"but those who can really answer questions raised here are often contradictory, and are confusing to those of us who would rather hear from musicians, songwriters, and singers whose word we could really trust."

Sigh, that's real life - sorting the bull from the dust....

"I find the facts of those using nick-names to be often wrong, at best. Having said that the digital tradition is very helpful."

Anonymous GUESTS are not always wrong. And if you don't know anything, how would you know some of the advice that sounds strange and unusual is NOT correct? As for contradictory - just how many ways can you play say, a D major chord on for example, a guitar? Hehehe... and we won't even go into how the strings are tuned at all....

Robin