the three most awful guitar mistakes

Subject: RE: the three most awful guitar mistakes
From: GUEST,Alan Whittle
Date: 25 Oct 10 - 07:06 AM

Its a democracy, Richard. You stick your fingers where you want mate.

"I may not agree with you playing D9th in that version of 'Matchstick Men and Matchstick Cats and Dogs', but I die to defend your right to do just that.'

I think Voltaire said that.

Subject: RE: the three most awful guitar mistakes
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 25 Oct 10 - 01:26 AM

Actually I use the D chord with E on top (D9) quite a lot. But it is a bit odd at the bottom.

Subject: RE: the three most awful banjo mistakes
From: Genie
Date: 24 Oct 10 - 09:51 PM

Well, a banjo player friend of mine did that a while back, too -- that is, he left his banjo in the back seat of his car and forgot to lock the car.   When he realized he'd done that, he rushed back to the car. But it was too late.

Somebody had thrown two more banjos in.

Subject: RE: the three most awful guitar mistakes
From: ollaimh
Date: 24 Oct 10 - 06:25 PM

one christmass i did a morning busking the comuters a noon gig for an old folks home an evening gig at a corporate party and still alive i busked the late shift at my local subwat station. made a bundle,but went home dead tired, then in the morning a fiend started throwing rocks at my window. i poked out my head and he said. " hey john you left your instruments in te car over night, and the cars not locked"

really lucky a friend found them!

and lending instruments to flatpickers--they alway seem to scar my lovely instruments.

really people shouldn't be allowed their flatpicj licence untill they have finger picked for at least five years.

Subject: RE: the three most awful guitar mistakes
From: Phil Edwards
Date: 24 Oct 10 - 06:13 PM

The one that bugs me is when folks play in standard tuning and strum all the strings on chords like D, leaving the sixth string open so there's this totally wrong E bass.

The first time I heard this I thought the guy was a master of obscure and recondite chords, and was playing some weird modal stuff*. Then he did another song, with an accompaniment which also seemed to consist entirely of weirdly-augmented drony chords, and the penny dropped.

*Paul Jennings once described someone getting on the piano at a party and bashing out a few tunes, hampered only by the fact that they only knew one chord on the left hand - "which gave every tune a mournful Hebridean quality". You can just hear it.

Subject: RE: the three most awful guitar mistakes
From: GUEST,Roger F
Date: 24 Oct 10 - 05:26 PM

I remember when the late Roger Nicholson saved up for a couple of years to buy a Martin guitar at Ivor Mairants in Rathbone Place in London and set off home and the tube and after alighting at Edgeware Rd station found he'd left it on the train.
Luckily, he got it back.
One big mistake if a resident at a club is to lend your guitar to a professional who turns up without his instrument and then seeing long scratches appearing down the face of your guitar when he blasts out at full volume while using a plectrum.

Subject: RE: the three most awful guitar mistakes
From: Charley Noble
Date: 24 Oct 10 - 04:32 PM

One of the funniest averted guitar disasters I ever witnessed was after a late night song party of a friend, Bill Bonyun, who lived across the Cove. We had said our long good-byes and headed down to the float where the Whaler was moored. I had gotten in and was casting loose the lines when Gary stepped toward where he thought the boat was while talking with Jennifer. Well, the boat was no longer there and as he went down he reached out his arm and placed the guitar case back on the float. SPLASH!!!

Cheerily,
Charley Noble

Subject: RE: the three most awful guitar mistakes
From: C-flat
Date: 24 Oct 10 - 02:53 PM

Certainly one of the funniest guitar mistakes was made by a friend of mine who learned, to his cost, the folly of trying to play jimi-hendrix-style with the guitar behind his head.
As he attempted to whip the guitar over his head, mid-solo, he realised, all too late, that his guitar strap wasn't long enough and hit himself smartly across the forehead, leaving a very nice stratocaster-horn-shaped bruise!
The oddest thing about the whole thing was that he admitted doing this to me and his mates in the pub!!
Suffice to say, we won't ever let him forget it!

Subject: RE: the three most awful guitar mistakes
From: MikeL2
Date: 24 Oct 10 - 09:50 AM

Subject: RE: the three most awful guitar mistakes
From: GUEST,Tunesmith - PM
Date: 23 Oct 10 - 11:23 AM

"< There's nothing natural about playing the guitar. It's a man-made occupation >"

You are sure right there !! I found getting my right-hand thumb to operate independently of my fingers almost impossible at first.....lol

Cheers

MikeL2

Subject: RE: the three most awful guitar mistakes
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 23 Oct 10 - 05:23 PM

I quite like "thumby D" with the F# in the bass.

