Dad3353

If you'll be needing an electro-acoustic, it'll be the Martin, as the Taylor has no built-in mic. Otherwise, they are very similar for their price point, so reputation, aesthetic and personal feeling would be he only factors, really. Can you not try each..? None in stock at your nearest guitar outlet..? The Taylor is currently in stock from Thomann; the Martin needs a couple of weeks at least before delivery. Maybe just as important would be the choice of hard case, or solid gig bag, for toting either around, depending on what transport you'll be using.

Can you take a close-up photo of the tuners, and the method of attaching them..? There are several different ways; a good photo would help to give appropriate advice. Over to you..?

My usual words of encouragement for this 'harder on the fingers' issue... 'It's the first forty years that are the worst, after which things sometimes have a tendency to get slightly better.' ...

What..? Dylan, electric..? Heresy..! ...

I agree ^^.

This ^^. More information needed as to your goal in order to give pertinent advice. Over to you...

They will be amply quick enough if you play at a much slower tempo (about half-speed..?). Preferably with a metronome, and slowly (very slowly...) increase the tempo by a small notch every week or so. That way it'll come up to speed all on its own. The fastest way to play fast is to play slowly, trust me. It sounds as if you're doing well (or, indeed, very well..!). Hope this helps. Douglas

Each fret is a half-tone higher, so, for the 'E' string... E, F, F#, G, G#, A, A#, B, C, C#, D, D#, E octave.

I'd suggest that any reasonably-popular guitar, made by any reasonably-popular maker, from any reasonably-popular supplier will be fine for any beginner. There can always be a flaw in any manufactured item; guitars are no exception, but they are rare. If any guitar purchased could be vetted (played by...) a decently competent guitar-playing buddy, to check that it's all working (and it will be...), there's little chance of anything seriously wrong happening. What some reviewers might describe as 'absolutely terrible' could be really insignificant details, that don't affect playing, and wouldn't be noticed by most folk. Any described as 'absolutely fantastic' could, by the same token, have been written by someone paid to give a glowing review. Ideally, you should try out any instrument yourself, or with a competent chum, in a reputable store, and decide what's good for you and your budget. If you must order through the web, there is ample protection against bitter disappointment, and, of course, the normal legal guarantees for any faults. In short, trust yourself more, and go for whatever you like the look of, that will inspire you to learn and play, and is in your budget, from any reputable source, the closer to you the better. If we all gave a list of what's 'great' and what's 'rubbish', you'll not be more advanced. It's all good, as long as it inspires you to learn and play it. Hope this helps. Douglas

Yes.

Some slight confusion here, methinks..? Learning, and playing, the guitar (other musical instruments are available, I'm told...) has to be, first and foremost, FUN..! No, it's not easy-peasy, and doesn't come instantly, but the FUN is as much, if not more, in the journey, and is never-ending. That being said, I'm not sure that the term 'study' is really appropriate in your case, for what you're doing. One important aspect of learning is to get the fingers working mechanically, and use the exercises to reinforce, at the same time, the 'muscle memory' that comes with repetition of movements. To this end, the playing of solo notes, and naming them aloud, is really just a 'warm-up' exercise, done systematically at the start of one's practice session, and needs no more 'study' than that. You will not be expected, nor will need, to pass an exam on note-naming, but the knowledge that these little exercises instils is insidiously locked away in your brain, and will serve for decades to come, with no further effort on your part. It's like wielding cutlery to eat a meal; there's no (or little...) conscious effort, but the food gets to the mouth without any furrowing of the brow. This, because, as a child, these gestures were repeated for long enough. Relax, James, and take the time to just enjoy what you can do already, in the firm and certain knowledge that, shortly, you will be able to do yet more. It's not a race, and we all do this at different paces; do this at your pace and that's fine. There is no way of swallowing all aspects of guitar playing, music theory, chord structure, picking techniques etc at once, so choose your areas of interest wisely, work on them slowly, and ignore the rest until you're ready for 'em. What can you play, currently, and what would you like to be able to play..? We can give concrete advice on specifics if we know where you are, and where you'd like to head. Any help..? (Don't forget that very important element, to ensure success : always have a very big bucket of Patience to hand...)

I'm rather a fan of hollow-body guitars, but the Gretsch range has never really appealed to me. I can't speak for any modern, current, models, but 'back then' ('70s...), the ones I came across didn't inspire me much at all, with a rather limited tonal range, electrified, and not much tone at all as an acoustic. I found them to be extraordinarily heavy and clumsy, too, compared to other arch-tops or acoustic guitars. I suppose if one just has to have that particular sound, they don't have much competition, I certainly won't be scouring the small ads to find one. What is it that draws you to them, and what models are your present guitars that you're willing to sacrifice..? At the risk (nay, certainty...) of sounding like an old frump, I'm not a fan of tremolos on any guitar, and definitely not the Bigsby version. Heavy, clumsy, detrimental to the tone and robustness of any arch-top guitar sound-board, it's a deal-breaker for me. Do they mess much with tuning..? They certainly don't if they're not fitted..! Again, it's a matter of what one wants to play, and I've never wanted to play in any style that uses such an effect, soooooo... Not for me, thanks.

