A dialogue with a student on selecting a guitar and learning my system.

So how was your trip home, you never said...?

sure I did. It was lots of warm fuzzy getting reacquainted with relatives, playing raucous angelic folk guitar, and hiking stormy cliffs and mountain top vistas with deer and ocean views. The wind there swept the beach clean of dry sand in just a couple minutes as I watched from above my feet. It took some weeks to get back into my home routine though, especially while my immediate family went through feudal misery during the holidays which they included me in.
I recently invented the pneumatic guitar, amp, & guitar synthesiser.

... The pneumatic guitar, amp and synthesizer...either it's that I am just as equally strange as the inventor or the very notion of all three devices simply make complete sense. They even sound right as I imagine them resonating their unique qualities. I have a friend who I think would be interested in the sight and sounds of these recent concoctions of yours...which promptly raises the question of their physical state, i.e., do the inventions have a physical state as of yet? (Haha.) This friend teaches people to grasp the mechanics of strumming on an acoustic guitar, but she's not very committed to her list of clients, a list which has a very consistent growth of shrinkage.

Hey! Would that be something you'd consider doing, as a vocation of sorts? As of February 19, I'm on the prowl for a piano and guitar independent who will have the patients to teach me how to play! I want to come away from the sessions with the ability to actually pull legible music out of these two instruments, or to have at least afforded the possibility some committed exploration. I'm figuring I'll have to oblige to three one-hour sessions per week, per instrument--if that's feasible (or even advisable, I wouldn't know). This could be yet another rock climb or cliff-hike worth taking, if you're up to the challenge! I'm a great follower. I'm able to yield myself to being molded with such ease that you'd think I was a clump of clay. I also know I'd have to "settle" for someone's style along the way while learning, so I would never question techniques--I'd just follow.

Check your email...I've asked about your schedule this week (today even). I also provided my new cell phone number. Let's get together as soon as it's realistically practical for us both...

... The mechanics of strumming go very deep. Without affects, there are a hundred different techniques to get a note to sound, and they each sound different (attack, decay, sustain, harmonics, etc). I've just got my website into postable condition again; ... ... One of the last things I did post in the prior phase a year ago was a simplified system for learning music theory on the guitar based loosely on the tralfegio system (do-re-mi) (It's linked on the top left of my home page index as the Zolfege system). It's going to take at least half a year to make this guitar, and for now I do research, and experiment with things like harmonica driven speaker cabinets and woodwoodworking technique.
I'd love to teach you guitar. I got nowhere learning by traditional methods for a year and a half, 20 years ago. This time I became a virtuoso in five minutes. It involves a completely different way of consciousness. I might ask that you get a harmonica too. They are portable, and you can practice the way of thinking with one at bus stops or anywhere else. I do a great deal of playing guitar accompaniment to the television. I won't explain my method, but I am convinced that it is a new leap in intstant playability, just as the suzuki method was once a major leap. I have an electronic keyboard here too (and all sorts of studio and midi gear).
... ... Oh, other music methods are all digital: a primary component of mine is that it is initially analog, which in guitar means slide guitar, and since we're talking about using fingers, that means 'flatwound' strings, normal strings are like running your fingers down saw blades. Fretless but with fret markers would be useful too. Much of what I have to say can apply to digital music systems like piano and harmonica too, so don't go out and buy a new guitar if you already have one (you can get new strings though).

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... If you sent an email, I never got it. ... I'm quite looking forward to our guitar jam. What works best for me is a dusk to dawn arrangement. I've been coming up with a whole bunch of stuff to relate to you, some theory (I could teach you the first year of college theory), but most of that goes out the door when we start playing, and it's about getting in the zone, how to listen, the right consciousness, a bit of technique, - there's a a joe playing awesome slide steel jazz guitar at the moment on the radio. Creating an overnight guitar virtuoso is an intriguing venture, and I can hardly wait to try. (although when you get here 'trying' is not allowed). We are just observors, though eventually we get to direct a bit. The details take care of themselves. I have a few experiments in mind. So when are you coming over? Did you email me?

... ... and when that happens, we can talk about a schedule for my strum-tutoring. I'm glad you had a positive riposte to the notion! (And I hope like mad that my absence didn't fizzle things out for you.) You can start me anywhere you think I can handle it - I'm determined to impress ya'. I'm really looking forward to learning this...it might be a good exploration for you too. It's a good way for you to make some money while possibly finding out you just might want to build some client list of your own in the future...? This'll be GREAT!