In single drop D I also like the shift between D with the D in bass and G, double stopped for D and G at the top and with the D open so D and G in the bass - it makes it a diad instead of a full chord.   I like the ambivalence.

Subject: RE: the three most awful guitar mistakes
From: Don Firth
Date: 23 Oct 10 - 04:52 PM

Pete Seeger:

"You don't have to play a lot of notes. Just be sure that the notes you do play are important."

Don Firth

Subject: RE: the three most awful guitar mistakes
From: GUEST,Grishka
Date: 23 Oct 10 - 04:39 PM

Hamish: same with my chest! I'd pronounce it this way:

1) to assume a chord is a set of note names regardless of the octave
2) to ignore the notion of a bass line (I preached about that on another thread)
3) to believe the more notes you sound the better.

Of course this is a misconception mainly held by self-taught merrymakers, Scouts, or protest singers etc., but some even make money with it. If you happen to be a legend like ... uhum, won't mention names ... you can afford that, but legends need no advice from me anyway.

Guitar teachers who fail to mention to their pupils that there is more to the guitar than strumming through, commit a crime. And yes, I know some!

Subject: RE: the three most awful guitar mistakes
From: GUEST,Tunesmith
Date: 23 Oct 10 - 11:23 AM

"If it feels natural, then it must be right!" That's a big mistake a lot of self-taught guitarists ( musicians, full stop) make.
There's nothing natural about playing the guitar. It's a man-made occupation.
To illustrate the point, I would refer to swimming. Now, putting ones face in the water when doing the front crawl doesn't feel natural, but it is the best way to move fast in the water ( as opposed to the doggy-paddle, which does come naturally)

Subject: RE: the three most awful guitar mistakes
From: Hamish
Date: 23 Oct 10 - 07:03 AM

The one that bugs me is when folks play in standard tuning and strum all the strings on chords like D, leaving the sixth string open so there's this totally wrong E bass. Almost as bad is the C chord with an only slightly wrong (and depending on context, potentially very right - see Clapton's Wonderful Tonight) E bass.

Thanks for letting me get that off my chest!!

As for me it's often down to starting too fast and things can get out of control!

Subject: RE: the three most awful guitar mistakes
From: Genie
Date: 23 Oct 10 - 06:55 AM

Well, Alan, I neglected to mention that at least 1/3 of the times when I've showed up for a gig sans my guitar were BECAUSE I had left said guitar at the earlier gig. LOL
Thus, SNAFUs compound like interest does (or at least used to).

(Then there are the times when the room really called for an amp and mic and I had it all with me -- EXCEPT for a) a 2-prong to 3-prong electrical plug adapter, b) an XLR to 1/4" condenser/adaptor, a mic stand, c) some similar minor but essential link in the 'chain', or d) more than one of the above. (I seem to recall something about a battle being lost for want of a horseshoe nail or the like.)   But then, that's a subject for a whole nuther thread (e.g., about what can scuttle a whole gig.

Subject: RE: the three most awful guitar mistakes
From: GUEST,Alan Whittle
Date: 23 Oct 10 - 06:14 AM

Oh Genie! At last someone who seems to have lived the kind of life in music that I did! a jobbing musician!

Please e mail me, if you've got a website - send me it.
My contact details are on my biographical site:-

http://www.bigalwhittle.co.uk/

I can't PM you. I used to be a member of mudcat , but the pedagogical view of folkmusic - which never got to grips with the problems of making the ordinary joes sing - just ground me down and rubbished my life's experiences.

Subject: RE: the three most awful guitar mistakes
From: Genie
Date: 22 Oct 10 - 10:55 PM

Well, I'd say on average, about once every 2 years I show up for a gig sans guitar. (Note that my gigs are nearly always hour-long concerts or sing-alongs or strolling music sessions that pay less than $75 apiece, and in many cases it's no great tragedy for my clients if they have to rely on canned music or the activity dept. gets to use the $ they would have paid me, for another purpose.   I just don't get paid - or I have to reschedule and eat the cost of the extra trip. In any case, I recommend against it.)    I normally have a guitar in my trunk, but once in a blue moon I forget that I had taken it out.)