Good evening, Martin... A very nice guitar; it's a shame to not play it, but Life... It's a Gibson, a little more modest than the original full-fat Hummingbird, but a fine Gibson nevertheless. Having looked around at some ads on other sites, I would suggest that one should be able to buy a pretty fine ring with £1500-1800, depending on your patience, waiting for the right Buyer to come along. Have you considered selling it on a commission basis, from any of the outlets offering this service..? They may be able to help with evaluation, too, and would have a wide client base. Just a thought. Hope this helps, and good luck with your projects; meanwhile... Have a splendid day. Douglas

What you're hearing there is a harmonic, which is pretty much inevitable when playing at high gain, and is often even desirable in many styles. Try playing at different spots with the pick; that will probably change the note (the 'squeaking'...); choose the position that sounds best to you. It can be eliminated by playing without such high gain, but then you'd have no need of a pointy guitar..! Hope this helps.

I'm assuming, maybe wrongly, that this ^^ is a typo, and that you meant '2024'..?

There is much more that could be said on the subject, of course. Intervals are just the 'distance' between two notes, but the use of the term goes quite deeply into all music. The bass guitar strings are tuned in Fourths ('E' to 'A' is an interval of a fourth : E-F-G-A, 'A' to 'D' is a fourth : A-B-C-D etc...). One often refers, in bass playing, to playing 'Root/Fifth'. These are the key notes of chords. The fifth is found on the next string up, two frets higher. So playing low 'E', then 'B' on the third string gives the basis of an 'E' chord, and we hear it a lot in many styles of music. A useful tool when composing, or looking for a chord to follow another (a progression...) is to use the 'Circle of Fifths', which illustrates the relation between all the diatonic chords in Western music. In that link, there is an explanation of its utility in chord progressions, worth having a look at and trying out. The Wikipedia page on Intervals also does a Good Job in explaining things, too. Happy reading..!

I've just watched this clip (I must have missed it when originally posted...), and would agree with the comments that follow. I would like to add a detail; I see that you're not using the guitar strap. Practicing this way may be OK, but it will all fall apart when you try to play standing up. It's important, whether sitting or standing, to have the guitar maintained by something other than your arms (ie : the strap...), which should be adjusted so as to have the guitar at the right height and balance, with no 'neck dive'. Try it and see the difference between sitting and standing..? Hope this helps...

Changing from one chord to another comes with practise, the slower the better to get there faster. Take some regular exercise time (5-10 minutes every day without fail...) to finger the chord, then change to the next one, looking only for accuracy, not speed. Slow but sure is the way forward. This applies, whatever chords you're going from/to. Intervals..? Easiest to imagine from a piano keyboard point of view, but it's exactly the same principle for all instruments. Take as a starting point the note 'C' on the piano. An interval describes the distance to the nexrt note played. From 'C', for example, playing the next 'C' on the keyboard gives an interval of an octave (there are eight notes in Western music, so 'octa' for eight...). From the first 'C', if we play the 'B' below the octave 'C', that an interval of seven (written in Romain as 'VII'...). Next interval from the 'C' to the next one down ('A'...), we have an interval of 'VI' (Yes, six...). Keep coming down from our first 'C', we play 'G' (interval 'V', of five...), then 'F' ('IV'...), 'E' ('III', or three...), 'D' ('II'...) and back to 'C'. Any note from 'C' can therefore be designated an interval ('VII' gives us 'B', for example...). This is easy enough to visualise on a keyboard, as it's only the white notes, and from 'C'. The same 'logic', can be applied, however, if we had chosen to start with 'D', except, in order to play the same intervals as with 'C', we have to use some black keys. 'D' octave is easy enough, but a semitone down from 'D' (the same interval is 'B' starting from 'C'...) will be 'Db'. I'll leave you to work out what the other interval are, starting from 'D'; it's a good exercise to hammer home the understanding. Do it again for other starting notes, too, for fun. It works in the same way for guitar, of course; on the open low 'E' string, the 'VII' is the Eb at the eleventh fret. Play an 'E Major' scale on that string and you'll see how it works. Does this help..?

Incomprehensible.

