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1500 questions
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Tablature vs. standard music notation? (guitar)
Under what circumstances should I write down "TAB" (tablature) or just regular music notation or both? I know how to read and write both of them, but I'm not sure which I should use for my songs when writing them down.
manejar
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3 answers
Difference between minor and major pentatonic scale boxes?
Is there a difference between minor and major pentatonic scale box shapes? Some say you can do the same pattern as a minor scale but three notes up the fretboard and some that you must change pattern to do the major pentatonic scale in the same key?…
Chris
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Why are notes on the harmonica laid out the way they are?
This is a chart of a standard ten hole diatonic harmonica in the key of G that I copied from Wikipedia:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
blow: |G|B|D |G|B|D|G |B|D|G |
draw: |A|D|F#|A|C|E|F#|A|C|E |
As you can see, blowing in the…
user6591
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4 answers
Is there a name for a minor scale with a raised 3rd or a major scale with a lowered 6th and 7th?
I've noticed a pattern in chord progressions and melodies where I like to use the b7 and b6 chords with a major tonic and there are several modern songs that like to use this pattern as seen in a recent question leaving me to think that the…
Dom
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15
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3 answers
Expand Bass Guitar Playing Beyond Root Notes
I am fairly new to the bass guitar and I'm in a band. So far, I almost always just play the root note of the chord. I sometimes hold it until a new chord and sometimes repeatedly play this same note.
The root notes I commonly play are C, D, B, F#,…
bill999
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15
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4 answers
Pinky is raised uncontrollably when doing finger exercise
When I do finger exercises (e.g. Hanon's), my pinky finger is being raised after I play (press and release) a key with my fourth finger, and then is raised even more and is striated after the third finger plays a key. I try to fight it, in order to…
iddober
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15
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4 answers
What does the "+" symbol mean in a keyboard piece when attached to a note?
In a Daquin pipe organ piece, "Noël «Suisse»" from his "Livre de Noëls", I see this notation in the Right Hand system:
This is notated this way in the Oxford Book of Christmas Organ Music. How should I play the chord that has a "+" sign under it?
Richard
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15
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2 answers
What exactly are complex sounds in terms of audio waves?
If you listen to a song through headphones you have a "right" sound wave and a "left" sound wave, correct?
But these waves have a lot of complex sounds combined in them and a digital sound wave is really just a series of sampled points…
Zach Smith
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2 answers
What gives the sitar its characteristic sound?
The sitar has an instantly recognisable sound:
I've always assumed that the characteristic 'lush background drone' that I associate with the sitar came from its sympathetic strings resonating with the plucked string.
But on Friday night when I…
dumbledad
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5 answers
How to use VST (virtual instruments) on a live gig
I am a seasoned keyboardist playing mainly live gigs (Soul, Funk, Rock, Pop). I am very impressed by the capabilities of VST instruments, so I am wondering if it would be possible to use them in a live setup (my equipment today consists of multiple…
googol analytics
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3 answers
What does this split stem notation mean?
Here's sheet music for chopin's 2nd ballade. On page 6, in the 2nd measure in the 4th line of music, there's a D# and a D natural, with two lines coming out of them and connecting to the double bar (for the sixteenth notes). I was wondering how to…
Edward Jiang
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15
votes
3 answers
What are the actual notes of each natural harmonic?
So I know that if you play a natural harmonic at the 12th fret, this is just the same note as fretting the 12th is. Also, when I play my electric guitar and listen to lots of metal music in particular, I can hear that some natural harmonics sound…
felixius4
15
votes
4 answers
Playing guitar with webbed fingers
I've just got myself an acoustic guitar and I'm struggling with holding down chord shapes. I have webbed 2nd and 3rd fingers on my fretting (left) hand. This causes those fingers to follow each other, making it very difficult to play chord shapes.…
David Woods
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15
votes
2 answers
What is the proper humidity range for an acoustic guitar?
What is the range of relative humidity, in percentage, that is optimal for storing a guitar, cello, violin or the like in its case?
I live in Atlanta, Georgia, USA, which is a humid environment year-round. In this climate, musicians never worry…
user1044
15
votes
5 answers
How to make swell effect on electric guitar?
The effect I'm thinking of is when you don't hear the pick attack as you play a note, but you hear the note afterwards as it seems to get louder before decaying.
I suppose you can mimic this with a volume pedal but that seems a bit difficult. What…
RogerWang
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