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Post by slidingwolf on Mar 5, 2013 20:39:37 GMT
This track is currently on the Voyager space craft, somewhere beyond our solar system, in order to prove to alien life forms that there is intelligent life on Earth. Seems fair enough.
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Post by slidingwolf on Mar 2, 2013 12:54:23 GMT
"The Weirdest Music I Have Ever Heard."It has been suggested that some would find it useful if I posted a few bits and pieces about playing slide on here. I make no claims to be an expert, but here's my perspective. Getting on for 100 year ago a famous band leader of the time, WC Handy, was at the train station in Tutwiler, Mississippi, in the dead of night. He was woken by the sound of a guitarist pressing a knife on the strings to accompany his singing, "Goin' Where the Southern Cross the Dog." He described it as, "the weirdest music I had ever heard." This, I believe, is the first written reference to what is now known as slide or bottleneck blues. But the practice goes way back before that, with records of Indian music using a slide technique on various stringed instruments many centuries before Mr. Handy found himself waiting for a train in a Mississippi backwater. (There are many many great examples of contemporary Indian slide players you can easily find on You Tube with breathtaking technique and you can certainly hear their influence with western players as varied as Harry Manx and Derek Trucks). I think I am right in saying that classical Indian music is the only classical music genre to encompass slide guitar. There are some theories that slide playing comes from a one stringed African instrument similar in idea to a diddley bow. Again you can find examples of this in the usual places, including from Seasick Steve. Some (most notably the Hawaiian tourist board) claim it was invented by Joseph Kekuku, an 11 year old who decided to slide a discarded bolt along the strings of his guitar while walking along a railroad track one day. Who knows where it really came from? And does it really matter? But , what we can say for sure is that playing slide allows you to get those notes associated with the blue (and other musical genres) which you don't get from traditional western scales - microtones: blues piano players call it "playing in the cracks." These can be described as notes between semi-tones. But slide isn't just associated with blues and Hawaiian music. There are very few musical genres today which don't include slide to a greater or lesser extent. I'll pull together some examples as this thread progresses. I'll get Martin R's video of the workshop I ran at the Halifax meet put on here which , hopefully, does more to inform than confuse. I also did a (very) brief cd of examples and exercises based on the workshop. Contact me if you want a copy - it's free but as I do all my music stuff for Naomi House Children's Hospice I would be good if we could cover the postage and make a small contribution? So, questions? Ideas? Let me have them.
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Post by slidingwolf on Feb 24, 2013 20:20:51 GMT
You can play slide with an ordinary capo as well, as long as the action's not too high. You just need to adjust your technique a bit. The one Dave has shown is for lap slide where the action is much higher, as shown in the top picture. SW www.martinjwood.co.uk
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Post by slidingwolf on Feb 24, 2013 12:57:18 GMT
Hi Martin, There's some very good advice on here already but here, for what it's worth, is mine. £549 seems quite high to me for a Hofner. Take a look at the following: www.guitarvillage.co.uk/allproducts/161/All-Bluegrass-Resonators-products.aspx The Hofner is £499 with case. There's a Gretsch is on there as well at £315. I haven't played one but know someone who is very pleased with his. You've decided you want a round neck (ie "normal" guitar) rather than a square neck (for playing lap slide) . There are two other major considerations: metal or wood, and biscuit or spider cone. These determine the type of sound you get. The Hofner you were looking at is a wood bodied spider cone. The tone difference between metal and wood is fairly obvious but you will get a very different tone from a biscuit bridge. Take a look at the link above and in particular, the 3rd and 4th guitars. The third is a biscuit cone - you can see the round disc underneath the bridge, that's the biscuit. The spider cone has a different cover plate (the 4th guitar.) The different tone comes from the cone itself: the biscuit cone faces into the guitar body whereas the spider cone faces the guitar top. Very roughly speaking, spider cones (Dobro type) tend to be associated with bluegrass and country music whereas biscuits (Nationals) tend to be associated with the blues, but there aren't any rules. Have a rummage round You Tube and you'll find plenty of examples of both. The other point to remember is that it's not the wood that's important, it's the cone and the set up. The set up, in particular on a resonator is even more important than on a conventional acoustic. The reso I played Long Distance Love on at HB3, for example, I picked up off e bay for a very good price . It wasn't very playable when I got it but improved no end with a proper set up. Unfortunately you have to know a luthier who can do it - lots of guitar shops think they can but you do hear some horror stories .......... I'm afraid I don't know any in your neck of the woods. So if you have found a reso that is set up properly, that's a bonus because when they come from the factory, they invariably do need adjustment. The set up is also different if you intend to play mostly slide rather than just fingerpicking. Another thing to check is the intonation up the neck, which can be a bit dodgy on resos. This will matter less if you do intend to play a lot of slide but you will still want it to stay in tune up to at least the 5th fret. Sorry for the ramble and apologies if I'm teaching you to suck eggs, and I'm not even sure that any of the above will have helped anyway. But in summary, that does look a full price to pay and you could maybe get something better s/h for a similar price plus a set up, but then again, if it is a good set up and you can hear it calling you................. If you get serious about buying one I would certainly try some more. Did you just play the one? SW www.martinjwood.co.uk
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Post by slidingwolf on Nov 2, 2012 17:16:20 GMT
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