26 Reply by Artless

(5 replies, posted in Guitars and accessories)

Abby,

I own a GA430S OM, and I really like it. (I also have several other acoustics, including a Fender, and Epiphone, and an Art and Lutherie.) I paid 299.00 for mine. You might be able to get it cheaper on-line, but then you wouldn't be able to play it before hand. The things I like about the Takamine: the tone and projection of the solid cedar top, the natural satin finish, the action, and the shape of the OM style. I think it's a great looking and sounding guitar and I don't think you'll be disappointed if you buy it.

Go to forum: Guitars and accessories

27 Reply by Artless

(20 replies, posted in Songwriting)

Baldguitardude wrote:

Also:

Taxi by Harry Chapin
Shooting Star by Bad Company
Take The Money And Run - Steve Miller Band
The Devil Went Down To Georgia - Charlie Daniels

"Take the Money and Run"! Yes, that was one i was trying to remember. That one and "Bad, Bad,Leroy Brown, by Jim Croce.  I'm going to have disagree about Taxi; although a hauntingly lovely melody, with melancholy lyrics of lost changes, the song is told primary in the first person of Harry, the taxi driver. A great narrative, but not a third person narrative. "Devil  Went Down to Georgia" and "Shooting Star"  work for me; the narrator comments on but doesn't participate in the action.

Thank you for your additions to the list.

Go to forum: Songwriting

28 Reply by Artless

(20 replies, posted in Songwriting)

AccoustikNoyz wrote:

Here's a few... not as easy as it seems.

John Denver in Rocky Mountain High.
Bread in Guitar Man.
Heart in Dreamboat Annie.
Michael Murphy in Wildfire.

Those are brilliant finds, and all four are some of my favorite songs. I think your picks demonstrate that the third person can create a song that is achingly moving.  God, "Rocky Mountain High" . . . when I first heard that song, it devastated me. I dreamed of moving to Colorado.   And "Bread"--it began so positively and ended with such melancholy; I always found it evocative but a little scary. "Dreamboat Annie will always remind me of Steamboat Springs, Colorado, for that's where I first began listening to Heart's album. "Wild Fire" was another moving song; never bought the record but I sang along to it plenty of times on the radio.

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29 Reply by Artless

(8 replies, posted in Songwriting)

Both your pieces were excellent. I'm a fan of ambient music and minimalism and you seem very adept working in these genres.

Go to forum: Songwriting

30 Reply by Artless

(20 replies, posted in Songwriting)

Dirty Ed,

Thanks for the additions to the third person list, and the song writing exercise is great! I look forward to trying it out.

I'm not familiar with all the songs you mentioned in your second post, but I believe "Desperado" (if it's  the "Eagles" version) is written in first person. The first verse goes:

Desperado, why don't you come to your senses ?
You been out ridin' fences for so long now   
Oh, you're a hard one,     I know that you got your reasons,
These things that are pleasin' you can hurt you somehow

The "I know that you got your reasons" suggests the first-person point of view.  If the writer had said, "you know that you got your reasons" then I think it would be in second person; on the other hand, if the writer had said, "Desperado, he never comes to his senses,/He's been out ridin' fences for so long now/Oh, he's a hard one, though he's got his reasons/These things that are pleasing can hurt him somehow," then it would be third person.

I'm not an expert on this, so comments/corrections are welcome.

Go to forum: Songwriting

31 Reply by Artless

(20 replies, posted in Songwriting)

KAP54 wrote:

Hi Artless, lots out there in the third person, I written a few myself. Here is the link for one I wrote with the re-write directly under the original.
Check it out if you wish. smile

Kap

Thanks for the link to your songs. They are great examples of what I was looking for, and they give me some good ideas to work with!





http://chordie.com/forum/viewtopic.php?pid=49457#p49457

Go to forum: Songwriting

32 Reply by Artless

(20 replies, posted in Songwriting)

dino48 wrote:

I  think jack and dianna by john melloncamp would fit in here.

Yes, that's a good one. Thanks for suggesting it!

