Guitar musings

[ivyblossom]

I've been playing my guitar a lot more recently, which is getting fun because I'm starting to remember things I thought I'd forgotten for good. The other day I tried to play one song and ended up playing something completely different, something I'd forgotten I even knew how to play. And I figured out how to play a few things I didn't think I'd ever figure out. So that's kind of cool. Just don't think about it and you can play anything.

The downside is that right now my fingertips are peeling.

Ever wanted to play the guitar? Let me tell you something: it hurts. Granted, I have no pain tolerance (as well as no alcohol tolerance, yes, I'm just a barrel of laughs), but still. Picture it: your delicate little fingertips, not from the knuckle up, just the very very top in front of your fingernail, pressed against thin strips of STEEL. Really HARD.

Well, it only hurts for the first little bit, and if I didn't stop playing for years at a time I wouldn't have this problem. Eventually it doesn't hurt at all, but of course you have to sacrifice all sensation in the fingertips of your left hand. Or, if you're Michael Rosenbaum, your right hand.

I'm still completely boggled by the concept of upside down and backwards guitar-playing. There was some question when I was 16 about getting me a left-handed guitar. Meaning, a guitar that is strung backwards and has a reversed pickguard. It's true that I am ridiculously left handed, left-legged, left-footed, you name it. Back in the day when I was a competitive figure skater (waaaaaaay back in the day when I hit puberty) I couldn't even manage to do a loop (which is, for the unCanadian, a kind of figure skating jump wherein your edge for the jump is the opposite of your dominant edge and you land on your non-dominant foot). Me doing a loop: *push, wobble wobble, half-hearted leap, crash* Good times.

I'm not entirely sure why anyone plays the guitar left-handed, though. The left hand does all the really tricky stuff anyway, I think. The really precise stuff. You can waffle on the right hand, but not on the left. And those bar chords! But the reason I didn't get a left handed guitar was because I wanted to be able to play other people's guitars, and have other people play mine, because I was a camp counsellor and all that. Communal evironment, you know how it goes. Having a weirdly-strung guitar would just be a handicap.

See, what I discovered a couple of weeks back, when bonibaru announced that I was getting obsessive, was that Michael Rosenbaum does not play a left-handed guitar. He just plays a right-handed guitar backwards and upside down.

Just the idea of just learning to play this way makes my head hurt. I mean, no one would ever be able to help you, no one ever. You couldn't look at chord charts without mentally flipping them around and upside down. You wouldn't be able to look at people playing to confirm what chord you're hearing. Well, without bending your brain inside out. I play almost entirely by ear, but when something stumps me I look it up. And back in the day I learned to play from the tiny chord chart at the back of a Girl Guide song book (The Our Chalet Songbook, in case you're curious) and someone showed me which fingers I was supposed to use for G, C, and D. (Which are really all the chords you need for The Our Chalet Songbook.) And then I worked the rest out on my own.

But I mean, if you were playing upside down and backwards...meh. Those chord charts would make no sense. You wouldn't even have a basic guide for how to form chords. You'd have to invent them all for yourself. Or just echew chords altogether. As a guitar player, it baffles me. I would like to see someone do it, anyone. I've never seen it done, though granted I don't know a lot of guitar players, and most people would not think to do this. It's like finding out that someone uses their feet to type, leaving their hands free to, er, gesture wildly. I mean, you can't really imagine someone trying it as it looks so uncomfortable, but you'd love to see it in action.

And in completely unrelated other news: please keep in mind that it's spelled masturbate, not masterbate. I care about you and your spelling.


http://www.masturbateforpeace.com

Comments

[phoenixsong]

Did you really go to the Chalet at some point, or did you get the songbook elsewhere? (Yay WAGGGS!)

[ivyblossom.livejournal.com]

I think I got the book at the tuck shop at camp when I was 11 or something. It was just hanging around my camp stuff when I got my guitar. I should have just got the ultimate chord chart or something, but really, it was good to start out with 10 chords. Less inimidating.