I have a couple of dinner meetings Monday and Tuesday of this coming week, but how about I keep Wednesday open for my introduction lesson? Should I purchase a guitar, by the way? If so, what kind? ... ...

Hmm, never got your email. I hope the subject wasn't something like 't-wang her strings', or it was a sure candidate for deletion.
You sure are upbeat glass half full for your situation. I had no idea that you left Paramount or that your truck was eaten.
I wasn't hinged on you on this time. In fact, I seemed to recall recently that we were going to do something, and I was fairly sure it wasn't another of those entrepreneurial business mind meetings.
I'd really like to help you select a guitar, and there's a lot to know, and I'd also like to discuss the pros and cons of the type that I would suggest for my learning my technique. I do an slide/tappist technique, which requires a) flat wound strings, b) very low action (that's how close the strings are to the neck/frets), c) and a guitar so loud or sensitive that one can hear notes by simply tapping a string to a fret without plucking the string. Going electric is one way of doing this. I think that first though, you should see if my technique / 'mental paradigm' actually works for you, because if does, you should invest in a fretless guitar to start with (though one with fret positions 'painted' on would help immensely for learning the theory counterpart).
My own instrument is a hollow-body (somewhat acoustic) electric violin-bass (a bit like paul mccartney played). Options include full-acoustic, full-electric, electro-acoustic (mic-ed), and hollow-body acoustic/electric. Theres the choice on bass or six string, or six string bass (or even 12 string bass), the matter of circuitry, the acoustic design, neck width (mine is a rare narrow neck which allows you to also pluck strings from the side of the neck (quite useful when using my technique) and reach strings for fretting from both sides easier). If you ever talk to a musician, you'l find that choosing a guitar is inevitably like choosing a spouse. It will flavor a steady relationship that lasts for years. Every instrument has it's own personality. I had a friend, honors grad in music, pioneer, who had a job grading trombones. That means, that of all the factory produced trombones, supposedly identical, he was responsible for hearing which were $1800 trombones, and which were $300 trombones.
Wedensday sounds great. Talk to me before buying a mail-order bride. Perhaps we can make a trip to Sam Ash, Guitar Center, or my favorite hall of fame emporium for wild used gear, Black Market Music on La Cienega. 'Phone, shopping, playing' sounds like an ideal arrangement to me, but count on shopping taking at least 4 hours. A decent guitar (new or used) is going to cost you $200-700 (and $2400 is nothing uncommon). Used guitars have more character built in, and you'll know how the guitar will mature already. The selection is much different too. Styles and technology change. New guitars can get better or worse with age. Japanese is sometimes better than US (the most expensive), but other countries rarely are. You'll also need $60 for the flat-wound strings I hope you get. If you go electric, a used $100 amp will do fine for now. They too have a world of character and options. You could get a vintage tube amp, but that really locks you into certain sounds. A really clean amp (I recommend Roland) can be made dirty with filters and effects to sound like anything else that's ever been out there, but a dirty amp can never play clean techno or jazz or gamelan. Bass and 6-string amps aren't very interchangeable, so select your guitar first. A few companies make backpacking amps, which will allow you to play from your car on lunch breaks. I made my own portable set-up. You don't have to provide an amp at my house, we could share, but it helps to have seperate volume / sound-source / synth-textures to distinguish what you are playing. I have spare headphones. With seperate amps (and you'd want one for home anyhow), I could set it up so we could dial in how much of each player we uniquely hear. Musicians can never hear their own instrument loud enough when playing together, hence the headphones in studios.
If you go to the 'top five bands' survey, I've quite recently listed the contents of my warm-up tape. Do you have any genres in mind? or thoughts yet on what sort of instrument? I like to play to a different genre every night. It broadens my vocabulary of melody/scale, rhythm, and technique. I love bluegrass. It seems to be the most broadly demanding in string technique. Strums, plucks, slap, tap, bending, are all tightly interwoven. This probably all sounds like so much to think about, but my purcahase was an intuitive thing at the first small shop I visited (though for the life of me, after all I know about what's out there, my rare beast surpasses all the rare specs I would have thought to look for, I got real lucky). As far as playing goes, you won't have to think much. I'll include lots of theory, but it will be like tying a bungee cord to your ankles, pushing you off a bridge, then explaining gravitational accelleration. You can then use the theory to jump off of your own bridge.
I also have a rare ear. my favorite recording 20 years ago was from the college station which played three turntables at once, the velvet underground, stochausen metal machine music, and some indian ragas. They synchronized perfectly. I hear power grid transformers and nightingales & crickets creating classical compositions which require a broad ear. If it weren't for my having played clearly sour notes, I might imagine that any music could accompany any other.
I can see we're both on night owl hours. Black Market music closes around 6:30 pm I think, and Sam Ash (for the strings, after we know which body (they come in different string lengths)) probably closes around 8pm. That probably means that if we go that route, you should plan on being/leaving here at least by 3 or 4. Oh, depends on how you're getting around too. It takes me 40 minutes to pedal to black market (presuming I'm ready to leave the house first). I'm considering (so sad) selling my car. It depends on whethar my daughter wants it or not (I sort of got it with her in mind).
Oh, you'll probably want a case too, another $70 new (never available used). I got a soft back-pack variety ($35), but often that's a risky way to carry it around. Call me.