Go to forum: Songwriting

33 Topic by Artless

(20 replies, posted in Songwriting)

I'd like to hear from writers who have written songs from different narrative voices. For example, most people write from first person ("I love you," "we love each other," "my love is strong, "our love is strong") or second person, ("you make loving fun," "your love is like an ocean")  but what about THIRD person, in which the narrator is telling the story but is not in the story, "they loved all night long," "he/she has a love that will last forever,") etc.

I can think of only a few popular songs written in the third person, the Beatles "Eleanor Rigby" Bob Dylan's  “Hurricane,�  "Lilly, Rosemary, and the Jack of Hearts," and Steve Miller, "Take The Money and Run," Gordon Lightfoot's,"Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald."Can you add to this list?

Also, has anyone ever written a song from the perspective of a different sex? For example, if you're a guy, have you ever written a love song from a girl's point of view?

Thanks in advance for your input!

Go to forum: Songwriting

34 Reply by Artless

(9 replies, posted in Songwriting)

I enjoyed your song, Lane. It was fun to play on my guitar. Your soundclick worked just great; you're voice has a mellow, country quality that fits well with the lyrics.

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35 Reply by Artless

(133 replies, posted in Acoustic)

The modified F was the hardest chord for me. I spent a month and a half trying to play Neil Young's "Old Man" and could only make the F chord ring about 1/4 of the time. One night I got really frustrated and decided it wasn't me, it was the action on my guitar. So I loosened the B and E strings, slipped them out of their grooves in the nut, and started sawing at the grooves with a kitchen knife. Little by little I cut down  the action to where I could use my index finger to fret the B and E to make the F. Somehow I was able to do this without causing the strings to buzz. Just dumb beginner's luck.

Go to forum: Acoustic

36 Reply by Artless

(6 replies, posted in Acoustic)

Hey Allisloth,

I had never heard Brandi Carlile's music before--thanks for providing a link to her performance. I really enjoyed what I heard; I'm getting into some of her other songs, too.

Go to forum: Acoustic

37 Reply by Artless

(21 replies, posted in Acoustic)

Baldguitardude wrote:

Artless, you should practice the Am shape without using your index finger. You should also try the G major shape and C major shape w/o your index finger if your hands can make the stretch - it helps build dexterity in the pinky and gives you more barre chord options (I use the C barre fairly regularly...)

Hey Bald,

Thanks for the great suggestion!  At first, I didn't quite understand what you were describing, but I finally got it.  Wow--it's hard making that C shape without the index finger, but what a wonderful way to, as you say, build dexterity.

Go to forum: Acoustic

38 Reply by Artless

(21 replies, posted in Acoustic)

crevs.1972 wrote:

Everyone is different but my approach to Am shape barre chords is to concentrate on the middle finger and nothing else.  When the chord is approaching look at the point on the guitar where your middle finger is go and then plant the middle finger.  After a while the rest of your fingers will fall into place without thinking about it due to muscle memory.

Whatever method you use, and whatever chord your learning it can seem like ages where you'll see little or no progress but one morning you'll get up and it'll be there.  Don't get put off by lack of progress, sometimes it'll just happen, just keep working and trust me.

Thanks for your advice and observations, crevs.1972.  Like you, I try to use my middle finger as a an anchor for everything else. Right now, though, there's a lag before I get that index finger down. I'll just keep working on it, and hope that as you say, one day it'll all come together.

Go to forum: Acoustic

39 Reply by Artless

(20 replies, posted in Songwriting)

Hi Roger,

I really enjoyed the lyrics to your song; the chord changes in the chorus, however, were a bit beyond my ability. But thanks for introducing me to Bbm! A lovely chord I'd never played before.

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40 Reply by Artless

(21 replies, posted in Songwriting)

I really enjoyed your song. The lyrics are evocative, and the chords you chose created a flowing, melancholy song.  Great work!

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41 Reply by Artless

(21 replies, posted in Acoustic)

gabbysings2 wrote:

I hated the Bm barre.  However, I can make an Am easily, once my memory muscle related to that position, it was just a simple matter to slide my Am position down to the B and barre my index finger.

