Guitar Question -- please help!!

I took a lesson when I was 7. The teacher taught me three notes, and after watching me try, took one good look at my knuckles and told my parents that I could continue to learn all I wanted, I'd never be able to play well. Double jointed in all my fingers makes them too slow to finger well. My guitar went away (still around here someplace) and never saw the light of day again.

He was right, of course. I can't even catch a ball. But I've yet to find anyone able to break my grip. Life's a trade off. But I've never stopped wanting to be able to play.

The real bitch of it all it that V2.0 has the same double joints, and V3.0 is showing all the signs too. Still a little young to tell for sure, but ....
 
i strung it, and even managed to tune it myself!! i learned the "fifth-fret trick", from a book i've got.

"twinkle twinkle little star" has never sounded sweeter :)
(it's the only song i can play, you see :))
 
ash r said:
i learned the "fifth-fret trick",
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When I have some time this weekend ash (my wife is graduating from college and I have a ton of chainsaw duty and yard work), I'll write some instructions on tuning with harmonics. It's just as easy, but more accurate, and easier to check on the fly. What did you tune it to?
 
nalani said:
the thingies you turn are called tuner machines ... the things that turn are called truss rods
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Eh? No they're not. Truss rods run down the neck.

MuFu.
 
MuFu said:
nalani said:
the thingies you turn are called tuner machines ... the things that turn are called truss rods
Click to expand...

Eh? No they're not. Truss rods run down the neck.

MuFu.
Click to expand...

I read that afterword ... sorry about that ... I've had very limited sleep ... trying to help isn't one of the more smart things to do when you're in the middle of finals and haven't slept...
 
No need to apologise, young lady. A simple handjob will suffice.

Well to be fair, you can still turn the truss rod(s). Just go easy with the cranking otherwise bye-bye lovely guitar. :D
 
chcr said:
ash r said:
i learned the "fifth-fret trick",
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What did you tune it to?
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i tuned it to the 6th string... i know i should have tuned that one first, but i cant get to the piano, as it's being currently used as a knick-knack/plant table. :(
so it's tuned to itself.

... or rather, was.... i was stupid and tried to make it better, all the while only succeeding in messing it up :(
 
I would like to reiterate, buy yourself an inexpensive electronic tuner (15 bucks or so). I know a lot of people disagree, but I feel you can't actually learn how to play if it isn't in tune. Tuning it to itself is not in tune, unless of course you have perfect pitch, in which case I'll shut up now. At least get a pitch pipe ($1.98).
 
will hitting a low E on a piano, and turning the 6th string to it, and then doing the fifth-fret trick from that onward, work?
*curious*
 
Absolutely, as long as the piano is in tune. The only reason I suggest the electronic tuner is that it is way easy and ambient noise doesn't affect it much.
 
harmonic tuning

Here are some instructions I just wrote for tuning your guitar with harmonics. You can post questions here or PM me.

If you just touch a string over the 5th, 7th or 12th fret, pluck the string, then immediately remove your finger, a bell-like tone will sound (it takes a little practice to get it to work every time, you have to be directly over the fret). Now, for the lowest 4 strings (E,A,D and G) if you play the 5th fret harmonic of the lower string, and the 7th fret harmonic of the next higher string, the notes should match. The main advantage to this is you have both notes sounding at once, and can simply tune out the "beats" (as you approach the correct tuning, you'll hear a pulsing or beating of the note that will get slower and slower as you approach a match). Now, the 5th fret harmonic is the same note as the actual string except two octaves higher. If you think about it for a moment, you'll see that the 7th fret harmonic is two octaves higher than the next lower string (lost you yet?). Therefore the 7th fret harmonic of low E string is the actual note of the B string (next to highest), and the 7th fret harmonic of the A string (next to lowest) is the actual note of the high E. You can now tune your guitar with harmonics. There's actually more to it than that, we haven't talked at all about what notes the 12th fret harmonics sound, or how you can use them to check your tuning. There's also a long involved explanation of why this works, but you don't need to know that to use harmonics. After you learn this and practice it a while, you can check your tuning in under five seconds.
 
what does it mean when some of the strings buzz when strummed?
when i took guitar lessons years ago, i think my teacher said that it meant the neck was warped, and he got out a tool and fixed it,
but my guitar book says that neck-warpage would make the guitar unplayable.

so i'm a little confused.

i know three chords, and i can play them well, but that damned buzzing!!!!:banghead:
 
ash r said:
what does it mean when some of the strings buzz when strummed?
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The strings buzz because they're vibrating on the frets. This means the neck is out of alignment (not really warped) or the frets are too high or loose. Since your teacher fixed it last time by adjusting the neck, that's probably what's wrong this time. You fix it by adjusting the tension on the truss rod (which runs through the neck (as moof pointed out). It's best to have the guitar set up by a qualified professional. I take my three acoustics in every other year, but I only do the electrics when thre's a problem. It's kind of like preventive maintenance on your car. I know how to do it, but I don't have all the proper tools. If you'd like to take a shot at it yourself, this is a pretty good expanation of how to do it.:D

P.S. I would be willing to bet that you could play at least half of the pop songs ever written wth three chords.
 
yes :)
apparantly the three chords i know, would enable me to play "frankie and johnny", which i've never heard in my whole life.

however, and by strange coincidence, they also provide me with music to a song of my own.
 
which, might i add, is most of the reason i want to play guitar anyway... songwriting.
i've got all these lyrics sitting idle.
and i write things for my boyfriend, but he doesnt like singing without music.
i'm glad to learn, tho. i've wanted to learn guitar since, well, i was really little.
 
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