*laughing out loud* I love it. This the 'choosing a pet' survey.

How apt! (The survey.)

... One guitar you didn't mention, and I'm sure you can probably expound later on the good reason for the omission, but the guitar I was thinking about is the 12-string acoustic. What I'd really like to do is to add 12 more strings to that guitar--between the existing ones. That's the contraption with which I'm looking to start my musical journey. The "contraption" will be the until-now-unheard-of "Two-Dozen Strummer".

Whattya think? (Don't worry--that's just absurd late-hour humor kicking in...) I'm thinking acoustic, but I am hearing your points about the electric. As we shop, I suspect you might be surprised at the influence I'll allow you to have with those decisions throughout my 'excursions into the world of tunes'... BTW: My tinnitus might be interesting for you to work with.

You'll hear from me (phone) by late Tuesday, the very latest.

BTW2: Have you been painting something red lately? My sleeplessness often has my mind force the issue of needed rest, so I find myself having momentary--rather, almost instantaneous--naps. This occurs many times while I'm sitting here at my keyboard. In those instances, I often experience flash images of things. Most of them make little sense to me--even if I willfully keep from denying imagination to do a number on what I thought I saw, just to substantiate these mental impressions of mine, haha. Just moments ago, I dreamed you were slapping a heavy coat of red paint onto everything around you. Specifically, it looked like exterior paint rather than artist material, although you weren't outside with the stuff. More candy-apple red than crimson.

12 strings have a lovely sound, to be sure, but as far as I can see, they are purely strumming guitars, substantially reducing ones playing options. They are probably better left as a second guitar for special occasions and styles, unless 12 string styles are all you're interested in playing. You won't find a set of flat-wound strings for them either, which means no bare finger slide.
If you check out zithers, harp guitars, and such, you'll find that just about anything you can imagine has been made already. Black Market may even have one. The 12 string is generally tuned with the 2nd strings (of the 6 courses) an octave higher. The 12 string base however is often tuned with the 2nd & 3rd strings (of the 4 courses) in chord intervals. Some instruments like banjos are retuned in chords to suit the particular song being played. Concert instruments like cellos and such are tuned in fifths rather than 4ths, which means bigger note jumps between strings, wider fingering required to play scales, and more tonal spectrum available on the overall instrument.
I'm guessing you'd appreciate a nice cherry colored maple acoustic Ovation with an integral piezo pick-up. I might even talk you into a fretless bass version of said instrument. like this Ovations aren't all that cheap, but they give you a choice of american ar asian versions of identical products.
OMG. We are in synch. I went into pre-sleep meditation, and it was a meditation occuring purely in red. The only painting I've had in mind lately is a touch up of some peace banner text in bright sunshine orange.
You've made some good self-realisations lately.
Oh, start letting the nails on your right hand grow out.
Here's an Ovation long neck (basically a six string violin-bass). They make plenty of 12 strings too like this Glen Campbell 12 string.

