Tenor and Classical Guitars

Pretty good day yesterday. I’m still working on my L. hand fretting position. Boy, when ya learn somethin’ incorrectly, it’s really a pain to correct it. I’m also working on tied notes that slur into the next measure — not so bad. Alternating picking continues to confuse me, but it is showing improvement too.

I thought that the strings on my GL1 were too close together, but it was my bad fretting. I changed it as my book instructed and voila’ the strings are much better.

I haven’t had a private teacher since junior high school, and we were both pretty worthless. He didn’t teach much, and I didn’t practice. However, teaching one’s self is not the way to go either. I guess one hasta search hard for a good teacher, and then work at learning from him.
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Second session was the same as the first. I’m trying to get comfortable with GL1 before I continue on with the book.
 
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I played today’s first session with my Kala Tenor Guitar just for a change. I played scales and the Classical Guitar’s imi/mim fingering. It went well.

For my second session I used my Kala Baritone Uke. I played more of the same, but also some tunes. It also went well.
 
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I am certainly not a chord strummin’ kinda guy, but I like to sing with ‘em. Sooo, and in case the CG doesn’t work out, I’ve been workin’ on arpeggiating accompanying chords.

Are any other UUers usin’ arpeggiation for their chords? Any hints or info about ‘em? So far I like ‘em.

Second session same as the first. Trying to unravel arpeggiated chords. I still like ‘em.
 
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Down Up Dick said:
I am certainly not a chord strummin’ kinda guy, but I like to sing with ‘em. Sooo, and in case the CG doesn’t work out, I’ve been workin’ on arpeggiating accompanying chords.

Are any other UUers usin’ arpeggiation for their chords? Any hints or info about ‘em? So far I like ‘em.

Second session same as the first. Trying to unravel arpeggiated chords. I still like ‘em.
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If you mean playing a chord one note at a time that is called playing finger picking patterns. There is probably more different patterns then hairs on our heads. Travis patterns are some of the best.
 
Yes, Johnny, that’s what I’m doing. I don’t call it Finger Picking or Finger Style because there’s so much other stuff called finger picking or style.

Anyway, I’m having a good, though a struggling, time with it as I do with chords in general. I’m findin’ the GL1 a bit fumbly too. It’s my own fault, though. I guess I’m paying for being a bad teacher. I’m gittin’ it though. It’ll take a while. At least Inderstand it. I’m getting a bit more comfortable with the Classical Guitar stuff too.
 
What is crosspicking? It plays chords by picking a chord one string at a time.
 
Well, I’m back to playing finger style, and doing pretty well. I understand it better now, and I’m more comfortable with it. FS fascinates me for some reason. I like it better than strumming.
 
I’ve decided to put my Classicalele studies on hiatus for a bit. My basic guitar playing is so bad that it is hindering me. I had a rotten teacher — Me. Trying to learn classical Guitar with my guitar playin’ bad habits and clumsy shortcuts has become a frustrating burden. I really need to clean up my act to get any enjoyment outta playing. One of my major problems is finding the correct strings and frets to pick without looking. I’m about to give that up too. I play better when look at my hands.

I’ve already been trying finger style and enjoyin‘ it, and I wanna look into some other stuff. So, as I’ve said before . . . Onward and Upward! Charge!
 
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As far as I can tell, every classical guitar video I’ve watched, shows the player (including Andres Segovia) watching his/her left hand fretting. A few were looking at their right hand picking.

I’ve been trying to stop watching my left hand, but, at my level, I really don’t see the point. I play bad enough when I do look at my fretting.

I’m kinda improving my CG fretting and “imi/mim” picking, but all of this fussiness is certainly taking a lot of the fun out of my playing. I recently got a new Fingerstyle book, and I’m having a better time with it so far, though it’s not a cinch by any means either.

Perhaps I should have just stayed with my flutes or other winds. Strings and chords don’t seem to be my forte’.
 
Last week I ordered the little Ibanez tenor guitar. It arrived on Saturday. So far I find it to be a nice little instrument. I tuned it to CGBD because I played plectrum banjo for a bit. The strings it came with looked pretty nasty. It surprised me that I could tune it down from the standard CGDA without the stock strings getting too floppy. Since I ordered new strings I went ahead and put them on the next day. I'm using a .032 .022 .017 and .014. Three of these came from a set of D'Addiaro J66s. I moved the .014 D string down one position and added one of the .017s that I purchased as singles for the B string.

Right now I'm working through some of the chord melody exercises from the plectrum banjo books I have. I also ported over one of the jazz blues chord progressions that I had for six-string guitar. So far it's lots of fun!
 
