Question For Guitarists

[aidan o driscoll]

@Tim Smith Hi Tim. RUSH fan here

I say that as the Rush guitarist Alex lifeson ( Classically trained ) uses a sort of major chord "Cheat" inversion up and down the neck for barred chords like F etc. I learned this from an Iron maiden & Camel session guitarist back in the day.  It looks like this:

So You can bar just the A D G B string with 2nd finger ( thumb is first  in my language ), then use 4th 5th finger to hold down G string at the 5th fret and B string at 6th fret. This cheat also helps your finger stretch with a bit of practice. Dont need to play the two outer E strings.  

Slid this up and down the fret board to get F F# G etc etc.

Edited March 29 by aidan o driscoll

[craigb]

There's also the Caged system.  I had a book and video on it once.  Here's a YouBoob search for some examples (I haven't watched any so I can't recommend one over the other):

 

Caged system explained

[mettelus]

3 hours ago, aidan o driscoll said:

Don't need to play the two outer E strings. 

This is probably why barre chords aren't as prevalent, since you only need to fret the strings being used and the guitar gives a lot of leeway to get intervals (what the listener picks up on) in various inversions all over the place. Unless strumming or using the full chord, you can get the gist of things often with simple intervals.

The neck on my main is narrow, and when doing Bm at times I find myself with my ring finger anchored on the D note (I tend to do this a lot when working in GMaj) and use the tip of my pinky on both the B/F# on the 3rd/4th strings. As mentioned above, neither E string is used, but things like that are more what feels natural to you (probably the most important aspect, by far), and gets the point across. If you find yourself getting into oddball "contortions" just to play, keeping inversions and the fact that those notes also exists elsewhere may be the simpler solution at times.

[Tim Smith]

On 3/29/2024 at 8:42 AM, aidan o driscoll said:

@Tim Smith Hi Tim. RUSH fan here

I say that as the Rush guitarist Alex lifeson ( Classically trained ) uses a sort of major chord "Cheat" inversion up and down the neck for barred chords like F etc. I learned this from an Iron maiden & Camel session guitarist back in the day.  It looks like this:

So You can bar just the A D G B string with 2nd finger ( thumb is first  in my language ), then use 4th 5th finger to hold down G string at the 5th fret and B string at 6th fret. This cheat also helps your finger stretch with a bit of practice. Dont need to play the two outer E strings.  

Slid this up and down the fret board to get F F# G etc etc.

Wow, thanks!

[Tim Smith]

On 3/27/2024 at 10:52 PM, Starship Krupa said:

Become known in the neighborhood as a person who's interested in fixing up old instruments!

One time, my neighbor across the street had about 3/4 of an old CB700 drum kit out on his lawn, ready to be dumpstered. He knocked on my door and asked if I wanted to haul it off instead.

No snare, one really ratty cymbal stand, no kick pedal, no throne, but it had a bee-yootiful Rogers "Big R" hi hat stand (same model Bonham preferred).

Not knowing anything about putting together a drum kit, I figured I'd fix it up and donate it to a school or something.

Another neighbor donated an ancient Japanese marching snare. I started setting it up, got various parts from a local used instrument store and Craig's List, some Zildijian ZBT cymbals....and started playing it. Got completely and thoroughly hooked on playing drums. Cut new bearing edges, rewrapped the shells....

Fixing up that kit turned me into a drummer! It's now my favorite instrument. I later got a sweet vintage Slingerland set on Craig's List and fixed that up as well.

Kept the CB's as a gigging kit, but gave it to a friend a few months ago in preparation for moving. It's found a good home in his studio and will never see a dumpster.

I replied to this already, but I think the software doesn't seem to carry a quote across pages, or at least it didn't for me.

Congrats on all of that. I wish I had neighbors like that, then again, maybe it depends. They don't leave those kinds of things around here.

You are apparently very handy at fixing up stuff.