You called the guitar in the first link "fretless", but it seems the image of it indeed has frets (if I really know what they are). This Link I can see that trusting your judgement is sound--in the first few words, you've steered me from the 12-string. Although I'm aware that this isn't your intention, explaining the limitation of starting with a 12-string as you did was effective...I would like to start as far out (basic) as possible. I'm what I call a "conceptual learner" (as opposed to what I call a "linear learner"), which means to me that, in the process of gaining new knowledge with anything, I quickly understand that just because I pushed this button here and it had a certain result doesn't necessarily mean that this is the only button that will accomplish that result, nor does it mean to me that this is the sole function of the same button. I think this is one of the assured blessings--and damnation, in some cases--that arrives when people like you and I spent the time to train our minds to relate to computers.

Okay--and dammit--I should have just went ahead and described the very clear image I got in that little fraction-of-a-second-nap I had last night when I was telling you of it then (and why didn't I just go ahead and say this?)...

The sight was of 'you', planted squarely in the middle of this "paint". It was a mid-range overhead view, and 'you' moved around a small bit, but only very slowly, and 'you' were looking skyward. Also, I know I said this "paint" 'you' surrounded 'yourself' with was more cherry-red rather than crimson in color, but--thinking back to the image now--I'm almost completely reversing that. It seems like it maybe was a cherry-red color, but the overall hue of this "room" or wherever you were was sort of dim in my view, almost shadowy, so the "paint" returned more a crimson affect in that faint light than it would have had I suddenly turned on a spot light (probably scaring the crap out of you in the process, haha).

I enclose 'you' in those apostrophes only because I realized at a very young age that I don't really see faces of people in my dreams, no matter how clearly they are a particular individual I know, or how certain I am the image I see is a particular someone. Images of faces and bodies, I think, are more subconsciously 'drawn in' after my dreams, so my memory can more readily recall who the subjects were in my dreams as I remember back to them. But, effectively, while in the dream, there probably are no faces, only a truer presence of that person or animal I am recognizing is part of that dream. Not a very clear explanation, but it will have to do for now.

I'll heed the advice about my right hand, as I curiously wonder what has been going on for a couple of months now with the fingernails (specifically, my thumb nail) on my other hand. I believe there must have been some infection there (that finally was relieved just before I left for Vegas a while back)--the side of my thumb very painfully bulged outward from the nail there. It was like that for a week or so, then went away before Vegas, but its process is still in progress apparently because the nail is losing it's attachment to my thumb altogether. And, admittedly, I think it was all the result of prematurely cutting my nails, resulting in a terrible hang nail on that thumb just before the presumed infection.

Or...back in the real world...you're probably just thinking to pass me that little piece of advice because I'll need to pick with my right hand fingers in my upcoming guitar lessons. Ahem.

In any case, "synched"--I definitely would agree! (And--bad you--why didn't you add that word to the dictionary? Haha.) In fact, it seems we're in tune with one another to a pretty amazing extent--which tosses my mind back to a conversation you and I had very early on. It was in your second version of the "Psychiatrist 5¢" survey. We'll hopefully pick up that conversation again.

~ ~ ~

Actually, that conversation wasn't in the "Psychiatrist 5¢" survey. I can't find it, but it was that survey you created in which you invited everyone to share only their thoughts, rather than addressing anyone directly in their comments. It was one of my favorite surveys (as it seemed to be with others--maybe a second version of that one would be justified), but I can't locate it! In SEARCH, the words "thoughts", "think", "thinking" and "yourself" do not produce that survey. What was it, do you remember?

No indeed, that one was not fretless. I'm not even sure they make a fretless bass. Since you're interested in acoustics, we also have to spend a couple hours drooling at McCabes on Pico, a woodsy folk musicians outpost with dobros, mandolins, cellos, bazoukis, and such. Nothing there is cheap, but their $2400 dobro sounds heavenly, and the $2400 dobro at Sam Ash sounds like garbage.
I'm glad you are conceptual. Not only does it apply to learning the science of music, but also the art of music. Expository essay and poetry can deliver the same political message. One sequence of notes can be used in place of another.
Yep, that was the color. I'm blaming some art work a dear one sent my way. and I'm always looking up into space in meditation.
We all dream differently. I see faces, and have several (extra-sensory) senses, but sound and speech, smell taste, and touch are rare. I've never seen myself in my own dreams. It's through my eyes or from overhead without me there.
Talk to yourself out loud in public

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Here's a nice 5 string fretless acoustic bass with flat-wound strings already even, 17 bidders, now $405 on ebay. a link to the mfgr with sound clips. another by hohner currently $133 also with electric pickup. and a $3000 variety .

