19
It is a different voicing, but since the lowest note i.e. the bass note is different, it's also a different inversion, and it changes the chord's function a little bit. With the lowest E sounding your chord is an A/E, which is slightly different. It's still an A major, but it's a second inversion A major. (First inversion would have C# as the lowest note. ...
16
The instrument in question is an Ibanez with a Floyd Rose tremolo system, which allows you to provide vibrato without changing tuning.
They have a locking nut, with three hex bolts holding the string in position. Once the nut is tightened, the tension between the nut and tuner is immaterial. It should hold tuning even when the string is broken.
For most ...
15
There isn't any rhythm in that tab.
In the absence of any rhythm, and with the numbers written with even spacing which provides no visual hints at rhythm, I would just play even values per bar.
In this example it's mostly four notes per bar. I would treat it as 4/4 meter and play it as all quarter notes. In the bars with two notes play it as two half notes. ...
14
Most of us press too hard, especially when playing barre chords.
It may be that the action on your guitar is too high, and/or the strings are very tight, due to being a heavy gauge, that necessitates you pressing harder than you would ordinarily need to. That needs checking and putting right first.
Press the fretted strings as close to the fretwire as ...
13
I think you might be exaggerating a bit. For example, flat picking and finger picking I think are both learned by any competent player. I think a lot of guitar players at least try to develop familiarity with a lot of techniques and types of guitars.
But I agree there is sure to be genre specialization. If you don't like metal, it's hard to imagine someone ...
12
Clapton is plucking over the 11th fret, playing a note on the 5th fret. This is a position where there are virtually no harmonics that have a node at this point (because he's plucking at the 1/sqrt(2) point of the string, which is an irrational number that's relatively far from fractions of small numbers). As such, the sound that he produces contains the ...
10
Yes, in the scientific notation (regardless of the instrument, of course it works on piano and everywhere else) the octaves start at C. So the order is: ... G3, G#3, A3, A#3, B3, C4, C#4, D4, D#4, E4 and so on.
(By the way, you could have easily found that on Wikipedia: Scientific pitch notation.)
I guess that you could have been tripped up by the fact that ...
10
In a word, no!
You'll start to find your way round, and realise that certain positions are better than others. It also depends on the sound you want. Playing up the 'board on higher frets and lower strings will give yo a different sound than playing exactly the same notes lower, on higher (thus thinner) strings. At any given place, you can encompass two ...
9
If you want to tune the guitar using the machine heads, you need to loosen the three screws at the nut. They're holding the strings tight, which is why what you did happened. The top string you simply tightened from the nut to the machine head - no wonder it broke where it did. The other two, you loosened, but that only loosened them from machine head to nut....
8
It is simply a different voicing - but it doesn't really sound very good.
The E underneath might just be the 5th of the A chord, but it's just a bit overpowering that loud when it's below the low A.
You can usually get away with it ringing in sympathy a bit, if you're not fully damping it, but hitting it loud & proud doesn't really work.
8
Going up and down the strings at an angle is natural, and it may be more or less pronounced depending on picking style.
About where to pick the strings, that depends on you, on what you want it to sound like, and on your style and technique.
Minor changes don't make much difference, but if the position changes a lot, so does the sound you produce.
Picking ...
8
The closer you pluck to the bridge, the brighter the sound. The further you pluck from the bridge, the more mellow (some say darker) the sound. You can also see Clapton using the fleshy part of the finger, not the tip. This also makes for a more mellow sound. So he is using these two techniques to maximise the mellowness/darkness in this part of the song.
8
This way of writing music is called 'tablature' or 'tab'. Sometimes, tablature has some indication of the rhythm, such as this example:
However, tablature usually doesn't have any indiciation of the rhythm. Usually, you just need to listen to a recording of the piece to find out what the rhythm should be. From the title, it seems to be a simplified version ...
7
Where the string is plucked will make a difference to the tone of that note. Closer to the bridge makes it sound more nasal, less rich.
However, once one goes past the central position of the fretted string, the tone starts to go nasal again. Imagine plucking over fret 17 while fretting fret 5. That sound will be the 'richest', as it's being plucked at the ...
7
If I understand you correctly, you might have a score like this...
...and because there are only two voices notated and no guitar chord symbols in the score you aren't sure what chords to play to ad-lib a fingerpicking accompaniment.
If the music you are dealing with is Baroque or early classical style (my example above is from Handel), I think you could ...
