James,t,Orr...
Oh I'm aware of the dots and their relation to the notes on the guitar frets such as the A on the E strings etc. I just think it requires a thorough grounding in musical theory to be able to identify notes at a glance like that on every string regardless of which fret. I mean, I still haven't quite got my head around root notes and intervals. I know what they are and the importance of 3rds, 5ths and 7ths but can't look at a string and say, 'okay, that's the such and such string, therefore the major 3rd is note blah.' My brain doesn't work that way. Well it does - just very slowly. Hehehe. Seeing the 6 strings on a guitar is like seeing 5 different keyboards (since there are 2 E strings, 2 of the analogous keyboards are effectively the same) where all the keys gradually reduce in width by the same amount the further up the neck you play and are of exactly the same colour but each keyboard's notes are offset by 5 or 4 notes from the adjacent one. The dots help certainly but are not so readily identifiable to me as the keys of a traditional keyboard with its groupings of black notes in 2's and 3's.
Competence levels in musical theory aside, so long as the standards I compose, play and sing at are great, I'm happy. I just believe in using what works. I've been creating music since long before I knew what note names or chord fingering was. If with guitar thinking in terms of whichever fret as opposed to what written note works, then use it and vice versa. As far as bar chords go, I usually think of the basic chord shapes of the open A, D and E chords and slide them up the keyboard to form new chords. So rather than a G chord bar formation. I merely recognize an E chord with bar on the G note of the E strings or first dot on the neck, etc. If I applied myself, sure I could get it but as I'm already able to create the music I want, I don't bother as I don't really need that info. I'm the same with cars actually. To quote ALF talking about the workings of his spaceship in the first episode, 'I just turn the key and it goes!' LOL
Geez! To think this all sprang from discussion of guitaraoke on a karaoke forum! Hehehe.

BTW folks, in the NSW forum, we're discussing user profile pages for the future here. David's certainly looking for input as to what kind of stuff to include that can't be covered already by the forums and warrants his having to create this new function in the first place. I don't think it matters if you check into the NSW forum or not to see what's been suggested already cos surely, if a bunch of us request the same functions, David will add them to his list of 'most popular requests' when designing these pages. So have at it people!
Submitted by Johnny Burrows on 08-08-2007

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