Julie C

13 hours ago, Erik Oniga said:

Hello guys, do you think it's bad if I memorize all chords possibilities based on the caged system, without understanding its logical concept?

 

Thank you!

If you understand the logical concept, you won't have to memorize all the chords.  To help understand the logic, play an E chord (The E in CAGED) using you middle, ring and pinky.  And just strum the 3 strings you are fretting (5,4,3).  You have played a 3 note E chord. 

Move those 3 fingers down one fret and play the 3 strings.  It is a half step higher thus an F..

One fret down again and its an F#. 

You can keep moving the same shape down  and playing just the 3 strings you are fretting. 

If you want to strum all the strings though, the nut would have to move with the shape to play the full chord.  But since the nut does not move, we use our index finger in place of it and move it with the chord shape.  So the E chord shape moving down fret by fret makes E , F, F# G, G#, A, A#, B, C, C#. D. D#. 

Hope I made some kind of sense lol.  It makes sense in my head but not sure if I explained it well. 

I would love to visit the Martin Guitar Factory in 2020. Never have been and it is less than 2 hours away from me. 

Great video! Thank you!

5 hours ago, Fletch said:

Happy TACiversary @Julie C...  

Glad you stuck with it Julie...  

Me too! 

13 hours ago, Michael K73 said:

You could go to the casino inside it and win the money to stay LOL

I think I will play it safe and save my money for my dream guitar lol. 

On 12/6/2019 at 9:15 PM, Carol M said:

Wow!!! That looks kinda cool but it also looks pretty pricy 😂. I like that you can rent a guitar from there while you are staying!!! 

The rates are out of my reach for sure. I will admire the building from the outside. 

How cool is this! I think there needs to be a winter jam there someday! Fort Lauderdale is a great winter destination! 

On 11/22/2019 at 1:14 PM, Carol M said:

I totally enjoyed Dom and Sharon’s Friendsgiving celebration postings!!! That’s probably my idea of the perfect way to spend a holiday, with a bunch of good friends and a few dozen guitars add a pie or 3....

I have a Christmas songbook of easy Fingerstyle carols, so I dig that out every year. My family has never asked me to bring a guitar along for Christmas Day, but I will play thru my little book at home for the kitties to listen to. One year I had my Xmas songbook with me at the store for my lesson, and when I was done, I took it into the acoustic sales room and just started playing thru it. I got a lot of nice comments from various people. I enjoy spending time with family and friends during Christmas, and if there’s a guitar involved, so much the better!!

https://youtu.be/EiOitjzEb_M

 

Have to say @Carol M you play this song so beautifully and effortlessly.  My version sounds NOTHING like yours lol.  My fingers just don't get how to do this-yet. Strumming patterns come so easy to me.  This? Not at all. I will keep practicing! Love the book! 

8 hours ago, Dom T said:

@Julie CThank you Julie.  Hope fully we can get you back down here for a house concert/jam next year

FEB 8, APR 25, and May 30, ( @Maggie)

I hope so! But it is tough when the one day of the week I pretty much always work are Saturdays. 😞

Love this!

13 hours ago, dr_dave said:

Sorry, Carol. That’s an oxymoron. 

Got the book.  I have to agree @dr_dave lol! My brain and fingers are engaged in a tug of war trying to play these songs.  I am keeping my practices short and sweet and waiting for the day  where it all just comes together and sounds like I am playing a song! 

On 11/23/2019 at 9:36 AM, T.J said:

I wouldn't "totally give up" yet.  Just because they can't understand, at first, doesn't mean there aren't opportunities there.  Example, @Julie C from my journey.  People who don't share my taste in music found that we, our dogs and my guitar were evacuated to stay with them, and when I started playing in the far reaches of their home, I slowly obtained an audience of quiet people, listening.  My repertoire from memory is limited, but I was pleased and supported when individuals quietly named or sang along.

Besides, I don't require their approval to work at this, they should benefit from my progress.  After all, mostly they were in tune with horrible rhythm, sometimes.  It also helps that they know I don't require their approval, but enjoy it, together, when it happens.

It has been three years of negative comments so it is waaaayy easier on the ego to give up and accept things than to be disappointed time and time again. Even the Christmas guitar book I just bought as a result of this thread was met with a negative comment.  But I am stronger than the negativity and play for me. TAC is my backbone.   

19 hours ago, Carol M said:

@Julie C your family sounds exactly like mine!!! Maybe we are secret sisters, separated at birth... anyway, it’s their loss if they don’t ask you to play, as you are very talented!!! Post your songs here for your geek family to enjoy 🤣

My songbook is Hal Leonard’s Fingerpicking Christmas, available on Amazon.

Fingerpicking Christmas: 20 Carols Arranged for Solo Guitar in Notes & Tablature https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00G28USRO/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_api_i_Fod2DbK5GNESX

 

Ordered! Thank you! And my invisible audience thanks you too!

1 hour ago, Joanne B said:

@Carol M, I just bought that book last week, along with a second Hal Leonard guitar fingerpicking book similarly titled “Fingerpicking Christmas Songs”, can I be a “found” sister too?

Carol and @Julie C, you both play beautifully, so ignore your families, they know not what they’re missing 😁

As a commiserating story, my sister broke her arm, so to cheer her up, I FaceTimed her last week and played “I saw three ships”, didn’t make “too” many mistakes, and was right proud of myself for actually playing a tune in front of someone other than the dog ... when I finished, she said “ is that the new banjo? Play the song from Deliverance” .... *sigh* ... Family! LOL!