Saxonbowman said:
Last week I ordered the little Ibanez tenor guitar. It arrived on Saturday. So far I find it to be a nice little instrument. I tuned it to CGBD because I played plectrum banjo for a bit. The strings it came with looked pretty nasty. It surprised me that I could tune it down from the standard CGDA without the stock strings getting too floppy. Since I ordered new strings I went ahead and put them on the next day. I'm using a .032 .022 .017 and .014. Three of these came from a set of D'Addiaro J66s. I moved the .014 D string down one position and added one of the .017s that I purchased as singles for the B string.

Right now I'm working through some of the chord melody exercises from the plectrum banjo books I have. I also ported over one of the jazz blues chord progressions that I had for six-string guitar. So far it's lots of fun!
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I play Plectrum Banjo music on my tenor guitar tuned CGBD. I’ve been playin’ Robert Burns’ Scottish music and Classical for a long time, but Classical Guitar on my Yamaha GL1 has been what I’m doin’ lately.
 
Down Up Dick said:
I play Plectrum Banjo music on my tenor guitar tuned CGBD. I’ve been playin’ Robert Burns’ Scottish music and Classical for a long time, but Classical Guitar on my Yamaha GL1 has been what I’m doin’ lately.
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That GL1 looks like a fun instrument! I've been trying to learn jazz guitar, with limited success, for a few years now. I want to try some trad, hot jazz with the tenor/plectrum. My inspiration is Eddie Condon who played plectrum guitar though I got interested in him after finding that he played plectrum style on a tenor before having a long-neck plectrum guitar made. Eddie started on plectrum banjo and played only rhythm. You never hear him solo.
 
I like to listen to jazz, but I don’t play it or blues which I also like. I don’t seem to understand jazz, and what I’m supposed to play. I love to sing blues, especially those tunes which aren’t blues. I even make up my own blues.

However, I’ve enough stuff to play widout ‘em.
 
After four years of jazz guitar lessons, which I stopped a year ago, I still don't know what I'm supposed to play. I keep going back to it though.
 
I think that one is supposed to “feel” what to play, but, also, there are rules to follow. So, if one doesn’t understand the rules, his/her jazz will not be jazzy. One can just go with the flow as long as the flow is going where it should go.

So I guess it’s easy to see why I don’t play jazz. I do feel it though.

It’s late, and I’m tired. Maybe I’ll understand jazz tomorrow. G’night.
 
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I didn’t play any strings today. My index finger on my fretting hand is bruised. I think maybe I’m fretting the nylon strings too hard. I guess I’ll have to back off some.
 
Down Up Dick said:
I think that one is supposed to “feel” what to play, but, also, there are rules to follow. So, if one doesn’t understand the rules, his/her jazz will not be jazzy. One can just go with the flow as long as the flow is going where it should go.

So I guess it’s easy to see why I don’t play jazz. I do feel it though.

It’s late, and I’m tired. Maybe I’ll understand jazz tomorrow. G’night.
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I'm not much into jazz, but with blues, especially with soloing, timing makes all the difference. I've found backing tracks on YouTube that you can play along with and it is surprising what they will do. I will try to riff without it and the riff is just blah. But put the same riff in the context of a backing track and it comes to life. They are all over YouTube. Just search jazz or blues backing track with the key you want to play in.
 
Rllink said:
I'm not much into jazz, but with blues, especially with soloing, timing makes all the difference. I've found backing tracks on YouTube that you can play along with and it is surprising what they will do. I will try to riff without it and the riff is just blah. But put the same riff in the context of a backing track and it comes to life. They are all over YouTube. Just search jazz or blues backing track with the key you want to play in.
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Naw, I‘ve got too much stuff goin’ on right now. I’m working on Classical Guitar and Baroque Flute, and playing some of my other instruments just for fun. I’m also trying to back into my minor harps too.

I’ve gone all this time without learning or understanding jazz, I’ll just hafta get along without it. The sound is really what matters with jazz, and I do enjoy listening to my favorites.
 
On the topic of jazz and blues, I've recently bought Abe Lagrimas' book Jazz Ukulele. I hope to spend some time on it this spring. I've also registered for Diane Nalini's Ukulele Jazz Festival next month:
https://www.ukulelejazzfestival.com/

Today I practised the five forms of the minor pentatonic scale on my guitalele. My finger placement is getting more precise in the warm up exercises, and I'm starting to recall the forms. If I keep on playing them every day, I should be able to play them without any mistakes by the end of the week. I'd like to start tackling the major pentatonic forms at the end of April or May 1st, and then blues scales in June.

I know I posted these links in the other guitalele, mini-guitar, 6 string thread, but I'll add them again here too:
https://www.jazzguitarlessons.net/blog/shell-voicings-jazz-guitar
https://www.jazzguitar.be/blog/shell-jazz-guitar-chords-beginners/
 
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