Playin’ geetar…
So I've had my guitar for a week now. The right hand stuff is coming back fast, the left hand is soft and weak. Hand strength is improving, but I need better calluses.
I'm really liking The How and the Tao of Folk Guitar by Patrick Costello.
When I played guitar for four years, fifth to eighth grade, I really didn't like it. It was just another class to take, and I was never comfortable with the guitar or any good at it. I just wasn't interested in guitar music, and I never had any real individual instruction. I just muddled along with the rest of the class.
I love Patrick's approach. Working in an open tuning, where all the major chords are simple barre chords, means I don't have to worry so much about the left hand while I concentrate on learning to do something interesting with the right hand.
Barre chords have their limitations... in open G, an F chord is high pitched compared the open G chord, which makes singing along awkward. But it's a quick starter, and I think the most important thing at this stage is being able to have fun... and it's easy- to noodle around in this mode, because the chord fingering is dead obvious and easy to reach. (A tad difficult to play, holding all six strings flat with one finger, but that's getting better as my hand strength improves.) (I need better calluses because I'm trying a few non-barre chords, and my middle finger is too fat... I need the callus built up so the string doesn't press so deep into my finger, which in turn will keep the thick pad of my finger from descending into the plane of the strings.)
So I'm taking it slow through the book... I'm "stuck" at the alternating bass note and getting smooth chord changes (not so hard to find the chord, but to get all the strings to ring out clearly). But that's okay, I'm having fun and want to get this part down solid before I move on. Which is what Patrick says to do... (paraphrasing) "it may take you a couple of weeks, but don't come back until you can do it like I showed ya." In his free online videos, he stresses over and over the importance of having a solid foundation.
New guitar! and online resources
My guitar arrived today.
It's an Austin Guitars AU336N Classical. With a name like "Austin", you think they'd be steeped in Texas guitar tradition... but like all inexpensive guitars, it's made in China and imported by a place in St Louis. It's nice, though. Nothing fancy (you don't get "fancy" in a $175 guitar), but it seems well-built and sounds good. I bought it from FirstGuitar.com, which is primarily aimed at "students"... hey, I'm a student of the guitar. I bought from them because they give a full inspection, adjustment and setup, which is uncommon in beginner guitars. And they have a 100% money-back guarantee, so if it wasn't everything they said it was, I could return it. :)
I've been looking at various self-teaching resources and ran across Patrick Costello's Pik-Ware Publishing. Patrick has written a handful of books on folk banjo and guitar, which are carried in music and book stores.
Now here's what's cool... he's released his books and video under a Creative Commons license. In one blog post, he says he sells more books since he released them under CC than he did before. "See, I'm not just an idealist. I'm an idealist with health insurance." You have to search his blog, Tangier Sound, to find the free content, though... he doesn't link to it or mention it from the pik-ware.com site anywhere I can find.
On top of all that, on his blog he releases free content at an amazing pace... The Folksong of the Day is a short not-quite-daily vidcast teaching folksongs on guitar and banjo, with a little philosophy and wisdom mixed in. The Daily Frail is podcast teaching frailing (downward-strumming) banjo, and his new Subway Shuffle podcast teaches folk guitar.
Here's what's even more amazing... Patrick has released himself as an "open-source music resource". You pay travel, room and board, and he'll give a workshop for no fee. Because he believes that music is something you are supposed to share, and all the old-timers who taught him how to play never charged him for it. (Okay, so apparently he's getting some free trips to foreign countries out of the deal.)
He's just amazing. The folk guitar book is pretty good so far, and he's just plain inspiring.
New strings, new sound…
Cool... I put new nylon strings on my son's guitar and it sounds just great now. No more sharp fretted notes. And it sounds really good for a $40 LTD guitar. (I finally asked my mom.)
Yup, that's his guitar in the picture (the natural one, not the pink), except now it's only $19.95. And they brag about how it has "real steel strings"... except it's a nylon-string design and shouldn't have steel strings. Heh.
Cosmetically, it has a few blemishes... the fretboard is the worst, as it's painted and not all that well. But it looks fairly well-constructed, and sound-wise, it sounds pretty darn good. No buzzing, nice clear tone. It certainly doesn't sound like a toy, and now that it plays in tune, I'm pretty darn happy with it. I am no longer frustrated with my mom... she did good. (Pure luck, but hey. At $20, I should buy a spare.)
I'm new to nylon strings... tuning new nylon strings is like tuning Silly Putty. At first, it goes out of tune every time you strum it. Like, a full revolution of the turning keys out of tune. After jillion retunings, it's finally settled down to the point I can play it for more than ten minutes without retuning it.
If anyone cares (and this is for my own record more than anything), I used La Bella 2001 Light Tension Concert Series Classical Guitar Strings. $7.99 from Strings and Beyond.com. Prompt shipping, price was right. Good selection... they had a lot of "light tension" strings where Musician's Friend didn't.
I like the sound of these strings, although the high string is a little "plinky" tuned to D (open G tuning, DGDGBD). That may be more of a function of the half-sized guitar than the quality of string, and it might sound better when tuned up to the standard E.