The backwards guitar in this picture, is a unique approach to guitar building, from the traditional perspective that is. I would how it would sound? If you wanted to pick this thing up and had a couple of drinks in ya, it might take a second or two to get your musical bearings straight … wouldn’t it?
My wife brought this picture to my attention, in case you thought I found this one on my own!
The best site I have found to determine the name of a specific guitar chord is to use Chord Namer on the JGuitar website. Every time I figure out a song and I can’t arrive at the correct name for a chord, I have found this site the simplest and most comprehensive to use.
When I want to determine the composition of a certain song, I just figure it out. It is just that easy for me. Upon listening to any song, I can figure the chord progressions in my head. Then I put it down in Word to use at a later time. The chord format I implement here is TAB (Guitar Tablature). This is pretty much the standard and easiest way to write/communicate songs to other players, just in case you didn’t know.
The chord(s) that I come up with for songs are always more complicated then what the general guitar player needs. So the chord names are much more complex then say for example: play a B chord here and then … Now this is how the chord namer works!
Now to get a better grasp of how to understand this screen, imagine that you are holding a guitar on your lap with the guitar in the playing position. Then to get a better look at the whole fretboard and to look at where you will be placing your fingers, you would pick up the bottom part of the guitar and bring it up towards your face. Got it?
Now to how the program works!
From left to right on this screen (see link above), Mute indicates the string that you WILL NOT be hitting. So at first glance, all the circles have this green dot in the center of them. This indicates that you WILL NOT be hitting ANY of these strings.
Right beside this, you will see letters and they represent the strings that you will hit. To the right of these letters, you will see circles with NO green dots in the middle. Click on the ones that YOU WILL BE USING!
Now you get to the part of the program where you tell it exactly WHERE you wish to put your fingers on the fretboard. The yellow section represents your fretboard. The numbers that you see directly above it represents the FRETS. Now you just move your mouse over the individual string and fret you will use and click it. A green dot will appear in the middle of the circle and represents your finger positioning.
With all this complete, you then hit the Go button and wait for the name of your chord to appear!
The chord namer generates many other chords names here, but for the general player just use the first chord at the top of the list. I pretty much only use this function on the site, but there are many more hidden treasures on here if you are a little more adventurous.
So give it a whirl, if your in trouble trying to find the name of a chord and get back to us at what you think of it. We’re all waiting for your results!
Keep on Jammin’
As I’ve said before on this blog, you never know what a gem of an article is hidden in your local bi-weekly news letter that you would have otherwise not been privy to! We’re all aware of these things taking up space in our recycling bins outside the house. They can draw your attention to a local event or some kind of one of a kind establishment in your hood!
Today I was waiting around for a store to open and I had roughly 35 minutes to kill. So what was I going to do to pass the time I said to myself? Ah, what about that Coffee Bar that opened up in the old XXX video store that went under ages ago?! Even some local critics had nothing bad at all to say about the place, so sure, let’s check it out!
Trying to recall where this place was, after walking down the street and around the corner, sure enough it was there! The place is called Broadview Espresso. The outside was nicely refinished, back to it’s original period look. Gone were the signs that covered up the front windows, blocking the hidden beauty inside this vintage old store.
As I strolled in, the inside great! It has a small, intimate feel to it. The ceiling was wood, the lights hanging from the ceiling were a nice art deco design and they all fit in well together for a charming atmosphere. The owners used particle board (that was shellacked really thick, I might just do this for a future home project, if it presents itself to us) for a stretched out table that wrapped all the way around the windows so you could look outside onto the street to view the sidewalk traffic. The high barstool like seats are simple, just the way I like it. Overhead, there was relaxing jazz music, people reading, talking in a low voice or simply using their notebooks.
Upon ordering a coffee, I made small talk with the young lady behind the counter. I asked her if they had anyone playing music in there and she had a neat answer to my question. She said that musicians just show up from time to time and play when they like. The Barista added that this one guy even came back every Saturday night for a month and played for nothing! Now this is the kind of place that you want to see up and coming new indie talent! Nice, I’ll be back for sure!
So when you see that old bi-weekly newspaper, that you normally just chuck into the recycling bin, leaf through it and you never know what you’ll find!
Keep on Jammin’
Well this 2008/9’s holiday season was full of both work and lots of fun for all of us here! We worked hard but played harder.
At work, we had less OR rooms open, so natural we had less staff working! This doesn’t mean that the work load on each of us there was any less. Just like any other work place during slow times, there were times when we had nothing to do (just waiting for the OR patients to arrive) and at other times it was fast paced and chaotic (when we were inundated with patients)! Then after all the craziness, came the fun!
We eventually got up and drove to my home town of Brantford early that Christmas morning to celebrate with my family. We ate a lot of GREAT food, had a few eggnog based beverages (NOT too many) and then hours later we headed back off to T.O. We brought back with us my brother and his son, with all his new hockey equipment in tow from his cache of this year’s Christmas gifts from the family!
The weather was great, around -3 (C) with light flurries. It was about 9:00 PM, we had a quick drink, got our gear ready and then headed off to the local out door rink at Dieppe Park! Once we arrived, we put on our equipment and headed off to the pleasure skating rink, to get our ice legs ready, before hitting the hockey ice pad.
The hockey rink had around 8 guys on it once we arrived. Once we skated onto it, the guys asked us if we wanted to join them on their teams for a game? After they said this, my nephew’s eye’s just opened wide with excitement! The look in his eyes said, finally playing some REAL hockey, on a traditional out door Canadian ice pad!!!
These guys were around 17-20 years old. My brother and myself being of, shall we say developed years, were a little worried about how our performance would be, in front of the little guy. As it turned out, we did great. We still had some decent rushes in us and had some nice tape to tape passes (really we did, ask the little guy!) that night. After 12:30 AM, 3 hours later, we decided to call it quits.
The next morning my joints didn’t feel all that bad, to my wife’s surprise, and we then proceeded on back 2 more times that day! The following day we also managed to get back out there 2 more times, but now the aches and pains were starting to set in.
While my they were here in Toronto, we also met up with more family and friends. We even talked my cousin and his son into heading out onto the ice for a laugh!
After a couple of days here, our guests headed back to their home in Chicago. Now it was time for some ice … not the one at the rink or the ones in a drink … if you know what I mean!?
Hopefully you all had a blast! Happy Holidays everyone.
calling this guy a one man band is an understatement. This fine young musician is either a musical genius or a little bit more then mis-understood? You be the judge.
This guy is just so neat to watch him … do his thing! Enjoy.
Keep on Jammin’
