I feel I can play my power chords pretty well and play some rythem. Now I feel I'm ready to move on to the melody. I have Keni Lee Burgess CD4 but feel thats still a little too advanced for me (not really ready for the finger plucking). Is there anything else out there that can help, or does anyone have any pointers for me?

 

The insturment I play is a 3 string, fretless tuned to the common GDg tuning. The action on it is set low enough that I can finger the strings yet still be able to use my slide.

 

Thanks, Dan.

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This'll give you Major, minor and 7 chords for Gdg tuning

 

For fingering, you might try putting thimbles on your fingertips.  (Sort of an "extended" slide.)

Attachments:
Thank you muchb Michael. I had printed a copy of this but lost it. This time I'll down load and save it.
Boy am I dumb, that chart was listed in the discussion below mine. LOL shows how lazy I am.
No problem.  I just noticed though that your original post said you want to move on to playing the melody...  I haven't worked out a chart to show where all the notes are on the fret board, but it wouldn't take more than a few minutes.  Would that be something you'd be interested in as well?

Dan,

 

One of the tricks of old blues men was to pick out the melody and sing while playing the melody without any attempt to play chords.  They often would do this on the last verse, or the next to the last chorus.... It creates a nice variation in the performance and is a good place to start playing "notes"....

 

the best,

 

Wichita Sam

Michael, Thanks but I'm not sure if that would help since I can't really read music, unless I have the wrong idea of what you're saying. But any information would help. I should mention that I have no previous guitar experience before I picked up and started playing the CBG. Presently I spend more time perfecting my building skills then playing skills.

 

Witchata, I'm not much of a singer but will give it a try. I can play and singalong to simple songs like Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and Puff the Magic Dragon, but thats about it right now. I have a voice like an old frog with a sore throat.

Dan,

 

Sounds like the perfect voice for the blues!

 

If you're not ready for finger picking, try sticking with the flat pick and just sit down for a half our trying out different variations on the 3 strings.  I was very pleased with that exercise and it is a lot more natural than trying to decipher someone's instructions about when to pick what string.  Just find a pattern that pleases your ear then do it over and over about 100 times to burn it in.

 

I am a newbie, but if you check out one of my videos, you will see the result of just sitting down and flat picking power chords.  I'm tuned EBE.  It isn't quite playing melody, but it is getting there.  :)

 

Very cool you give me hope! I'm going to work on developing my own riff. I'm at the same stage as Dirt Dan plus I'm tone deaf, but having a lot of fun driving my wife crazy.

E D,

 

Awesome video!  That's a great example of what you can do with just a little practice.

 

Dan,

 

What I had in mind was something like this:

 

Mapping Out The Fret Board

 

You might already know this information but for me seeing it all laid out this way was a big help.  I used a similar chart/exercise when I started playing ukulele, but I hardly use it 'cause I just play for fun and I'm still happy playing chords. I don't have anything yet that would help with reading music.  I was going to recommend some sites but I just looked at them all and they're all REALLY technical and you have to go through about 40 pages it seems like before they tell you how to read the notes.

 

I used to have something made up for piano lessons; I'll have to see if I can dig that up and adapt it to CBG.

 

I'm also putting much more time into building than I am into playing - which is sad because I know all the theory stuff, and I'm not sitting down to put it to use!  Plus both the instruments I have right now are fretless and I only use them to play slide.  Oh well, someday...  Anyway let me know if this helps.

 

Michael

Dan,

 

Old Frog voices are great for the blues... don't worry about musicalllity, just put your heart into it....

 

Sam

Dan Peel said:

Michael, Thanks but I'm not sure if that would help since I can't really read music, unless I have the wrong idea of what you're saying. But any information would help. I should mention that I have no previous guitar experience before I picked up and started playing the CBG. Presently I spend more time perfecting my building skills then playing skills.

 

Witchata, I'm not much of a singer but will give it a try. I can play and singalong to simple songs like Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and Puff the Magic Dragon, but thats about it right now. I have a voice like an old frog with a sore throat.

 

I recommend you start with these two scales here.  The major pentatonic (sorry I cropped half the label) is derived from the one below, the basic major scale.  Although the second is busier, if you look at it you'll find it easier to remember because of the symmetry between strings.

and these are the 3 basic chord shapes you wanna practice, these come from the Ionian scale above, and with a little practice you can learn to use either of the scales above to make little runs between chords.   If you start a note from within the chord and finish up with a note that is part of the chord you are moving to, you  will find you can get away with almost anything in between, even if you stray from these scale patterns a little.  Music is ALL ABOUT tension and releasing that tension.    There are many many ways to create such tension, and one of these ways is wandering away from the scale.  Resolving to a chord tone (finishing up your run with a note that is part of a chord shape) will resolve that tension and make what you are doing into 'music'    The same is true of singing :D   You only gotta get one note 'right ' and thats the one you finish up on.  All the rest is 'chartacter'   :D  enjoy

If you're in GDG then  i chord is a G, a iv is C and a v is D..

 

PS Keni Lee's videos are awesome, hes a very accomplished player and a real decent guy, but I do hear what you're saying, he does not always address beginners so well.  Try to understand, it is impossible to address everybody in one lesson.   Do not give up on his videos, some day soon it'll all click into place, I recommend you get a good handle on a GDG type tuning, and THEN look at some of his tunings which contain a 3rd in the tuning.  Another great teacher is Knotlenny, his videos for beginners are great, and shanes own are pretty damn good too.   And take a look at mine, and a fellow called LJ has some good ones that each teach a single song over at another forum you may be aware of.  

 

To ED great video and advice.

To Michael- Almost passed out when I took a look at that chart (haha). Not quite sure if I understand it. If I play the 3 string (G), at the 5th fret that means its the same as a C chord?

To Witchata- Thanks, I just got to get over the jetters I guess and go for it.

To Jef- Your charts really blew me away, then I realized it had something to do with the I IV V that I had read about before. I'll go over this material. Given time I'm sure I'll get a grasp on it. IN the mean time, I look around for more instructional video here and on youtube. As far as Keni goes, his stuff is pretty awsome and I have been able to grasp some of his stuff including some of the newer stuff he's been posting regarding fretless CBGs.

 

Again, thanks to all of you.

Dan

 

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