I've never been to Our Chalet, no. :) I wish I had gone, though.

[changeling7.livejournal.com]

Ouch. Poor Ivy. That makes me rethink taking guitar lessons next quarter, even though it might not be so bad with my nylon strings.

[hedonisticated.livejournal.com]

And in completely unrelated other news: please keep in mind that it's spelled masturbate, not masterbate. I care about you and your spelling.

Awwww! I feel the love. It's nice to know that people care about perfecting one's wank-vocab.

You know, now everytime I touch my non-existent man-sack I'll think of you and peace, and orgasms. *grins*

[skg.livejournal.com]

Gah! I used to be a competitive figure skater too!!!

Also quit around the time puberty arrived.
Had blocked out the trauma of the loop jump. Also the lutz.

[cirakaite.livejournal.com]

I think everyone blocks out the lutz once they stop skating . . . Never used to have problems with the loop though- there are benefits to being ambidextrous :D

And just hearing about playing the guitar backwards and upside down is enough to make my (non-guitar player's) head spin. It's not like you could learn it the right way up, and then invert it, because your hands would still be all wrong . . .

[lunarennui.livejournal.com]

LOL yes i hate the 'masterbate' misspelling nearly as much as 'lightening'...

About the upside down guitar-playing

[smoovygee.livejournal.com]

Hi there, just a friendly friends list lurker but I just had to comment on this...

Jimi Hendrix played guitars upside-down and backwards, so you could probably find some old concert footage, like Woodstock or something. Perhaps Michael Rosenbaum is a Hendrix fan? Not to mention it's a hell of a lot easier (and cheaper) to find right-handed guitars than left-handed ones.

Of course, anyone that can actually manage playing guitars upside-down and backwards really deserves some respect. I'm right-handed but I tried doing the upside-down trick with a left-handed guitar. Strangely enough, I could still play the jazz scales pretty well, but just the regular scales? Ugh, I shudder at the difficulty.

And don't worry about your fingertips. Play frequently enough and they'll grow calluses and you'll be able to carry frighteningly hot plates balanced over-the-shoulder waiter-style in your left hand! Always a fun party trick. =D

[melieltathariel.livejournal.com]

Playing the violin doesn't destroy your fingers, but it puts dents in them.

[serpenthe.livejournal.com]

It freaks me out whenever I see footage of Paul McCartney playing his bass. It just looks so unnatural. And playing it backwards? My mind boggles.

I always thought it would make more sense to use your dominant hand on the neck, because it would be easier, but I'm happy because now I can actually use my left hand. Those barre chords are good for something!

The interesting thing is that if you play for a long enough time, the fingers on your left hand become longer than those on your right. After six years, my left hand is about a centimetre longer than my right. It grosses people out.

And there was a Girl Guide songbook!? What the hell? I didn't get a song book.

Hmm, did you ever sing the one that goes:

There were three jolly fishermen
There were three jolly fishermen
There were three jolly fishermen
Fisher Fisher men men men
Fisher Fisher men men men
There were three jolly fishermen

They all went down to Amsterdam
They all went down to Amsterdam
They all went down to Amsterdam
Amster Amster dam dam dam
Amster Amster dam dam dam
They all went down to Amsterdam

We used to scream out the 'dam' part. Argh, now I'm remembering all the stupid songs we used to sing.

A Guide's honour is to be trusted,
Loyal is she.
I forget this part
A friend to all and a sister to each other.
A Guide is courteous, a friend to animals
Blah blah blah.

Yep. Us Girl Guides kick ass.

Re: About the upside down guitar-playing

[ivyblossom.livejournal.com]

I thought Hendrix just played left-handed...I didn't know he played upside down.

And don't worry about your fingertips. Play frequently enough and they'll grow calluses and you'll be able to carry frighteningly hot plates balanced over-the-shoulder waiter-style in your left hand! Always a fun party trick. =D

Uh, thanks...I'm not actually worried. I've been playing off and on for 12 years, I know all about the callouses. I just don't have them back 100% yet.