But on a couple of occasions, I've made the opposite mistake -- left my guitar at the place I was doing a gig. That kind of mistake is potentially much more costly. (Not only can it cost me the fee I would have been paid at the next gig, where I showed up without the guitar, which I had left at the earlier one, but if it should be my best guitar and the staff where I left it weren't honorable, well ... .)


As for the "not washing your hands" thing, hey, it's not just "shit" you have to worry about. What about snot? I mean, how many guitarists wash their hands every time they blow their nose?   How about sneezing on your strings (as you point your head down, so as not to sneeze on your audience? And that person you shook hands with right before you started playing - do you know where THOSE hands had been?
I think maybe the bigger mistake would be eating greasy food or something like a sticky bun right before playing your vintage Martin.



But the admonition against letting just anyone "borrow" your axe is one the sagacity of which I learned the hard way. My best guitar has some deep gouges near the bridge that were put there in the space of about 30 minutes one afternoon by a jerk whom I let play it. He was wailing away on it with a heavy duty flat pick and missing the pick guard. I retrieved the guitar as soon as I realized what was happening, but it was a bit late.

Genie

Subject: RE: the three most awful guitar mistakes
From: Little Hawk
Date: 22 Oct 10 - 10:19 PM

Playing electric guitar in the shower...

Subject: RE: the three most awful guitar mistakes
From: Don Firth
Date: 22 Oct 10 - 09:29 PM

1) Falling off the stage face first and landing on your guitar.

2) Failing to pick up all the pieces after you get up.

3) Trying to glue it back together yourself.

(Fortunately, not an experience I've ever had.)

Don Firth

Subject: RE: the three most awful guitar mistakes
From: Slag
Date: 22 Oct 10 - 09:04 PM

OK. So enough about my son, the guitarist. My own mistakes:

   1. Not knowing enough about the darn thing to know if I'm making mistakes or not.

   2. Not really caring if I make mistakes or not.

   3. Posting about my ineptitude with the guitar on the Mudcat.

Subject: RE: the three most awful guitar mistakes
From: Little Hawk
Date: 22 Oct 10 - 08:06 PM

Anyone can learn to play the guitar if they have 2 hands. Not brilliantly, mind you...that ain't easy...but I think anyone can manage the basics if they just practice regularly and have a half decent instrument to play on.

Subject: RE: the three most awful guitar mistakes
From: framus
Date: 22 Oct 10 - 07:31 PM

As a tenor banjo player, I only ever made one guitar mistake and that was thinking I could play one.

Subject: RE: the three most awful guitar mistakes
From: Mavis Enderby
Date: 22 Oct 10 - 02:15 PM

Yet again I think we're in complete agreement. I hope he converts a few shredders!

Pete.

Subject: RE: the three most awful guitar mistakes
From: GUEST,highlandman at work
Date: 22 Oct 10 - 01:12 PM

Thanks, LH, it's nice to be appreciated.
Leeneia, I was joking at the start and serious later.
I guess I should have put the "seriously" before the list of mistakes.

Yes, that is the actual list of Three Awful Mistakes that's in the pdf that's at the link that's at the bottom of the page that's in the link that's sent to you when you sign up that you have to read all the way through.... ach, never mind.

If you read what the guy writes and try to ignore the hype, it sounds like what he hopes to teach is what he sometimes calls 'brain-hand-connection' and sometimes calls 'putting your heart into the guitar.' Both of which I have to agree with. Mindlessly whacking away at rote-learned patterns on the fretboard in hopes of sounding vaguely like Eddie Van Halen (as if I'd want to) is what he's preaching against, despite statements in his ad that are meant to attract adolescent would-be Shred Gods.

I don't believe that everyone has to be as interested in theory as I am (which is quite a lot). But I do believe it don't hurt, neither. Even when I am finger picking -- heck, even most of the time when I'm strumming chords -- I try have melodic bits going on inside the harmony. It's no different than what classical theory teachers call voice leading, and somewhere I've actually read an old interview with Clapton where he talks about that, and the idea of counterpoint. In electric guitar solos!

Nonetheless, I was not at all tempted to lay down my dough for the DVDs; but I have to admit the gent has some good points. If his approach puts a little music into the cr@p that's passing for popular electric guitar these days, good on 'im.

Burton, IMHO you achieve Nirvana or whatever by absorbing the underlying theories (whether book-larned or absorbed by thoughtful listening) well enough to stop thinking about them, not by skipping learning about them. But yes, in the end it's what sounds good that rules.