Hi Gabby,

Yes, the chord shape for the Bm and the Am are the same, but for me the problem is that I learned to fret the Am with my 1st, 2nd, and 3rd finger, so if I try to slide down, I don't have my first finger available to make the barre. Maybe I should relearn Am and use the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th finger. (I do it that  way when I'm playing Dylan's "It ain't me babe").  Has anyone made that change of fingering in order to facilitate making the Bm easier?

Go to forum: Acoustic

42 Reply by Artless

(21 replies, posted in Acoustic)

ScottCooney wrote:

Wow..that is the best advice I've seen for the Bm chord. It's the toughest for me still...2 years in.  I'll try this lift and set lift and set technique!
S

I look forward to trying it too. Thank for the feedback on this question Roger.

Go to forum: Acoustic

43 Reply by Artless

(21 replies, posted in Acoustic)

Thanks for the information, Zurf.  I wanted to check to see if my approach is acceptable, or if I'm going about it wrong.

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44 Topic by Artless

(21 replies, posted in Acoustic)

I need some advice about forming the Bm barre chord. I can make this chord successfully, but it takes me more time to form it than other chords. To make a Bm, I usually form it in two steps: first I fret the D, G, B strings, and then I lay down my index finger for the barre. Should I just keep practicing until this process becomes simultaneous, or are there other approaches that people can recommend?

Thank you!

Go to forum: Acoustic

45 Reply by Artless

(6 replies, posted in Electric)

vennells wrote:

Thanks really helpful, that's a great site. Tricky though, I'd better get practicing!

Bill.

You should include this chord on the thread "What's the hardest chord you've ever encountered" in the Acoustic section.

Go to forum: Electric

46 Reply by Artless

(16 replies, posted in Songwriting)

I really enjoyed playing your song! The rhythm of the language and the chord changes work very well together, and the the lyrics are emotionally compelling--I'll come back to play this often. I don't know how the melody line goes, but when I played the fourth verse line, I liked staying with the D rather than moving to the G. I get the sense that you're ending a section with that G, but I like the staying with the D because it kept the melody line that I imagined moving up as you get into the last three lines of the verse. Again, a very powerful song.

Go to forum: Songwriting

47 Reply by Artless

(34 replies, posted in Chordie's Chat Corner)

Zurf wrote:
Artless wrote:

my ex-wife seems really happy now.

Not meaning to be callous to your situation, for which I am truly sorry for you, but that sentence right there has a song in it.  Write that down in your hook book. 

- Zurf

Thanks for the idea Zurf!  That's one thing about music: you can take the joy and pain and happiness and love and hate of life and turn it into art. Sometimes it's bad art, but you're still doing something with all that experience that most other people just have to carry around.

Go to forum: Chordie's Chat Corner

48 Reply by Artless

(57 replies, posted in Acoustic)

zguitar wrote:

Hi Chimmy, welcome aboard the Chordie express.

Don't know how long you've been playing, so my first thought is just practice. A few other tips, keep your elbow close to your body and pull with your arm, don't squeeze with your hand. Maybe tip the neck up a little bit so you can get your hand around the neck more. Keep your index finger straight and roll it over a little to the side.


Good luck and keep practicing!!!

That idea of pulling with my arm and not just trying to squeeze with my hand has been very  helpful. Now my B major barre chord sounds less muddy, and Bm and Fm sound more secure.

Thanks!

Go to forum: Acoustic

49 Reply by Artless

(8 replies, posted in Guitars and accessories)

zguitar wrote:

"We use generic tuners built by a Korean sub contractor."

That's straight form Godin guitars. Wow I thought they would use a quality tuner. So much for that.

I guess that's why the tuners on my Art and Lutherie (Godin) are so mediocre. I've been thinking of replacing mine, too.

Go to forum: Guitars and accessories

50 Reply by Artless

(5 replies, posted in Guitars and accessories)

Thanks for the advice Zurf!

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