final word on the recent guitar debate

Subject: final word on the recent guitar debate
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 21 Jul 09 - 12:31 PM

A few weeks ago I asked, "Can a guitar be tuned up a step?" (Or something like that.) I can't find the thread now.

The answer seemed to be "no." However, people were interested in what kind of guitar I really had. The possibility was raised that it is a 'tierce' or 'trez,' a guitar which is tuned high. (The clerk in the store had said it was a half-size classical, but that was wrong.)

Recently I had an inspiration, and I looked in the guitar, noted the model number and googled it. Eventually I learned that the guitar was distributed by the St Louis Music Co and is a 3/4 size classical. I called the company and spoke to a man who said that it takes the usual strings (EADGBE) with normal tension.

None of that helps with my original problem, which is that almost all hymns are too high for me and for most of my congregation. However, I have one new way to help with that. I find tunes in G and transpose them to E. That involves mastering a three-fingered B and an F#, but I did it. This brings the number of chords I know up to an impressive 16.

A cultural note here: things go much better when everybody really knows the tune. So I decided to push the envelope and use "God Be with You till We Meet Again" for the final song. I figured, everybody knows that.

As I was practicing, I told my husband that all my life had been to meetings that ended with that song, and it made me think of all the nice white ladies who had helped me along and been kind to me. To my amazement, he said he had never heard it in his life. To me, this is like saying that one was never seen a Chevy or eaten a hot dog.

Well, he knows it now.

(For that one, we had to go from C to A.)

Subject: RE: final word on the recent guitar debate
From: The Sandman
Date: 21 Jul 09 - 12:48 PM

I have never seen a chevrolet,I heard a Corncrake once,but chevrolets are very rare in Ireland.

Subject: RE: final word on the recent guitar debate
From: Wesley S
Date: 21 Jul 09 - 01:14 PM

Have you tried a capo? Was that discussed in the earlier thread?

Subject: RE: final word on the recent guitar debate
From: Leadfingers
Date: 21 Jul 09 - 01:15 PM

Thats me one up on Dick ! I have not only SEEN a Chevrolet , but have hired and driven TWO when visiting USA !

Subject: RE: final word on the recent guitar debate
From: SharonA
Date: 21 Jul 09 - 01:36 PM

Leeneia: Hooray! Glad to hear that you resolved the congregation-versus-guitar issue... and learned some new chords, too! What's a 3-fingered B?

Wesley: Here is the thread to which Leeneia refers, wherein we discussed the capo option ad nauseum: hurt my guitar to tune it a step high?

Subject: RE: final word on the recent guitar debate
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 21 Jul 09 - 02:50 PM

What's a three-fingered B?

Find the fourth fret up from the low end. Put fingers on the D, G, and B strings. Play only those three.

It works in an emergency.

Subject: RE: final word on the recent guitar debate
From: The Sandman
Date: 21 Jul 09 - 02:58 PM

ah leenia,but you can play that b open too,no need to finger it,double your B.s.,different inversion.B MODAL
lead fingers,bet you have never heard a Corncrake.

Subject: RE: final word on the recent guitar debate
From: Amos
Date: 21 Jul 09 - 03:02 PM

And, you can play the same "three-fingered B" with two fingers, by folding down the ring finger to cover the two higher strings while the middle finger covers the lower one. The open high E can be played, with this, or you can use the index finger to make it into an F#.


A

Subject: RE: final word on the recent guitar debate
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 21 Jul 09 - 05:43 PM

Captain, that's a good point. It occurred to me that I was covering up a B while playing a B chord, but the three fingers pressed down in a single row feel comfortable.

As I told Sharon, that's my B for an emergency. In a panic situation, simply, put the index finger on the second string, second fret and plunk that, perhaps alternating with the open B string further down for finesse.

As I said in the first thread, guitar is not my life's work.

Subject: RE: final word on the recent guitar debate
From: Tootler
Date: 21 Jul 09 - 05:44 PM

Leadfingers, that makes you one up on me. I hired and drove ONE when on holiday in the USA.

Subject: RE: final word on the recent guitar debate
From: Murray MacLeod
Date: 21 Jul 09 - 06:13 PM

if you drove it to the levee, that puts you one up ...

Subject: RE: final word on the recent guitar debate
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 22 Jul 09 - 11:53 AM

'bet you have never heard a Corncrake'

Long ago, I heard a Scottish band do a song lamenting the vanishing of corncrakes in our lax modern society.

Just now I went to Cornell University's prestigious ornithology site to listen to the sound of a corncrake. Cornell's search engine does not find a corncrake or a corn crake, which is tantamount to saying there is no such bird.

If they've been making us lament the passing of a bird that doesn't even exist, there is going to be a big blow-up soon in the world of folk.

Subject: RE: final word on the recent guitar debate
From: number 6
Date: 22 Jul 09 - 12:04 PM

"have you ever heard a corncrake?"

if not

now you can

the cry of a corncrake

biLL

Subject: RE: final word on the recent guitar debate
From: number 6
Date: 22 Jul 09 - 12:08 PM

blue linky didn't work ..

try again here ... a corncrake

or if that still doesn't work cut and paste this and go there

http://www.rspb.org.uk/wildlife/birdguide/name/c/corncrake/index.asp

biLL

Subject: RE: final word on the recent guitar debate
From: GUEST,Tunesmith
Date: 22 Jul 09 - 12:56 PM

I would check to see how the string length of your guitar lines up with a full size classical guitar. If, say for example, it only came up to the third fret on a standard guitar, then you could tune the first string to "g" - and tune all the rest of the strings relative to that. That would, of course, result in all the chords you know sounding a tone and a half higher. If you don't want to go down that route then standard tuning would result in a less brilliant sound. You could, of course, sort of compensate by using high tension strings.

Subject: RE: final word on the recent guitar debate
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 22 Jul 09 - 04:49 PM

Thanks for the tip, tunesmith.

Thanks for the link, 6. I think I know why the Latin name is 'crex crex.'

Subject: RE: final word on the recent guitar debate
From: Tim Leaning
Date: 25 Jul 09 - 12:25 PM

I too have finally mastered all the chords.
hang on whadya mean there are 16?