Cheers
-Glenn

Subject: RE: the three most awful guitar mistakes
From: GUEST,Jonny Sunshine
Date: 22 Oct 10 - 12:55 PM

My biggest mistake- not checking the earth connection on a borrowed amp. Everything else pales into insignificance.

Subject: RE: the three most awful guitar mistakes
From: Mavis Enderby
Date: 22 Oct 10 - 12:49 PM

I think I'm in agreement with Glenn - the three mistakes don't sound too daft.

Do you achieve Nirvana (not the band) when you stop worrying about scales and just play what sounds good?

Just a thought...

Subject: RE: the three most awful guitar mistakes
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 22 Oct 10 - 11:13 AM

When you strum or pick you are playing melodies. It's just that you are playing other notes along with the melody that harmonise with it.

Subject: RE: the three most awful guitar mistakes
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 22 Oct 10 - 11:04 AM

Unless he is joking, Highlandman got the three mistakes for us, and they are:

Mistake #1 - too many scales and keys without ever deeply mastering a single scale.
Mistake #2 - not making real music out of the scales.
Mistake #3 - mindlessly repeating scale patterns.


Doesn't apply to me. I use my guitar to accompany other instruments, not to play melodies. If I want to play a scale-based piece, I can sing, use a recorder or play piano.

I suspect I shall always be a folk guitarist who picks and strums, not a classical guitarist who plays melodies and thinks about scales.

Subject: RE: the three most awful guitar mistakes
From: Mooh
Date: 22 Oct 10 - 10:27 AM

1) Not practicing enough.

2) Talking about not practicing enough.

3) See number 1 and 2.

Really, I should have got serious about playing sooner. Initially (in my teens) it was all about me hybernating in my adolescent bedroom. Then (in my 20s) it was as much a vehicle to party and get chicks. By the time I got serious (in my 30s), I was studying and songwriting again. I should have started teaching it ten years earlier except I didn't take it seriously enough. Getting serious about guitar has made my piano chops slide a lot though.

Peace, Mooh.

Subject: RE: the three most awful guitar mistakes
From: Little Hawk
Date: 22 Oct 10 - 09:41 AM

I can hardly think what we'd do without you, highlandman. Thanks for dropping in.

Subject: RE: the three most awful guitar mistakes
From: GUEST,highlandman at work
Date: 22 Oct 10 - 09:39 AM

BTW, kiddies, I don't recommend blindly diving into these email submissions either. I have a very good firewall and a 'trash' email account I use just for this sort of thing.
Cheers
-G

Subject: RE: the three most awful guitar mistakes
From: GUEST,highlandman at work
Date: 22 Oct 10 - 09:37 AM

Alan, I too find it more gratifying to make our own original mistakes than to be content with the same ones 99% of everyone else makes.
-G

Subject: RE: the three most awful guitar mistakes
From: GUEST,highlandman at work
Date: 22 Oct 10 - 09:34 AM

Alex, see upthread:

Subject: RE: the three most awful guitar mistakes
From: Bee-dubya-ell
Date: 21 Oct 10 - 09:18 AM

So, has anyone actually submitted the form to find what three mistakes they're talking about? (Sorry, but I'm not giving my email address to
someone I don't know, "No Spam" guarantee or otherwise.)

Subject: RE: the three most awful guitar mistakes
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 21 Oct 10 - 04:28 PM

Won't SOMEONE please log in to the ad?

Subject: RE: the three most awful guitar mistakes
From: GUEST,alan Whittle
Date: 22 Oct 10 - 09:33 AM

so those of us who have never actually learned any scales...all those mistakes we were making, they're not as awful as...well this is bollocks, isn't it?

I feel I have made a better class of mistake.

Subject: RE: the three most awful guitar mistakes
From: alex s
Date: 22 Oct 10 - 09:25 AM

Glenn, what on earth are you on about?

Subject: RE: the three most awful guitar mistakes
From: GUEST,highlandman at work
Date: 22 Oct 10 - 09:11 AM

Okay, I did it.
I'd love to share it with my Mudcat friends.
Of course you realize that since I've invested so much time and effort cracking the code to discover these AWESOME secrets you JUST HAVE to know to be a GUITAR GOD, I can't just post it here for free.

Oh, crap, sorry -- after reading pages and pages of this stuff it kind of rubs off on you.

Mistake #1 - too many scales and keys without ever deeply mastering a single scale.
Mistake #2 - not making real music out of the scales.
Mistake #3 - mindlessly repeating scale patterns.

