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Topic: Beginner questions... |
Jon Loder
From:
Nevada, USA
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Posted 28 Nov 2016 1:54 pm |
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I started guitar at the age of 38 (15 years ago) so I'm not a very accomplished musician but I've got a pretty good grasp on theory. I recently started with C6. So far, I'm impressed with the logic behind the tuning. I bought the first few lessons from Troy Brenningmeyer. It seems to be a good start but I have a few questions:
Muting:
Troy teaches muting with the outside of the picking hand or with the picking fingers. I've gotten into the habit of muting by lifting the tone bar and leaving the outside of the fretting hand on the strings. I seem to have a problem with string noise. I noticed that setting the bar back down may be causing that. Is it a valid muting method? Should I try to get away from it?
Amp:
My go-to amp has always been my Cyber Twin. I mentioned that in another thread and got an opinion that it's not a very good amp for steel. I seem to do better on my G-Dec 30. I also have a Super Reverb and an analog delay pedal. I'm thinking that I may be better off using the tube amp. It sure seems like there ought to be some basic rules for setting up a string of effects. It seems to me that a compressor may be a good effect.
Scales:
Most of the patterns that I could find regarding the diatonic scale advocate two clusters of 4 notes. If I understand correctly, these are called the Tetra-Chord scales. Is there a reason for learning these shapes? I'm pretty dependent on Pentatonics for my normal, church-musician, playing but I also play a bit of melody now and then. I mostly use shape-notes because there's so much transposition by the pianists.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated by those who have to listen to my playing. |
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Rick Abbott
From:
Indiana, USA
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Posted 28 Nov 2016 5:42 pm
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Jon,
Many people do pick up the bar to some extent. The picking-hand muting mentioned by Troy are the standard that all players learn. I use palm blocking, pick blocking, bar lifting and the tip of my bar-hand middle finger and edge of my bar hand thumb. I never think about any of this...and neither will you after a time.
Learn to pick as though you have a golf ball in your palm and your fingers are curled around it. Point your index finger knuckle more, or less, straight up. Your hand will naturally palm block better, it's a very small movement like chopping with the edge of your hand.
Pick blocking is like playing fingerstyle. You have a "rest" position. When at rest your fingers settle on the strings and are ready to pick or move to another string. Practice a 3 note pattern where you pluck and kill the string with the same finger.
Practice a little then stop thinking about it. You will get it.
The Super would be, well, Super! Forget the effects except a touch of reverb.
The tetrachord stuff will pay off big time. it allows you to see where major scales reside in a very simple way. Trust me, it's worth the learning curve.
_________________
RICK ABBOTT
Sho~Bud D-10 Professional #7962
Remington T-8, Sehy #112
1975 Peavey Pacer |
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Jon Loder
From:
Nevada, USA
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Posted 28 Nov 2016 7:53 pm
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| Thank you, Rick. Great answers. Now I can practice with a purpose rather than wondering if I'm developing bad habits. |
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