[coloredvision.livejournal.com]

And it gives you a funny little mark on your neck! :P

finger picking good

[hexdcml.livejournal.com]

finger picking hurts both left and right hands...
but its good to see people playing guitar :) its an awesome instruments, its got both classical underpinnings and it totally RAWKS on-stage.
I was forced to play the piano, and after like 1 year i still couln't read standard notation properly. Turned to guitar and I was reading within the first week.

apart from drums, it is also the best instrument to let loose on.. (IMHO) - I totally admire drummers, I mean, how do they get their hand-foot coordination so good? any drummers here?

Re: finger picking good

[ivyblossom.livejournal.com]

finger picking hurts both left and right hands...

Really? I don't find that finger picking hurts at all. But perhaps that's because I have such strong lesbian hands...

*snerks*

Re: finger picking good

[hexdcml.livejournal.com]

well perhaps im doin it wrong?

erk.. but one thing.. palm muting helps build up wanking muscles :) and so does drumming.. apparently.. in fact.. i think all muscians are expert masturbators..

[serehmia.livejournal.com]

I'd love to be able to play the guitar, even if it does hurt your fingers. I might try and teach myself someday.

i guess i'm bass-ackwards:-D

[alicinoz.livejournal.com]

I'm right-handed,. but i play guitar lefty,.. it's actually not difficult at all to flip chord charts and such, ya just have to think of it in a mirror-image kind of way. But to the point of this,.. I recently acquired two guitars (one acoustic, one electric,.. both right-handed) i said "screw it" and have decided to teach myself to play *normal* but geez,.. i'm having trouble even getting the chords right now,.. i'm stuck in upside down and backwards mode,..

*ends pointless ranting*

[kaighn.livejournal.com]

As a guitar player, it baffles me. I would like to see someone do it, anyone.

My older brother plays upside down and backwards. It *is* really bizarre to watch him play, I can't figure out how he converts everything and when I think about it it makes my head spin.

[ixchelmala.livejournal.com]

I can read story books and well, pretty much every thing upside down. At some point all the letters flip in my vison, as if they were in a mirror, and yeah, I can keep reading... it still boggles me the things my brain learned to do when I worked with kids.

I bet he's a real computer wiz... or that kind of person that can take things apart and put them together...differently, and have them still work.

[metonymy.livejournal.com]

Playing the cello, however, gives you mighty calluses of d00m.

[electricbluecat.livejournal.com]

Yay! I play the guitar!

When you first start learning, it kills and you get little marks in your fingertips, but after a while the skin on your fingers gets a bit harder and used to it. 'Tis muchly fun.

I know someone who plays the guitar backwards and upside down.

[wildendeavour.livejournal.com]

I can dance and do combinations with a good degree of accuracy on the left and I am a lefty for archery because my left eye is stronger than my right. Other than that, I am learning to write left handed but i am not very good as yet. Oh well, I wil keep trying.

[andrewb.livejournal.com]

A note on fingernails: cut your left hand nails very short and grow out your right hand thumb. I taught myself a couple of summers ago; it is fun once your fingertips develop proper cushioning.

[mark356.livejournal.com]

Hey! I've been playing the cello for nearly two years now, and I still don't have the calluses of d00m! I just have two little ones on the corners of my outer fingers, and only the barest tougheining on the others!

I have tried to play the guitar, though, and I'm pretty sure that the guitar is much harder on your fingers if you use steel strings instead of softer nylon or gut. With the cello, the strings start nearly on the fingerboard, and there are no frets, and there's less tension, so it's much easier to press them. (The lack of frets also means that you need to be even more careful of your intonation, but you have more control of your tone with more types of vibrato. Then the wonderfulness of the bow is a different story.) Also, there are only four of them to keep track of. The guitar has much tenser strings, suspended higher above the fingerboard, and you need to press them around the frets properly! This is one of the reasons I'm learning rock cello (as well as lovely classical cello!) rather than guitar.