I ask one thing of you, in case a guitar gets in your hands before I intercept you: do NOT 'try' to play any music. Go crazy with plucking notes and strumming the thing to get an idea how it sounds, but don't do any critical thinking. I plan to teach your subconscious first, and let your consciousness catch up later. In fact, the first hands on excercise, after some expressionistic hand dancing, will involve discussing politics or reading newspapers while we play.

and now for a physics primer on selecting an acoustic guitar.
Plucking a string creates a longitudinal wave of a particular frequency. Thinner, tauter (ie from tuning or bending), or shorter strings (ie when fretting notes) play higher notes. When one sings do re mi fa so la ti do (a major scale (step pattern)) which can start on any note (key center), the final 'do' is the same note, but an octave higher. It is twice the frequency. There are 12 semi-tones (guitar frets or both white and black piano keys) in an octave. Cutting a string in half doubles the frequency, so the 12th fret (an octave higher than the open string) will be found halfway down the string no matter how long the neck of the guitar is. The strings clearest sounding note is called the fundamental, but plucking also produces harmonics, higher notes produced using 1/2, 1/3, 1/4, 1/5 of the available string. At the end of string, this longitudinal wave is seen as a compression wave (which is what ears hear) (the string contracts), and the bridge bends this compression wave 90º to create likewise on the soundboard. The soundboard itself, with it's french curves and exotic bracing underneath, will in turn be prone to resonating longitudinal and transverse waves. The sound board, acting like a speaker diaphragm, will in turn create compression waves inside thge body of the guitar which are subject to even more harmonic resonance. A good guitar will generally deliver clear fundamental notes, yet have a rich chorus of harmonics too. The trick is in creating a guitar to resonate with every pitch. On a cheap guitar you may find flat spots, notes that don't have clarity, volume, or lush harmonics. With an exceptionally good guitar, and exceptionally good playing technique, it's possible to play more than one note at a time on any string. In fact, by lightly fretting, you can get 2 notes at that finger, two notes encouraged with a lower fretting, and another note encouraged by where you pluck. 5 notes, one string. This is the shit I doubt anyone can master by 'thinking' about it, as one would when pre-programming a midi keyboard. You either get in 'the zone' (aka 'the groove') where you can hear and play this stuff, or forget about it. 'Analysis' and 'trying' are enemies of 'the zone'. At best, we ask the hands to play some sunshine or godzilla, we don't pull out our cray computer and recalculate every microsecond where all the current harmonic nodes on each string are anymore than we think about how quickly we are engaging the clutch when driving. Good guitar playing, even if you are playing 'orpheous in hades' (*laughing out loud* , known popularly as 'the can-can'), is a spiritual grace. My own meditative experience was reminiscent of the grateful dead, in which I could play to anything in any genre without hearing it first, but with an egoless detachment that gave it a quality of all being the same song, as indeed, the universe is. As time went on, I was able to slip my own ego into the equation and significantly steer the gestalt. Now I can play along to a new classical piece in a rambunctious boogie-woogie style if I want to.
I'll tell you now why I recommend a bass. You can get your hands 'into' the strings like a good massage. Also (remember I told you we were learning an analog technique) you can dedicate a fretting finger to each string, and a plucking/strumming finger to each string, so for starters, you don't have to worry that a note will sound, it's more a matter of getting a feel for 'which' four notes will sound when you press the clutch down this far. Also, on a bass, the intervals between strings are all identical. If your hand is in position to play a particular type of chord or interval, not only will you have that same interval or chord vhen sliding up/down the neck, but also if you move the whole arrangement over a string. Not so on a 6-string, unless you use unconventional tuning; different rules apply for building chords, intervals, and scales around that 5th string down. Frets (digital) lock you into exact notes which you then have to bend. If you're interested in playing any eastern music, forget frets entirely; Their scales do not use the same note tones or intervals.

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There's a huge comment above too. Today's our big day, unless you've had to make other plans. I've been going through my theory lessons to make sure they are as effective as I envisioned. You can't look at those yet either though, as they will detract from the initial intuitive method.
I just emailed you at the ancient dz@a address to let you know that none of your phones work anymore. I woke up at 2am and am ready to shop, but I won't be up for playing dusk till dawn, or even till the witching hour.