Finding the Right Notes

Posted: 9th September 2009 in All, Lessons
0

Most guitars have 6 strings.  Each string is given a number with the smallest string getting the smallest number.  When holding a guitar usually the smallest string is on the bottom and is called the first string.  The sixth string (the thickest string) is on the top.  When you hit an open string (no fingers pressed down on the fretboard) a pitch specific to that string sounds.  When tuned to "standard tuning" the pitches are as follows.

From the top string to the bottom string.

 

6th string = E

5th string = A

4th string = D

3rd string = G

2nd string = B

1st string = E

 

The 6th string is called the low E string because of it’s lower pitch and the 1st string is called high E string.

In last week’s post  "12 Notes of the Music Alphabet" I introduced you to the music alphabet which is as follows.

 

A(A#,Bb)BC(C#,Db)D(D#,Eb)EF(F#,Gb)G(G#,Ab) A

Now that you know the names of the open strings AND the 12 notes of the music alphabet you can use these 2 pieces of information to figure out where every note is located on the fingerboard.  It might take you a while at first but you will get faster at it and ultimately it will be second nature.    In the beginning you might have to count up from the open string 1 fret at a time.

Example:

5th string (open)  = A

5th string (1st fret) = A# or Bb  (Remember A# and Bb are  2 different ways of saying the same note.  Refer to last weeks lesson "12 Notes of the Music Alphabet".)

5th string (2nd fret) = B

5th string (3rd fret) = C

6th string (open) = E

6th string (1st fret) = F

6th string (2nd fret) = F# or Gb

2nd string (open) = B

2nd string (11th fret) = A# or Bb

Since there are only 12 notes in the music alphabet the names of the notes begin repeating at the 12th fret which is usually where the double dots on the fingerboard are located.  Playing a note at the 12th fret physically cuts the string in half making it vibrate at double the frequency of the open string.

 

12th fret  (1st string) = E

12th fret  (2nd string) = B

12th fret  (3rd string) = G

12th fret  (4th string) = D

12th fret  (5th  string) = A

12th fret  (6th string) = E

12 Notes of the Music Alphabet

Posted: 9th July 2009 in All, Lessons
3

There are 26 letters in the alphabet but there are only 7 letters in the "music alphabet".  They are the same as the first 7 letters of the regular alphabet.

A B C D E F G In the music alphabet, after you get to G you don’t go to H (there is no such thing as an "H" note)  but you go back A again.  This is called an octave.

The other components to the music alphabet are as follows:

- the symbol "b" is called a flat and it lowers a pitch (note) by what is called a ‘half step’, or one fret on the guitar. – the symbol (#) is called a sharp and it raises a pitch by a half step (1 fret). The next stage in explaining the music alphabet is to place a flat and a sharp between each pair of letters like this:

 

A (A#,Bb ) B (B#,Cb) C (C#,Db) D (D#,Eb) E (E#,Fb) F (F#,Gb) G (G#, Ab) A

At this point I should let you know that each pair of letters in a bracket-set represents the same pitch. A# is the same note as Bb.  G# is the same note as Ab, etc.  Notice there are 14 different pitches (notes) above before they start repeating themselves at the octave. BUT WAIT!!!…Why is the title of this post "12 Notes of the Music Alphabet" if there are 14 notes? I’ll tell you why.  Have you ever looked on a piano and noticed that sometimes there are 2 white keys in a row with no black key between them?  This happens twice on a piano, between B and C, and also between E and F. This is because there are no sharps or flats (called accidentals, but that is not important.)  between these pairs of letters in the music alphabet.  B goes right to C and E goes right to F. (you might want to remember these by British Columbia and Extra Fudge.) The white keys on a piano are the letters and the black keys are the sharps and flats… SO the REAL  "12 Notes of the Music Alphabet" are:

 

A(A#,Bb ) B  C (C#,Db) D (D#Eb) E F (F#,Gb) G (G#, Ab) A

 

 

Kurt Cobain and the Art of Destruction

Posted: 8th July 2009 in All, Opinions
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 The term ‘Generation X’ was used by novelist Douglas Coupland in 1991 to describe a generation of twenty-somethings who were “fanatically independent individuals, pathologically ambivalent about the future and brimming with unsatisfied longings for permanence, for love, and for their own home.” As front man for the Seattle-based music group Nirvana and one of the founding fathers of ‘grunge rock’, Kurt Cobain still remains, now fifteen years after his death, one of the most revered artists of that generation. By looking at his work we can better understand how certain values held by Cobain and expressed in his music led not only to his great accomplishments as an artist but also to his ultimate destruction.

