Open C Tuning

Helo there,

Just a quick word considering open C tuning. I believe it may have first been used by Jimmy Page on a song from physical graffiti called " Bron-Yr- Aur " . I know that he established the tunings DADGAD and DADGBD in the mainstreamn but these were certainly not first used by Page as Davey Graham is the earliset person i am aware used them. However, there is a chance either Page or Graham were the "inventors" of open C tuning.

Great site!

Mike

Thanks for nice comments and information on Open-C. I Actually thought
that Open-C was older, but I do not know.

I am posting this reply to my question and comments blog at
http://olavsguitarq.blogspot.com/ I hope you don't mind.

Olav

Error on website

Your information is terrific. Sometimes I feel it will take the rest of my days to just learn what you have already forgot. It seems I am often reading and re-reading your pages and information. Many thanks for having this on line. Your efforts are appreciated sincerely.
On the we page at http://www.torvund.net/guitar/chords/Minor.asp , in the second paragraph you comment
For this reason I will start with major, where the primary chords are I - IV - V, or C - E - G in C-major. Our first minor chord is then Am the relative minor chord, labeled vi, I believe you meant C - F - G for the I IV V progression.

**** You are right. I should be C - F - G. I will correct this next time I update the site.

Baryton ukulele

Dear Sir:

It is with great interest and much admiration that I read your lessons. I'm a 69 retired Chemist who decided to learn to play the guitar. My hand being small, I was having a great deal of trouble with a lot of the chords. A friend suggested I try the Baritone Ukulele. As I'm sure you know it has the DGBE strings of the guitar. My problem is that there is precious little written for the Baritone Ukulele. Most of the Uk material is for the Soprano and other small Ukulele"s. Have you ever written any material specifically for the Baritone Ukulele? I work with the guitar material a lot, but not having the two lower strings to work with, at times hinders me. I have a fair background in music. I play the Piano and Organ. I'm not good, but I play for my own enjoyment.
Just thought I would ask this question. Hope you can give some advice and help.

Regards,

Bill Connell (bcjc66@aol.com)

I have no experience with the baryton ukulele and cannot give you any advice. I have posted your question and my answer to my blog http://olavsguitarq.blogspot.com/. Maybe someone can help you. I have included you e-mail. Please tell me if you want it removed.

Olav

New BLUES-related web pages

Olav,Could you please consider adding a link to my new BLUES pages?http://www.t4p.com/blues/I would love to get some eyes on my pages, and your commentsand feedback are welcomed.My pages cover blues overview, history, music structure, artists,CD recomentations, and an overview of my own personalblues recording project.Thanks,Mark JeghersSan Jose CA

Mark Jeghers <mark@t4p.com>
Contractor/Trainer
Technology for People

I will include a link at next update.
Olav

Your site

Hi Olav - just wanted to drop you a note to say your site is out of site! I have been playing guitar for oh, 25 years without any formal training and in just 30 minutes I picked up things that I've always wondered how to play. I learned playing by ear, and although I am formally trained in trumpet, reading music for guitar was not for me. But your site has given me the inspiration to buckle down a little and take the time to learn some of thegreat historic guitar lessons that I've ignored all these years. You really outline things well. I especially loved my first try at the Blues fingerpicking challenges. Thanks for all the effort you've put into this. It is appreciated!
Joe ....
West Chester, PA

Re: Music Theory Lessons and possible translation

Hello Olav

As a beginner to the world of guitar, I'm an avid reader of all that can help me to learn guitar theory and practice. I've just discovered your lessons and though I haven't read all of them, I think they are a really good resource. I would like to translate and adapt them to spanish to help other people (starting with my son) and I ask your permission for it. Of course I would do the attribution of the work to you and would host them in my server if you like or would transfer to you to host in your server, as you prefer. Hope to hear you soon and many thanks for this excellent pages! Regards Fernando

You are welcome to translate as long as you give me credit for the original material and include a link to the pages where the originals are found. And please keep me informed about the work.

Olav

Guitar Tonewood page

Dear Olav,

About http://www.torvund.net/guitar/equipment/Guitar_Tonewood.asp
I just found your "Guitar Tonewood" page.Very interesting. There's an error in the page title (you wrote "gutiar" instead of "guitar".
May I please ask what your information source is for this page? Is it based on your own experience, on info found on the web or in a book?

Regards,
François (Brussels)

It is put together from many sources. I have learned about this from some books, magazine arcicles and websites. Every good guitar maker will tell you the kind of wood the various models are made from, guitarists tell about their preferences, etc. But I did not really know the difference between Engelman Spruce and Sitka Spruce, or what it really meant for the character if the body was rosewood or mahogany, if the top was cedar or spruce, etc. My personal experience goes into it, but I do not really have any in depth experience with all these various kinds of wood. I play acoustic steel string, and my guitars are all rosewood back and sides, and spruce top. Whenever I try guitars made from different wood or composite material, I prefer the rosewood/spruce guitar. But it may be only because this is what I am used to. And it is a matter of taste. One day I will buy a classical guitar, and from what I have learned from my own research on the issue, it will probably be a guitar with cedar top, which does not need as much time to be "broken in".

As most of what you can find on my site, it is something I wanted to know more about. If there is something I find interesting, I tend to think that there may be som others who would be interested as well. When having found at least some of the information I have been searching for, I often end up thinking that I wish someone had told me. Then I share what I have learned. (And I learn a lot from putting this information together.)

