More Questions and Answers from Readers

QUESTION...
I enjoyed your last gig story - thanks, Had a question for you.. how many people were in the group? Did you have a vocalist. Did you have a sound co. do the gig with you or did someone bring a small system? whats the typical pay for musicians who do corp. gigs in Tampa? Are there good union gigs? Thanks, Fl. is a nice place to live. a little warmer than DC this time of year. Cheers
mike

ANSWER...
There were 5 in the group. Myself, another guitarist/singer, sax player, bass player, drummer. The other guitarist did most of the singing, I sang a few tunes and the sax player sang a few tunes. We used a small PA system. For that gig I was paid $170...not bad for 3.5 hours, free food and free drinks and a lot of fun. I'm pretty sure that the sax player made more - he found and set up the gig, handles the payout and owns the PA equipment I am not sure about union gigs...have never been involved in one

QUESTION...
Hey thanks for passing along the (newsletter) info. Was curious though as to your usual Dorian Mode Ideas. Any suggestions at all would be appreciated. holla.
Anthony
ANSWER...

Hello Anthony,
I usually will play Dorian mode over most minor chords that come my way. For example if there is a modal tune (few chord changes) that sticks on an A minor 7th chord for extended periods then I will play the notes of the G major scale, which is the A Dorian mode. As far as particulars of the notes, I usually will play various patterns and licks all along the scale, up and down the fretboard. Sometimes I will use octaves with the scale notes. I also like playing a lot of chromatic notes, so I might start on low notes and play many chromatic notes up to the higher notes in the scale.

QUESTION...
I'm a beginner in the guitar world and I've just bought one witch my dealer call a classic guitar (I have a Maxtone CG-390N made in Taiwan ). I searched over the internet to know WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE CLASSIC GUITAR AND THE ACOUSTIC GUITAR and I found that the classic guitar has nylon string and a wide neck while the acoustic guitar has steel strings and narrow neck. For me that was VERY CONFUSING since my guitar have three steel strings (6th, 5th and 4th) and 3 nylon strings (1st, 2end and third) ! And just can't stop asking myself about the real identity of my guitar, what should I do about that ? what kind of music can I play with ? Does this affect the way to tune it ? and the most important if a classic guitar will be an acoustic guitar by just changing all his strings to steel ones.Please help. Thanx a lot ...
Sleem

ANSWER...

Sleem, The guitar you have is a type of acoustic guitar sometimes referred to as a nylon string guitar and sometimes referred to as a classical guitar. I have one myself and I enjoy playing it very much. It is called a nylon string guitar because the strings are indeed nylon, even the ones that appear to be metal. The lower 3 strings (E, A, D) are nylon inside with metal wrappings. The highest 3 strings (G, B, E) are nylon. It is also called a classical guitar because most if not all classical guitar music is typically played with this kind of guitar, probably due to tradition throughout the years. This type of guitar, like all others, can be tuned any way you want but generally should be tuned like any other guitar in concert A-440 standard tuning.

Do not put steel strings on your guitar since it will not sound very good and was not constructed to be equipped with steel strings. It might actually cause damage to the guitar. Always put the correct set of nylon strings on the guitar. As for the type of music you can play with this guitar...almost any style that you want! Clearly you are not going to play extremely loud music unless you put a microphone on it (which some people do).

I play my nylon string guitar all the time for any song that I want to play, and I play many different styles. I have seen jazz players use them, rock and roll players...even Willie Nelson (the country music star) plays one. The nylon string guitar is a very versatile instrument that has a very nice tone. Enjoy it!

QUESTION...
Hello, My name Is Phil and I'm a begginer/intermidiate guitar player and I have a question that I hope you'll be able to answer. I have been adimitely looking up tabs for some time now and I consistently come across the same problem. I have a problem with timing and I have unfortunately been unable to find tabs with time signitures. Heavy Metal is above and beyond my favorite musicial genre, and that is where timing and speed are vital, and hence my delema. I would appreciate any assitance you could give me in this matter. Thanks again.
Sincerely yours,
Phil

ANSWER...

Phil, I think your problem is common since most tablature that you come across will not have timing. I did find a web site that described timing notation in tablature. The web site address is ... http://johnkean.digitalrice.com/Tabs/Tablature.htm Even with what is described on that web site I think that it may be difficult to find a lot of tab with timing notation. Tab generally should be used when you basically know the song already or have access to a recording of it so you can get the timing by ear.

If you want to learn exact timing of songs or solos you should really learn standard musical notation. This will give you very detailed notation on the timing of any music that you want to learn. Some web sites that provide the basics of standard music notation are...
http://www.lessontutor.com/musicgenhome.html
http://www.treblis.com/Notation/Music.htm
http://www.jazclass.aust.com/basicth/bt1.htm

There are many more out there as well. You may want to check out an on-line book store for books on the subject as well. Hope this helps.

Domenick Ginex is a guitarist living in Tampa, Florida. He has played in several groups in the Tampa Bay area for over 25 years. His website, located at http://GuitarLessonsPro.com, offers guitar instructional information for beginner to intermediate level guitarists.