New concepts for old techniques

Subject: New instrumental techniques
From: Duane D.
Date: 19 Jul 99 - 06:43 PM

I was with bbc this past weekend visiting her sister and family in Yarmouth, Maine. bbc's 12 year old niece had received a guitar for Christmas and is new to guitar playing. I was showing her some guitar playing techniques and eventually discussed open tunings. After retuning to open G and playing some tunes, I mentioned playing with a slide. A search of the family room failed to produce anything suitable to use for a slide until I found the tv remote, the edge of which was marginally acceptable. My new concept I affectionately call "Remote Control Slide Guitar." Has anyone else out in Mudcatland recently had a similar experience? Best Regards, Duane.

Subject: RE: New concepts for old techniques
From: Joe Offer
Date: 19 Jul 99 - 06:54 PM

If all you do is strum, a credit card makes a good Autoharp pick. Actually, I use old medical insurance cards - the insurance company gives me a new one every time they increase the share I have to pay...
-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: New concepts for old techniques
From: Bryant
Date: 19 Jul 99 - 06:58 PM

I used to capo my guitar by using a pencil (broken to be just a little longer than the fretboard is wide) and a lot of stout rubber bands. Pain in the ass to get on but once on it worked as well as any capo I've ever used.

Other things to use when your slide is in absentia:

1) Bic lighter
2) Swiss Army knives (the body)
3) Beer bottle (other bottles work but there's something about used alcohol containers and slide guitar : )

Subject: RE: New concepts for old techniques
From: catspaw49
Date: 19 Jul 99 - 07:00 PM

Uh, no Duane, I haven't. And I'm having second thoughts about giving your room at the Neil Young Center to Joe Offer who I recently found out gets his kicks out of looking at members of the opposite sex through a wobbling blob of Lime Jello!

Thinking about discussion on that same thread, I suppose you could have baked one up out of Bisquik. Lord knows it'd be hard enough.

Spaw

Subject: RE: New concepts for old techniques
From: Helen
Date: 19 Jul 99 - 07:09 PM

Until recently in Oz, bread tags (i.e. little square bits of plastic with a hole set in from the side uand used to keep the plastic bread bag closed - hard to describe) were the common alternative to plectrums if the nasty little critters decided to go walkabout in the middle of a session.

This explains why guitarists are often heard complaining that they don't have any "bread" (sorry - NOT *BG*)

Unfortunately for guitarists, but fortunately for the fish, someone invented a more environmentally friendly alternative to bread tags. (Apparently if the tags make their way via littering into the waterways the fish choke on them. They are also dangerous for little kids & babies.)

Helen

Subject: RE: New concepts for old techniques
From: Art Thieme
Date: 19 Jul 99 - 07:57 PM

Back in the early 70s I used 4 elastic stretch capos to hold my parka closed.

Art

Subject: RE: New concepts for old techniques
From: Bert
Date: 20 Jul 99 - 09:09 AM

The traditional plectrum for an Oud is an eagle's quill. However, you will see a strip cut from a plastic bottle used more often nowadays.

That's the folk process for you.
It is not limitited to music though; when I was in Bahrain I saw a 'nargila' (hubble bubble pipe) made from a discarded dishwashing liquid bottle.

Bert.

Subject: RE: New concepts for old techniques
From: Barbara
Date: 20 Jul 99 - 09:20 AM

Bread wrapper clips are still in use in the US, for both purposes.
YOu can also get a truly amazing sound from an autoharp if you get someone else to chord it, and play it percussively (as in drumsticks) with two fairly lightweight metal knitting needles. Or set it on the table and use one, and do the chording yourself.
There's also a performer around here (Scott Huckaby) who plays the surface of his guitar (squeak, squwaaaaaa)by slding his thumb along it, plays the strings above the nut, plays the strings above and below the slide, uses the body percussively with both hands and pick, and finally has his instrument partially filled with something (plastic beads maybe?) that makes it sound like a rainstick when he dips the peghead downward. If you don't know this (never saw him live) the music sounds surprising ly normal.
Blessings,
Barbara

Subject: RE: New concepts for old techniques
From: Jeri
Date: 20 Jul 99 - 09:32 AM

At our session last Fri, three fiddlers played a tune by fingering their own instruments and bowing someone else's. A couple of guitarists saw this and copied the idea. I'm glad the concertina players didn't try swapping right hands or something or we would have had the Fire Department there with the "Jaws of Life."

My pick of choice for dulcimer is a wedge cut out of a plastic can lid or bleach bottle.

Subject: RE: New concepts for old techniques
From: Cap't Bob
Date: 20 Jul 99 - 10:17 AM

Imagine sitting around a campfire and having the urge to play your didjeridu only to discover that someone has tossed your instrument into the fire. This happens to me quite often. If you happen to look across the field and see a K-Mart (a very likely occurrence)~~ your problem is solved. K-Mart sells golf club sheaths (the type that is inserted in golf bags) for 97 cents. These devices can be used as a ready made didjeridu. You can spend more at a pro shop but what the heck.

A friend of mine, who can make music out of about anything, discovered the K-Mart didjeridu. For more information check out:

http://edcen.ehhs.cmich.edu/~dhavlena/d.htm

Subject: RE: New concepts for old techniques
From: Margo
Date: 20 Jul 99 - 10:28 AM

We used to put pencils on the baby grand's strings, and it gave the piano a very honky tonk sound. Silly Kids.

Margarita

Subject: RE: New concepts for old techniques
From: The Shambles
Date: 20 Jul 99 - 04:33 PM

Jeri.

Isn't there a word for those who insist on "fingering their own instruments"?

Subject: RE: New concepts for old techniques
From: Allan C.
Date: 20 Jul 99 - 04:48 PM

Margarita, we used to get a pretty good honky tonk sound by putting thumbtacks in the hammer pads.

Subject: RE: New concepts for old techniques
From: Jeri
Date: 20 Jul 99 - 08:24 PM

Shambles, I seem to remember there was once a term for the technique of playing one's instrument without assistance, but it's not coming to me right now. I did some reading on ancient instruments once, and it came as a real surprise that ancient violins were always played with one individual doing the fingering and another wielding the bow. This new one-person-one-instrument technique was supposedly invented by Freda Von Wank when a she (a fingerer) became incensed over a bower finishing a tune several minutes before she did.