The website

I just wanted to say how much I love your site. The Lessons on theory are great and will help many guitarist. I know they have helped my improv skills greatly. I am a respected member of a few guitar clubs on the net and I have a link to your site in my bio on everyone. Best of luck to you Olav , From Greville ...., Commerce - Georgia - U.S.A

Thank you for kind words and for helping to make the site known.
Olav

Bass scales

greetings,
I am a bass guitarist and I take a class in school that uses your site to learn to play scales. I would like to know if there is any change that you have the notes for the scales for a bass guitar. it is very difficult to try to play the scales and try to compensate for the last two strings of the guitar for the bass and my grades are starting to suffer in my grades because of it. Please, if you can send me a link in English for the scales for bass guitars I would be greatly thankful.

Sincerely,~ Pyro ~

As I am no bass-player, I do not know any sites dedicated to bass scales. I Suggest that you make a search at SheetmusicPlus for bass and scales, or maybe bass guitar scales.

Olav

Your website

Olav,

I would like to commend you on the great guitar site you have put together. In particular, I am indebted to you for suggesting smaller-bodied acoustic guitars for finger-picking styles. I have been playing classical but wanted to move into acoustic to do some Hawaiian slack key and the Martin OOO series has been perfect. Without your advice I would probably have bought a Dreadnought and would have been unhappy with it.

Thanks again--great work!

Donald ....
Reston, Virginia, USA

Your website

Hi olav,
I stumbled across your website by accident and am very glad I did.
Its a great help in fact probably the best website dealing with guitar that I have come accross.
THanks.

The lessons on blues guitar have become my reference source.
Nick

Re: Your blues lessons

Hi, A friend showed me your site and I think it's great !! I am a one year guitar player, but i'm 47 yrs old... I love it especially the blues. Is that you on the sound bites ? You sound like one of the great bluesman if it is. Thanks for the great site. It's hard for me to find a teacher of blues in Orange County a, California area. I study best with material like yoiu presented. Thanks Dorian

Dear Dorian
Thank you for kind words. It is this kind of feedback and the fact that many find the site useful that makes it worth putting the work into it.

Olav

Re: Blues guitar

Dear Olav -

I discovered your guitar website a couple of years ago. I think it is absolutely wonderful, and thank you immensely for taking the time and effort required to create this wonderful resource.

I'm 45 and have been stuck at the beginner-to-intermediate level of acoustic guitar for over 10 years. I know many chords and can make most of the basic changes on basic chords quite fluently. It's the more abstract chords that give me trouble, and I'm sure it's really nothing more than a need to practice more often.

One thing, however, that interests me more than anything is this intense desire to play the blues!!! In particular, I love the slow, really drippy blues tunes that you envision in a dreary, smoky old night club - kind of like the Allman Brothers' version of "Stormy Monday." I just bought a brand new Taylor acoustic guitar, so I'm somewhat reinvigorated once again after a brief hiatus from playing!

Where and how can I learn to play these types of blues tunes? Does your site provide lessons of this sort? Are there any books in particular that you would recommend?

I would appreciate yor comments, thoughts and advice, and thank you in advance for your assistance..........

Warmest regards,

Spence

Dear Spence

I really love these kind of blues tunes too. Even though you play acoustic, I will suggest that you lend an ear or two to one of the pioneers of electric guitar: T-Bone Walker. After all, he was the one on wrote "Stormy Monday". Although he played electric, he mainly stayed at the lower frets and it is not too hard to transfer his style to an acoustic guitar. Duke Robillard has made a video on T-Bone Walker's playing. I will also suggest that you listen to Keb Mo, who has also
made a good video on acoustic blues. Go to
http://www.torvund.net/guitar/BookLists/T-Bone_Walker.asp
and
http://www.torvund.net/guitar/BookLists/keb_Mo.asp
for more information on available material.

Olav

http://www.guitarchordsmagic.com

I'm Dirk Laukens, webmaster of "http://www.guitarchordsmagic.com", a site devoted to... guitar chords.
I added a link to your site here :
"http://www.guitarchordsmagic.com/guitar-chords-resources/guitar-guitar-lessons.html".
If you'd like to see your site in another category or with another description, please let me know.
I'd appreciate if you'd place a link back to my site.

I will add a link at next update.

guitar chord progressions

I am a 66 yr. old strugling to learn guitar. I do not read music and do not understand most chord progression charts that are available online. Do you know of any website that clearly shows guitar chord progressions using dots on the fretboard?

I do not know any such websites. The only thing I can suggest is that you have to do it the harde way by learning the chord shapes and the progressions, and then put it together.

To questions (minor chords and pentatonic scales)

Two questions that I remain having trouble to get answered are:
1. Is the minor key simply the I IV V but in minor for instead of major

I am not sure if I understand the question. The primary chords for natural minor are i - iv - v (or Im - IVm - Vm, as some prefer to notate this.) In Am it will be Am - Dm - Em.

But in harmonic minor and melodic minor the chords are i - iv - V7, which in Am will be Am - Dm - E7.

I suggest that you go to
http://www.torvund.net/guitar/Theory/24-Minor_harmony.asp and the pages
that follows on natural minor, harmonic minor and meldoic minor.

Q2. Is on when to use the different scales. Are minor pentatonic scales only used with minor keys or can they be used with major keys where the minor pentatonic scale is the same as the relative minor in the major key? For example, the A Minor pentatonic scale can be used in the A Minor Key AND the C Major Key (because the relative minor to C Major is A Minor). Could
it be used anywhere else?

You will often use minor pentatonic scales over blues progressions with majort chords, and if you are using power chords.

If you think of playing A-minor pentatonic over C-major, you will probably end up with C-major pentatonic. They share the same notes.

I have also sent this answer to my comments and questions blog at http://olavsguitarq.blogspot.com/