Maybe it's me that has been doing it wrong all these decades, I find all of this far more simple, by never using a capo. (Yes, I know that they have their uses, but, to me, this isn't one of them...). To me, when I'm fingering a 'D' shape at the nut, I'm playing a 'D Major'. I move up two frets (a whole tone...) and I'm playing an 'E Major'. Please note that I'll only be playing the top three strings, and will 'mute' the others. I go up another half-tone and it's an 'F' Major'. If I want a 'C Major', I'll play the same chord shape at the tenth fret. This seems so simple to me. I can play an open 'E', barre it at the fifth fret and it becomes an 'A'. Barre again at the seventh and we have a 'B'. If it's just for playing chords with a different 'colour', or register, by going up the neck, I don't see what the capo adds to it. When you say 'learn the notes, but there's a lot of them', how are you ever going to play any instrument if you don't want to do the simple stuff first..? There are twelve notes, twelve frets and six strings. Every string can play any of the twelve notes somewhere, and every string is the same as its neighbour, but a little higher (or lower...) that's all. Work out, laboriously, once and for all, where every 'E' can be found on the fingerboard. Is that too much to ask..? Do all the other notes; each one will be quicker than the previous one. It takes no time at all to do this, and saves soooooo much messing about for years to come. It's up to you, naturally, and I realise that we're all different, with different ways of approaching the guitar, but it seems to me that you're wanting to go faster than your knowledge permits. Get a few (just a few...) of these basics down pat and it'll enable soooooo much faster progress for what's to come. Or have I been wrong all these decades..?

To me, this is ambiguous. If you play a 'C Major' at the nut, playing that same 'C Major' shape with the capo at the third fret will sound as a 'D# Major'. Is that what you meant..? The real remedy is to do a few practise sessions, of about ten minutes each, at some time or other every day. Play each note on the guitar (I suggest starting with the open low 'E' string...) and name the note out loud as you play it. Move up one fret, play the note, naming it out loud. Up another fret, name it out loud... Do this up to the octave (12th fret, or higher if you wish...), then move over to the next string (open 'A' string..?) and do it all again, playing the note and naming it out loud. Once you're at ease doing this, for all six strings, it can be varied, by going up the neck, fret by fret, naming each 'sharp' note as a 'sharp'. Instead of moving to the next string, go back down, fret by fret, playing the note and naming it out loud, but as a 'flat' for each of the 'flattened' notes (so 'G#' going up, but 'Ab' going down...). Yes, they are the same sound, but have a different name in context. Once you're happy with having done that for a few days (or a couple of weeks..?) vary it again, by playing any note, on any string, anywhere on th neck, and naming it as you play. 'Sharp' or 'Flat' is up to you (give both names, maybe, as you play it..?). This simple, idiotic exercise will very quickly get you used to knowing where any and every note is on the neck, at any time. It doesn't take long, but will serve you well throughout your playing career, at home, on stage or in concert. There are other building blocks; they will all benefit from the knowledge found here, and it will be you, able to answer queries of the sort on forums like this one. Hope this helps.

It's a daft enough way of looking at it, but it does work, after a fashion. Let's take an example : the chord of 'C Major', played normally at the nut. Now put a capo on the guitar at the fifth fret, and finger the same 'C Major' chord. Using this piano keyboard picture, count every key (white and black...) from 'C' (our original chord), up five keys (five semi-tones, really...). This takes us from 'C', through 'C#', 'D', 'Eb', 'E' to 'F'. The chord now being played at this 'capo fifth fret' will be 'F Major'. Let's do another. Finger the 'E Major' chord at the nut. Now capo the fifth fret. On the piano picture, count up five semi-tones from 'E'. We go from 'E' through 'F', 'Gb', 'G', 'Ab' to 'A'. The chord is therefore 'A Major'. Do you see how it works, now..? There are far better ways to learn about the guitar fingerboard, the note positions and chord construction; we can maybe advise some routes to that if you're interested. Does any of this help at all..?

This is why it's a Good Idea to know where the notes are on the fingerboard, and not simply rely on 'shapes' to get by. How to construct chords, with their inversions, anywhere on the fingerboard, and how/why to name them is also one of the many aids to becoming a proficient guitarist. It's not Rocket Surgery; anyone can learn this stuff, and it makes understanding, and music creation, so much more interesting and fulfilling.

Good evening, @Ruby2, and ... ... Plenty to read and amuse you here, and lots to learn and share. Not sure about the harmonica, but I believe that there is now a reliable treatment for jazz banjo issues. Expensive, though; are you worth it..? ...

I can't see what it brings to the party. There's scores of guitars out there; if there's no innovation, what makes it worth considering over known models (from Gibson or elsewhere...). Personally, I'm not 'into' 'pointy' guitars anyway, so I'm not drawn to it at all. Why would anyone choose it over other offerings..?