I'm like Eddie, the capo would drive me crazy (and unlike Eddie, I don't have absolute pitch).

I actually prefer moveable chords. I learned barre chords before open chords, and having the same shape move up and down the neck is a lot easier for me personally to remember. Plus the songs I play on the guitar lend themselves to non-open string chords where I can regulate the exact amount of staccato or legato or even variables of dampening by changing the pressure of my left hand.

Because of that, I'm not even really very proficient in open string chords. I have higher priorities to learn first.

But then, guitar is my 7th instrument and it will take a looooong time before I get as proficient at the guitar as I am on the sax and wind synthesizer.

And all of our brains are organized differently.

Once I have a song memorized, the chords and the words tend to reinforce each other. My hand knows where to go when I sing certain words. In addition, once the song is memorized, the words are more articulations than actual words. I don't have to think about what the words mean anymore, but thanks to hours of practice, I know when, where and how I want to add the emotional content.

It's a little like acting. I took an acting course for fun (one of my friends taught it). It was easier to remember the lines once it was blocked out on the stage. It seemed the placement and movement of the body reinforced the words and vice versa. Just like the chords and words do for me on the guitar.

But what I really like most is singing a line and playing the answer line on the guitar rather than playing rhythm. I guess I owe a debt to T-Bone Walker laugh

Insights and incites by Notes

Bob "Notes" Norton smile Norton Music
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