Duh.

Seriously, having plowed through all this I have to say that there may be some real content in this guy's material. But the volume of scammish hype is very offputting.

Cheers
-Glenn

Subject: RE: the three most awful guitar mistakes
From: alex s
Date: 22 Oct 10 - 07:53 AM

The first time I played a big theatre i was really nervous and after the first song left the capo on by mistake - I started my next song 3 frets higher than it should have been. I was too inexperienced to stop and make a joke of it so I went for the impossible high note AND HIT IT! (and I've never hit it since!)
Just shows what fear can do....

Subject: RE: the three most awful guitar mistakes
From: cooperman
Date: 22 Oct 10 - 04:44 AM

I too once put the capo on in the wrong place (one fret too low). All went well until I came to the bridge which was barre chords higher up the neck. Of course I played them in the usual place. I carried on manfully hoping it would be thought of as a subtle key change! I now call that the jazz version!!!

Subject: RE: the three most awful guitar mistakes
From: Slag
Date: 21 Oct 10 - 11:17 PM

1. Playing in the presence of my son who doesn't miss the chance to inform me that I can't play. He "shreds" everybody!

2. Spending hundreds and hundreds of dollars on guitar lessons for my son so that he could "shred" everyone!

3. Thinking that I would get to hear my son, "The Shredder" actually play a recognizable tune or song all the way through or to ever really discover for what all that money was spent!

Subject: RE: the three most awful guitar mistakes
From: Fossil
Date: 21 Oct 10 - 06:16 PM

Well one awful mistake I made was when playing with my church group, in a rather nice modern hymn along with a piano, cello, flute, violin and another guitarist: as I struck my first chord, which rang loud and clear, I realised that I had put the capo on one fret below where it should've been....

Everyone else was very kind, we restarted with the capo in the right place and all was well thereafter.

Ever since, I have made sure to hand-write the capo position in large red letters at the top of the music, every time I have to use it!

Subject: RE: the three most awful guitar mistakes
From: GUEST,Alan Whittle
Date: 21 Oct 10 - 05:32 PM

Yeh nice to hear from you Brian. come and see us in Dorset - got a bed settee you can kip on. lots of traddy action round here, who knows they may like you!

Mind you, word on the street is that you're definitely one of the 99 percent making three awful mistakes.

Subject: RE: the three most awful guitar mistakes
From: Little Hawk
Date: 21 Oct 10 - 05:27 PM

Only perverts do that! Never try it with steel strings, by the way...

Subject: RE: the three most awful guitar mistakes
From: GUEST,999
Date: 21 Oct 10 - 04:56 PM

LOL

Subject: RE: the three most awful guitar mistakes
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 21 Oct 10 - 04:56 PM

Playing a guitar back to front...

Subject: RE: the three most awful guitar mistakes
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 21 Oct 10 - 04:28 PM

Won't SOMEONE please log in to the ad?

Subject: RE: the three most awful guitar mistakes
From: GUEST,999
Date: 21 Oct 10 - 01:28 PM

Guitars strapped to one`s shoulder being held by the strap and the head down, the body up. I`ve seen them get away and actually saw one split on the side.

Kids taking guitars outside in winter, no case.

Subject: RE: the three most awful guitar mistakes
From: GUEST,999
Date: 21 Oct 10 - 01:24 PM

I feel like puking when I see guitars leaned against walls is such a manner that a mild breeze could make them fall.

Subject: RE: the three most awful guitar mistakes
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 21 Oct 10 - 01:19 PM

Good thing you were only joking, Rockhen. Life may be real, life may be earnest, but guitars are cosmic.

Subject: RE: the three most awful guitar mistakes
From: Rockhen
Date: 21 Oct 10 - 12:01 PM

1 Seeing a guitar in a shop and thinking it looks 'nice'.
2 Parting with hard earned money for the same...er...instrument...
3 Not taking it back when it sounds like a guitar and asking for something with keys instead.

OK OK I couldn't resist it...guitars are necessary...someone has to spend time tuning at gigs... ;-)

o n l y   j o k i n g :-)

Subject: RE: the three most awful guitar mistakes
From: autoharpbob
Date: 21 Oct 10 - 11:44 AM

Giving a perfectly good spanish guitar away to a girl at Uni who wanted to learn and let me sit right close next to her and hold down the chords while she strummed it.

Sucker.