Play Most Any Song In DADGAD

Play Most Any Song in Open D Tuning

Why So Many Guitars? Acoustic Edition: The Taylor 814ce

Take Your Pick #2

In this video, the second of two, I talk about higher quality and unusual picks. 

Wegen Picks

Take Your Pick #1

There's a corny bumper sticker joke that goes - Every guy has his gal, but a guitarist has his pick. This is part one of a two part video series on the importance of the pick you choose. In this video I talk about "signal path" and six different gauges of Dunlop picks which are...

Dunlop Nylon 1.0mm
Dunlop Nylon .88mm
Dunlop Nylon .73mm
Dunlop Nylon .60mm
Dunlop Nylon .46mm
Dunlop Nylon .38mm

The "Free Range Groove"

A groove using 16th notes but with accents of three.

The chords in the progression are...

E5 - x79900
C#m7 - x46600
Bsus - x24400
A2 - x02200

Lowden F22 Guitar

Elixir Acoustic Guitar Strings - Light
http://www.amazon.com/Elixir-Strings-Acoustic-POLYWEB-Coating/dp/B0002E1NNM/ref=sr_1_6?ie=UTF8&qid=1338763632&sr=8-6

Dunlop Nylon 1mm Pick
http://www.amazon.com/Dunlop-Nylon-Standard-Picks-Black/dp/B0002D0CHQ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1338763743&sr=8-1

Standard Folk Groove - The Next Level

Here I add bass notes and snare hits to the "Standard Folk Groove" to make it more interesting. Be a one man band.

Intro to the Standard Folk Groove

This is what I call the "Standard Folk Groove" a very useful pattern for folk, country, rock and bluegrass.

1 2&(3)&4& - d du udu (d=down, u=up)

Introduction to Strumming

I introduce the basic eighth note groove and the basic sixteenth note groove.

Eighth...

1&2&3&4& - dudududu (d=down, u=up)

Sixteenth...

1e&a2e&a3e&a4e&a - dudu dudu dudu dudu

Baby, Acoustic Version Voicings

I played the guitar on Justin's acoustic version of the song "Baby". The producer wanted me to emulate the keyboard part. This is what I did...

Now here is how I voiced the chords...

Voicings I used...

D - xx0775  D6 - xx0777

Bm - xx4432  Bm(b6) - xx4433

G - 3x003x  G6 - 3x005x

A - x0765x  A6 - x0767x

Justin Bieber  - My Worlds Acoustic

Reading for the Studio

Through the years I've learned a lot of skills out shear necessity. One of these skills was learning to read a piano roll of midi. There is more information on the piano roll than there would be in just a chart of music notation. 

For example when you print a chart from a midi file the timing nuances quantize to the nearest eighth, sixteenth of thirty-second note, removing the anticipation or lag that the composer played into the midi file you are replacing. 

Also notated thoroughly in a piano roll as opposed to standard notation are the dynamics. In the case of the Logic piano roll the colors are your clue here. The spectrum from purple to blue to green to yellow to orange to red is similar to ppp, p, mp, mf, f, fff. You can pretty clearly see the dynamics just a glance. It's actually easier for me to read these dynamic markings than some random p's and f's below the notes I'm trying to read.

Since the advent of samples a composer has a growing number of options for articulations. Notice the chart below. In bar 10 through 13 there are octave D's. But that's not what the composer wanted. This is the chart created from the midi file. Each note is a different sample of an acoustic guitar. In the case of bars 10-13 the low D is a down strummed open D chord and the high D is an up strummed open D chord. Knowing that now look at those four bars. See, a very simple basic folk strumming groove. 

Ah, but I know what you are thinking, "why are the B notes up an octave in bar 14?". Good question. The octave, in this guitar sample, determines the tonality. If the B's were in the same octaves as the D's then they would be major chords, but what is needed here is a B minor chord strummed. Therefor the octave change. The higher octaves are minor chords. Cool huh? The chords in this cue are D, Bm, G, Em and A. All common chords in the key of D

The high-strung/Nashville tuned guitar

Go to page 10 of this pdf to read an article I wrote for Taylor Guitar's Wood and Steel magazine about high-strung guitars.

Here's a Larrivee Parlor guitar - Larrivee P-03 Parlor - Used

This string set you can break up into two sets, one normal, one high strung -
Elixir Strings Acoustic Guitar Strings, 12-String, Light NANOWEB Coating
or
Elixir 11150 Elixir Poly Acous 12-Stg Lite

Sound Better for Free (or next to nothing) - Tip #5

Take Your Pick for Example

Picks are another good tool to experiment with both electric and acoustic.  There are probably more than a hundred shapes, composites and thicknesses of picks each with their own tonal fingerprint.  There are even expensive boutique pick manufacturers like Wegen picks.  I prefer the Gypsyjazz pick for Django stuff and some acoustic soloing and the bluegrass picks for, um, bluegrass.

When I play acoustic on a recording session I'll have as many as twenty different picks to choose from.  All different shapes and thicknesses and made of varied materials (not to mention my fingers).  It's a cheap way to vary the tone of the same instrument.  Eventually, your ear will become increasingly able to tell which combinations of picks and strings bring out the best your guitar has to offer.  Try recording your guitar using different picks to hear the variations in tone.  You could do a "blind taste test" of sorts.

Video from previous post...

A peck of picks for your perusal...
Dunlop Nylon Standard Picks, Black 1.0mm - my preferred acoustic strumming picks
Dunlop Jazz III Pick Pack, Black Stiffo, 1.38mm
Dunlop Tortex Pitch Black Standard Guitar Picks 1 Dozen, 1.0Mm
Dunlop Big Stubby Picks, 3.0mm - these are pretty thick
Dunlop Delrin Pick Packs, 1.14mm/Light Pink - the 1.5mm versions of these I use on electric

Capoing Reason #2

Capoing Reason #2 - To contrast with another guitarist.

Original progression - Em C G D
Capo at 3rd fret play - C#m A E B
Capo at 5th fret play - Bm G D A
Capo at 7th fret play - Am F C G
Capo at 10th fret play - F#m D A E

Different Pick, Different Tone

Don't buy a new guitar when you can just buy a new guitar pick.

Dunlop Nylon Standard Picks, Black 1.0mm
Dunlop Nylon Standard Picks, Grey .88mm
Dunlop Nylon Standard Picks, Grey .73mm
Dunlop Nylon Standard Picks, Grey .60mm
Dunlop Nylon Standard Picks, Cream .46mm, Qty 12
Dunlop Nylon Standard Picks, White .38mm