with some consideration given to the most important …

Today’s lesson will pick up from where the previous ended and take it further in two directions. And be warned: this lesson is probably the most advanced lesson in the whole series. As one commenter wrote, these songs are not easy to play.  They demonstrate some more advanced things you can do with fingerpicking once you have a grasp of the basic technique.

The techniques we have been using so far are mostly just a more elaborate way to play the chords in a tune, but in principle, they might as well be strummed. Where fingerpicking shines, however, is in the ability to pick out melodies and little riffs.

To this end, there are three techniques that come in handy, and one …

Here’s a little something for those who need to chill out to some good music between lessons:

He’s doing exactly the right thing: no matter if you have to pick your nose, scratch your butt or do some facial gymnastics: keep the flow!

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.

A note on fingers and nails
Before we …

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 …