7
I would say a true professional will NOT specialize in a given technique. But your perception of technique might be a bit off.
Classical guitar and electric guitar are completely different instruments. "Finger style" electric picking will not produce the same quality of tone as one a classical. You need to get used to the physics of the ...
6
What you showed us isn't complete notation. It's an aid for someone who knows the song already but just needs some help with where to put their fingers. Yes, we can assume a 4-beat bar, and we can assume that when there are four notes in a bar they will be short, two or one notes in a bar will be longer. But there is not enough information here to be ...
5
Not a complete answer, but a bit long for a comment.
In mechanics, a rectified tube has less tolerances (on its diameter for instance): the diameter alongside its length will be more uniform than a standard one. Obviously, this depends on the precision of the rectifying process…
For a string, as its oscillation frequency depends on the weight by unit of ...
5
There is some logic behind how we are taught to read and relate what we read to the positions on the guitar.
Most good method systems in classical or modern guitar, e.g. Carcassi, Mel Bay, Levitt, just to name a few, focus lessons on specific patterns and positions. Those are drilled for years until they are in muscle memory, and the mind immediately ...
5
The bass line should imply the harmony; normally, strong beats will get the root or third and perhaps the fifth (or even the seventh in some cases) of the implied chord. Weak beats can have any note but usually are either tied to the bass of the previous beat or fill in with other notes to make a walking bass line. Normally the bass moves more slowly than ...
5
There might be some statistical effects related to which guitarists you see the most.
There's saying that it's better to know to do 1 thing best on the world than to know to do 100 things. Is it true? Hard to say. However if you look at famous artists, many of which started as amateurs without formal education, they often became famous for doing their "...
4
Here is your chart with bar numbers in blue and important landmarks highlighted in yellow:
This chart has repeat signs, repeat endings, two D.S. (Dal segno) and three coda signs. Here is how they work:
Start at the beginning and play through bar 8 (the first ending with repeat sign) Go back to bar 1 (repeat sign) and continue.
Play bar 1-7, skip bar 8, ...
4
In scientific pitch notation, the octave number increases each time you go up to, or past, another 'C'. In other words, the interval from B3 to C4 is only one semitone. This is true regardless of which instrument you are using.
One problem with your diagram is that you've numbered the open strings using this standard pitch notation (where the octave changes ...
4
Not sure what a MIDI sustain pedal is, in comparison to most other sustain pedals. But most are simple switches, working in a similar way to a doorbell push. Press the pedal, contact made, release, contact lost. There are many effects pedals that will use an extra pedal such as this, to do all sorts of different things to that effects pedal, but on its own, ...
4
I don't know how much pressure is getting what response, but pushing and pulling the neck to get whammy bar effects on hardtail instruments is a common thing. I mean, pulling would tend to just get fret buzz, so that's less common, but it is a technique. Jake E. Lee did the dive bomb on Ozzy's "Bark at the Moon" with the tuner, but it's the kind of ...
4
How do you stop gunk from building up on guitar strings?
Wash your hands before you play. If you sweat a lot, keep a clean towel handy for periodically drying your hands and wiping down strings between songs/exercises.
Allow your hands to dry out completely before you play. Do not play when your hands have been soaked, such as right after bathing, washing ...
4
Without any rests, indication of time signatures, or clues about rhythm I think it is a fairly safe bet to assume that this song is in 4/4 and most of the notes are quarter notes. In the bars with fewer notes tabbed we are likely looking at whole-notes or half-notes which likely fall on the 1 and the 3. So bar #20 you'd play a 5 on the 1-beat and hold for 4, ...
4
Even people who have spent most of their lives talking find it hard to express themselves fully. So it's the same with a musical instrument. And often the music itself doesn't make it easy to inject much expression.
So, complete mastery of the instrument is a good start point, along with complete mastery of the music in question. To put your own ...
3
'Ideally the pitch should stay the same' - true, but there's rarely an ideal in this world.
You're talking about a thin piece of wood, supported inside with a thin steel trussrod, being pulled like a bow by six steel strings, trying to bend it. In balance - as it is when not being purposely pushed and pulled, it does a great job. It's static, and there's no ...
3
It might be difficult to give you a specific answer. This really depends a lot on your specific expectations and compromises you'd like to make. What sound are you looking for. How thick strings are you willing to use. How low tension can you accept. Have you checked this on one of many string gauge/tension calculator available in the internet?
Have you ...
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