some may agree and some wont but who cares.
it has been said that there are no rules when it comes to playing the CBG.
even knot lenny has said so.
the ph/kid said that's bullshit. well it is if your playing in a group etc or with other musicians .
my view of no rules is this if you just playing for your own amusement ,then this to me no rules apply.
whether playing with a slid or finger's.
string tuning in my book if you haven't got a tuner is to tune the strings so that it sound sweet to you after all your the one who'll be listening to it.
a lot of the problem(and I'm no expert) is with beginners over think things and get lost in all the rigmarole of things in translation or what ever you call it.
did the poor generations who came up with this idea of CBG's knew any thing about cords?? I don't thinks so.if it sound nice and clear that was good enough for them and so it should be for us.
the whole idea of Cbg's is to have fun.so twang away folks!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Rules? Where we're going we don't need rules!
Over the years we've seen playable instruments made out of more things than you can imagine. In the strictest sense, when Shane coined the term 'NO RULES' around 2003 he meant that anyone could make an instrument and play it - it doesn't have to be bought off the wall at Guitar Center and everyone can create music.
We exposed a way for anyone to create an instrument. And to play it without knowing anything about playing. There are vids here where you can hand a 3 string CBG & slide to someone who never touched an instrument and in 5 minutes they play something that resembles music (Knotlenny's Ultimate first CBG lesson).
We also exposed a cool hobby that can consume people, change people. This obsession sure keeps a lot of folks off the street! Like Lays potato chips, nobody can build just one. Each build is based on what you want to do different from the last one (learn from a mistake, try a great new idea). Plus each build has its own songs inside to discover. Build another one, learn new building skills and find new music inside to express...
The magic of the CBG is that many folks with no prior experience with tools or music are now neck deep into a creative release by building and playing. Some people build many a month, others take months to finish one. Some figure their music out alone in a bedroom and others tour the world playing a CBG.
When building a Strat or Les Paul there are a million rules. Plus Unions and OSHA.
As mentioned numerous times above, RULES here are kinda just 2 categories:
A) When building a fretted instrument
2) When playing with other people
Anything else is open to anything you can create with a stick that supports wires tensioned to produce a melodic tone when plucked...
(cool quote Ted)
The majority of folks here appreciate that by themselves they can create an instrument and create music. Most have no aspirations of being a rock star, but dig that they can plink out something that is their music on an instrument they created.
That's what 'No Rules" is about - creative expression and fk the rules, just have fun expressing yourself...
NO RULES!
Well said Ted ! Although I had no Idea Shane coined the term "No Rules" - The guy who built one of my CBG's built his own in England in 1953 , age 9 and I doubt if he even thought that deeply about Rules . I did'nt realise there was a chronology to breaking instrument building rules or playing that only began 2003 ?
Sorry to be grumpy Ted. It's 7.25 am , dark , freezing :-( ....
Shane started the CBG Yahoo group in September 2003*. I was member 12 a few days later, and got attention cause I had used piezo to amp mine. (Johnny Lowbow & Red Dog are the only ones of us 3 that go back that far). I'm more a builder and build educator than a player. I posted every day. Builds and answers.
Shane was the player and the fool with a vision that CBGs could become popular. In December 2008 Shane created this here place called the Nation, and I was the tech guy and he was the mouthpiece (who is member #1 here?)
Shane gets all the credit for the widespread exposure of CBGs. I've been online every day since then preaching the CBG gospel, answering questions and providing pats on the back, and since 2009 been herding cats at the Clubhouse - for ALL homemade instruments & music http://handmademusicclubhouse.com
There's a great history of these folk instruments, but it's taken us over a dozen years to get it to where it is today. I'm amazed that we are such a great community where everyone is willing to share their knowledge and be friends. I've met 50 or so from online over the years and consider a lot of y'all friends, even if we never met.
Today, we are worldwide, and interest and exposure are at an all time high. The Clubhouse and the Nation are going strong, plus there are 20 or so Facebook CBG groups - there's even a FB group for posting a pic of your cat with your CBG???? - Shane would be rolling over in his grave, errr, errr, never mind...
* Shane had also started a Geocities site, with corny gifs but also a lot of prelim info about CBGs. Sadly, he deleted it in another moment of doubt ...
Oh wait - no rules
NO RULES!
Thanks for the CBN history ... and yes I did notice the "picture with your cat " group :-) I'm relatively new to CBN and it's been refreshing to say the least , that there really is a community spirit and not just a bunch of people being rude to each other when peoples opinions don't match ..
Long live the Cigar Box Nation !
Tune? Then there's this,
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZMRUm_CoW-I
Now there are some unspoken rules here. Like No nude videos. We what to hear you. But we don't need to know that much about you. : )
Interesting, those machines must cost a fortune.
But I think Jimi Hendrix was exploring much the same thing 5 decades ago with a much cheaper/simpler and more expressive instrument. AND his music had rhythm!
But to each there own I guess...
It took a while but I guess keyboards are catching up with guitars.
Hey Clark, IMHO Jimi was inside the music itself ! He had Rhythm, Melody, Harmony , dissonance.. He had soul ... He was the music ! ! People sometimes say about his Marshall stacks and effects , but there are recordings of him playing acoustic 12 string and unplugged Strats too . I often wonder what he would have sounded like with a CBG or a Diddley Bow - Probably like himself. I read once that he mused about the idea of what it would have sounded like if the slaves in the cotton fields were given electric guitars. .....
Sorry a bit off topic folks . Blame Mr.Rowden for mentioning Jimi ;-)
When it comes to music and instruments, there are rules.
Some rules can be bent. Some can be bent further than others. But out of tune will always be: OUT OF TUNE.
One person's "out of tune" is another person's musical interval. In the Turkish Makam....a whole tone is divided into 9 "commas". I can't even imagine trying to distinguish the different intervals. In that system, the western "equal temperament" semitone doesn't fit...it's of tune to them. In the Arab Maqam, there's 24 divisons of an octave. Complicated stuff, and even in what we think of as the conventional modern western system of tuning and scales, it hasn't always been like that. The concepts of "just intonation" and a whole load of other subtly different temperament ideas have been jostling for acceptance over the years.
agrees... and increases your divisions to 43
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