His songs were like nursery rhymes. They were so simple that even a kid strumming an electric guitar for the first time could play them. It is this simplicity that is one of Cobain’s most notable achievements in music. Classical composer Frederic Chopin once said, “It is simplicity that emerges with all its charm as the final seal upon art.”

In the 1980’s virtuoso guitar players led by the likes of Edward Van Halen, Steve Vai and Joe Satriani dominated rock music. These guitarists became innovators in the fields of melody and harmony (the study of chords and chord movement) and were also technical masters of their instruments. Like all innovators though their ideas were soon gobbled up by those who continued to recycle them without ever contributing to them. It followed that pop music began to lack imagination as musicians started valuing technical ability more than musical content.

In the late 1980’s songs such as Nirvana’s ‘About a Girl’ and ‘Sliver’ went against the trend of popular music and would foreshadow the tremendous transformation pop music would make during the next 3 years. These songs consisted of three or four chords and simple, repetitious melodies that displayed Cobain’s talent of stripping down a song to its very essence. He inserted major chords into contexts traditionally reserved for minor chords. He created song structures that repeated segments three or six times rather than the traditional four or eight times. His guitar solos, when present, were usually tortured variations of a song’s melody.

When it came to writing music, Cobain was a perfectionist, relentlessly tweaking song structures and melodies until they became fully integrated with each other. Lyrically however, Cobain expressed a value system somewhat inconsistent with those values he presented in his music. By his own admission he attached a higher value to the music than to the words which, although fascinating, were often dim reflections of an unfocussed mind. While he worked diligently in crafting musical structures, his vague lyrics, amalgamations of disjointed images and unfinished thoughts, were frequently thrown together from journal entries in the moments prior to being recorded. He wrote lyrics using themes of drug use, co-dependency, and self-loathing. Not only did Cobain reject values expressed in many lyrics of the 1970’s and 80’s, but also more significantly he expressed apathy and indifference towards the whole idea of having goals and values in the first place.

Kurt Cobain was an outsider to both his peers and his family. While choosing values that supported his desire to be different from those around him he seems also to have rejected many values that are essentially human. It is clear that Cobain did not place a high value on human life and ultimately he expressed this by committing suicide in 1994. If it is true that a man realizes happiness by achieving and maintaining his highest values then by choosing to attach such high value to drug use and self-loathing Cobain was probably most happy when he was destroying himself. He consistently expressed values in his work that were not conducive to his survival but only to his destruction.

 

Soundproofing a Small Room

Posted: 7th July 2009 in All, Recording
1

Question from captainajax posted at www.mix2r.com

Q) Hey Bugnut. I need help soundproofing a room? The room is about 10 x 15 feet and has 2 small windows. 1 wall is solid brick and the others are drywall. The floor is wood. What else do I need to know?

A) Get a book called Master Handbook of Acoustics by F. Alton Everest. It is the Bible of acoustics.

I’ll give you some ideas but there are 1,000,000 people who know way more about this stuff than I do.

The first and most important thing is to understand that soundproofing consists of 2 totally different issues. First, sound-blocking and second, sound treatment. Sound blocking can be costly and consists of things like building a room inside a room (floating room).  Sound treatment is more about getting your room to represent the sound coming from your speakers as accurately as possible. I can really only give you ideas for sound treatment.

Make the 15 feet walls your length, front to back, and the 10 feet walls your width, side to side. Having the extra length gives the larger bass wavelengths extra room to complete their cycles before coming back on each other and creating phase issues. Place your speakers on stands, not on a table or desk, and have them placed at least 3 feet from each side wall, 3 feet from the front wall, and 3 feet from each other. Place them so that the tweeters are at ear level pointing at your ears, or a little behind your ears, and so that they form an equilateral triangle with your head.

Have a friend come over and move a mirror placed flat along the walls and ceiling. Put a piece of painter’s tape wherever you see your speakers in the mirror. This is where you will put your absorption and/or diffusion. Generally these spots will be on the front wall between the 2 speakers, on the side walls between the speakers and the listening position and on the ceiling between the listener and the speakers. As a general rule absorption is placed on the side walls and diffusion on the front and rear walls.

Study bass traps www.ethanwiner.com/basstrap.html but don’t go overboard on bass trapping in such a small room. Keep the wood floor but maybe scatter a couple strategically placed rugs.

One idea for the window would be to put a piece of plywood up, then some Basul Safe ‘n’ Sound insulation then some pegboard. This will do some sound blocking and might also act as a bass trap if located in a good place.

If you have to do extensive sound blocking you will be making your room substantially smaller because of the new set of walls you will probably want to add.

These are just some general, basic things that might help.

 

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