I have totally given up the idea of playing for family. I have heard things like why even bother at your age.  You can never get good. What is the point of playing if you can't sing.  Can you do that somewhere where I can't hear you. It's not you are playing real songs.  All you are doing is strumming. The list goes on.  But I have accepted the situation and play just for me.  The family sing a longs I pictured before I got started are just not going to happen.  We should start a special jam club for the family impaired lol. 

My guitar gets to rest comfortably in its case for family gatherings.  No one really has any desire to hear me play.  But it wouldn't hurt for me to try some Christmas and winter music for my own enjoyment.

26 minutes ago, Carol M said:

I have a Christmas songbook of easy Fingerstyle carols, so I dig that out every year. My family has never asked me to bring a guitar along for Christmas Day, but I will play thru my little book at home for the kitties to listen to. One year I had my Xmas songbook with me at the store for my lesson, and when I was done, I took it into the acoustic sales room and just started playing thru it. I got a lot of nice comments from various people. I enjoy spending time with family and friends during Christmas, and if there’s a guitar involved, so much the better!!

https://youtu.be/EiOitjzEb_M

 

Sounds beautiful @Carol M  What book do you have?

So sorry I had to miss it.  Looks as amazing as always!

On 11/7/2019 at 10:50 PM, Michael K73 said:

I have changed guitar strings 15 times in my 17 months of playing.

14 times I have watched the same YouTube video when changing them.

Today! I changed them with no video. LOL

Now I could probably have done it without the video long ago now, but I always feared screwing up something.

A dumb fear, I know -- there's not much I can screw up. 

So no more video as of today. 

But!!!! I still wore eye protection!!!! LOL

--M

 

The first time I changed my strings the low e string snapped.  Scared me and just missed my eye. To this day I find string changed scary lol. 

Shooting as always on Saturdays 😞 Missed every Jam this year sniff sniff. 

Very very normal to struggle.  One of my cousins told me it takes about 6 months for things to start to click.  He was right in my case. 

Doesn’t take much for things to run away on you for a few days and get behind. I am glad there are lessons just 5 days a week. Gives you a couple of catch up days. 

As someone who is all over the play when I practice, this sounds really interesting.  I never seem to have a real plan.  I grab my guitar and do things. And get distracted and do other things.  Just installed it on my phone. Thank you for sharing!

28 minutes ago, Mike G said:

So, I am very happy to hear about the happy ending. But I do have one request. Would you please play your  song and post it? I would like to hear it. And I will appreciate it no matter what because I understand that just to try is a victory. Not everyone is going to have the same skill level at guitar or singing or song writing or anything else. ☺️

I will have to think about that. It only exists as words on paper so far.  I have only played it in my head. 

On 10/8/2019 at 9:43 PM, Mike G said:

So, I'm curious, then, what you do desire to do with your guitar playing/journey? For myself, when I finally started playing guitar at 44, it was because I decided I could play without having any reason. I would never make money with it or entertain people or... or... or... There simply didn't seem to be any reason other than I wanted to and had wanted to since I was a kid. Now I see all kinds of things happening in my life as a result of playing guitar that I could never have known about, so those things couldn't be the reason. But they are the reward for doing it anyway. You might find a reward performing at an open mic or posting a video here on TAC or just playing for family and/or friends. Any way, I'd love to hear your thoughts on this. 😊

My guitar journey is somewhat complicated.  I always loved the sound of an acoustic guitar and spent years strumming along to songs in the air.  I got to see Peter Yarrow in an small dinner theater concert about 3 years ago and sat about 6 feet from him.  I had never been so close to such talent.  He was one with his guitar. I even got to stand next to him on stage and sing Puff the Magic Dragon. I wanted to strum a real guitar even more than ever.  My dream was to have someone finger the chords so I could do the strumming.   I told my cousin who was visiting from another state my guitar dream.  He plays.  He said why don't I just learn to play ,myself? So my parents gave me a couple of hundred dollars for a guitar and my journey began.  I pictured playing along with my mom when she plays piano.  I pictured playing for family at holidays while everyone sang along.  But things didn't work out as planned.  My closest family, whom I love dearly really didn't like my playing.  My husband has actually gotten up and left the room and closed the door not to hear me.  Or asks me if I can do that somewhere else.  He really does not like music.  My mom didn't see the purpose of playing along with her if I was just strumming chords.  She said there is no point to something that is not playing the melody.  My adult children think I am wasting my time at my age.  My sister says why did I even bother if I can't sing.  So basically when the people who matter most to you do not want to hear you play and think it is a bad idea to even try, performing for others just feels sad.  And I don't want sad associated with playing.  I was so discouraged by my family reaction at one point I stopped playing.  And the good people of TAC encouraged me to continue.  So my playing is pretty much in my bedroom with a very flexible white pick that keeps things soft.  I did make a video for the 30 day challenge.  Got a lot of positive feedback which ultimately made me feel sad all over that I cannot share this with the people I love most.  So I am back to my quiet white pick but thanks to the 30 day challenge I bought a guitar stool and a music stand so I not longer just sit on the bed.   But this is truly not a sad story.  I would have totally given up if not for TAC.  Guitar is a very personal journey now rather than the shared one I thought it would be.  And I have made peace with that and play because it makes me happy.  I even wrote a song called "The White Pick Blues" but of course have never actually played it lol.