Originally Posted By: GHinCH
<...> My capo is the index finger. I don't care about the fret. You know the difference between "absolute" and "relative"? The fifth fret on a guitar without a capo is absolute, the fifth fret on a guitar with capo is relative.

If you play barré chords, there is no difference between an A or a Bb, actually. You just start at a different fret. (I don't care about the key, that includes spelled out chords. Everthing is relative. I play in the key of C on any fret of the guitar. Smile)<...>


Barre and other movable chords are my preference.

Unlike guitar, when playing sax or keyboard, changing the key a half step requires entirely new fingering. Going from the key of C to C# means going from no flats or sharps to 7 sharps, including the B# which is also a C natural. I can do that but it takes a brain shift.

With Barre and other movable chords, I just move my hand up a fret and play everything with the same fingering!!! After decades on the saxophone, that part of learning guitar was a treat!!! Hey! do you want to modulate up another half step? This is fun, how about another?

The down side of guitar is that it is definitely harder to learn to read sheet music on the guitar.

Thanks for the Hendrix pictures - I posted that there were exceptions to the rule, and Jimi is definitely one of them. Jimi did know a lot of music theory, just not how to read/write it. Eroll Garner (composer of "Misty") is another exception. But for every genius like that, there are millions of people who can't duplicate that feat.

Now it is not my intention to make anybody feel inferior because they lack a particular skill. That's not the point. On the other hand, I do encourage everyone who wants to improve their musical skills and expressive potential to learn as much as they can though.

If you give up one TV show per night, you could probably learn to read non-complex sheet music in one TV season. It's not difficult once you get the hang of it, and then the rest comes rather quickly. Same for a music theory book.

I can make simple things with a saw, hammer, nails, glue and screws. My neighbor makes artistic one-of-a-kind furniture pieces, and they are beautiful. I don't feel badly that he has much better carpentry skills than I do. I play better sax than he does wink

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