YES!!! The "I'm So Happy!" thread - 2011

[TC]

David, you have chosen the most difficult guitar to master as far as fingering goes.  A classical guitar fingerboard is 2 1/4" wide while steel strung guitars are about 1 7/8" - this makes chord changing easier..  However, I have gone the other way.  I started off with 1 11/16", then got a guitar made for me with a 2" fingerboard and finally bought a good classical guitar with the
 2 1/4" wide fingerboard.  I now find the widest fingerboard easier as I play finger style and never use a plectrum.  After about a month you will adjust.  Some of the greatest guitarists had fingers like bananas.  Have a look at a picture of Segovia.

[David Nicholson]

Tom, I hadn't realised that. Still, made my bed now I'll have to lie on it and get the fingers moving. My sons fingers are very much like mine and he's pretty good but plays a steel strung guitar. He lives away now but will be home this weekend so might get a few tips. Having said that he's the worlds worst at showing patience though, he works on the "I shall say this only once" basis.

[Martinr]

David, don't get dispirited (except on Scotch, drink it, sod the finger tips!). Tom is right that the classical neck is wider and needs a bit more stretch, but it is so much easier on the fingers and I always found/find it easier to get clean chords as you are slightly less likely to muffle the strings adjacent to where you've plonked your fingers on strings. Mind you, in a slightly inebriated folk session, the classical guitar lacks the volume required to keep racing box players under control...horses for courses.

When you've mastered the Guitar try the fiddle, flipping thing doesn't even have frets to tell you where the notes are

cheers

[Anthony Darby]

Hopefully it will get more use than my son's guitar! I bought a hard case for it to transport it out to NZ and it hasn't been touched since! He had piano and trumpet lessons, and even reached ABRSM grade 3 and 4 respectively, so there is no problem not being able to read music!

[David Nicholson]

David, don't get dispirited (except on Scotch, drink it, sod the finger tips!). Tom is right that the classical neck is wider and needs a bit more stretch, but it is so much easier on the fingers and I always found/find it easier to get clean chords as you are slightly less likely to muffle the strings adjacent to where you've plonked your fingers on strings. Mind you, in a slightly inebriated folk session, the classical guitar lacks the volume required to keep racing box players under control...horses for courses.

When you've mastered the Guitar try the fiddle, flipping thing doesn't even have frets to tell you where the notes are

cheers

My problem (or one of 'em!) appears to be that I have the wrong sort of fingers on my left hand. The ones I was supplied with appear to work very well together and in unison but it's the devil's own job to get them to work independently. Still son gave favourable comments to the guitar and spent most of Friday evening playing it, with his left hand (and fingers!) flitting around the fret board like demented things. "Don't worry Dad" appeared to be the message "Just persevere and you'll get there". I shall do just that but I'm not attempting the fiddle Martin, at least not the musical one

[Anthony Darby]

Lucy just got her grade 5 violin results: she passed with merit.

[TC]

According to my granddaughter (10yrs) playing the guitar is easy.  After 2 years at school taking lessons, probably about 40 hours in total , she gave up the lessons .  When I asked why she said "I can play it". Yes, she can play one tune.  So, David, that is all you need to know !  If a child really wants to learn an instrument by all means encourage them but I would never try to force them   I tried to get my son interested in the guitar when he was about 6 but to no avail.  At 15 he either discovered rock and roll or girls, or worked out that young girls likes "rock" guitarists.  I eventually had to buy him a Gibson Les Paul just to get my own guitar back.  There is hope for you yet, Status Quo are off on another tour.  You can send me a ticket for your first concert

[Paddy Tobin]

Tom, The Gibson Les Paul has served its time in this household also. It has been joined by several others over the last few years; some went, others came, all to get a "good sound". A mandolin seems likely to be the next arrival.

Paddy

[Anthony Darby]

[Casalima]

Lute, not guitar, but so wonderful:

[Lesley Cox]

David, anything works better if dipped in single malt but remember, the idea is to harden the finger tips not to have something nice to lick while playing.

Reverting to a moan briefly, I now have a second job, still for Otago Farmers' Market Trust, at a newly established market on the other side of the city www.otagofarmersmarket.org.nz

While I'm Manager at the Saturday market I'm one of two car park attendants at the Wednesday market, just for 3 1/2 hours. It involves directing people into spaces and taking gold coin donations for the parking, for which we pay the Catholic Church across the road. So far, of the 3 markets we've had, one rained half the time and the other two have teamed continuously. So on Wednesday I sent a text to Roger asking him to get in a small bottle of Scotch whisky so that I could avoid the otherwise inevitable cold in the head because in spite of being well wrapped up and waterproofed and umbrellad, the rain penetrated to my skin and I arrived home a drowned rat, to all intents and purposes. He got the bottle all right (Dewar's White Label, the cheapskate), and apart from the glass I had when I got there, he has now finished the rest. It was a litre. Hope to God it doesn't rain again on Wednesday.

[David Nicholson]

David, anything works better if dipped in single malt................................................

Anything Lesley

[Lesley Cox]

Well I admit there are certain things I haven't tried, and I won't go into anatomical details here, this being a Forum where some people may have delicate feelings. But let's say anything of a genuinely edible nature such as chocolate, peaches et al.

I am very happy that our General Election is now over for another 3 years and while I didn't get or expect to get the govt I would have liked, the voters did succeed in keeping out the most toxic bit of humanity we have produced in NZ for the last 1000 years. Thank Heaven for that! The Greens have done exceptionally well and we have the unpredictable gentleman from Tauranga (not Bill Dijk who will be a thorn in the govt's flesh and provide something to stop our system being intolerably boring every time the House sits. Not a bad result overall.

[rob krejzl]

Hmm,

"Beautiful, handsome, awesome, delighted and joyful"  seems to fit Bill Djik better though.

[Lesley Cox]

My God Rob, where did you get that description for our Winnie. Well probably his own words I suppose. He certainly thinks well of himself and he's never been seen with a hair out of place on his perfectly coiffed head. I see he is making less use of the Grecian 2000 though.