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Post by legerdemain07 on Jan 2, 2021 19:41:20 GMT -6
Hello all. Long time lurker here, but never bothered to post before now. I’ve been working on learning guitar and the Blues You Can Use book off and on for several years, but never could commit to it seriously due to completing my education after a career change. Now that I have my degree and the pandemic has limited other distractions, I’ve picked it back up and have been making pretty good progress.
My question is this: which position do you all play Preaching Gospel Blues in? Considering that it’s written in the A major pentatonic Pattern 1, it seems to follow that it should be played in position 4. However, when I’ve looked at videos on YouTube of people playing this lesson, they’re all playing in position 5. Both positions seem to have positives and negatives; I’m curious as to how all of you approach this. Thanks in advance.
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Post by Phil on Jan 2, 2021 20:59:55 GMT -6
Welcome to the forum. I had to think about your question for a minute because I was thinking since "A" pent major obviously starts on "A" then it's in 5th position. Then I realized that position is determined by what fret your index finger is on and I understood your question. Frankly, I've never put much thought into staying in a particular position. I pulled out my guitar to play the 1st few bars and see what I actually do. I found that I played the pickup measure in 5th position, shifted to 4th position in bar 1, and shifted again to the 5th position on the last 2 notes of bar 1 for most of the rest of the song except for the obvious shift to the 10th fret and to the 2nd position at the end. It would be extremely difficult for me to stay in the 4th position and have to bar fret 7 with my little finger and do a whole note bend with my little finger. That would be purposely making things more difficult than they already are. I think being able to shift positions so your strongest fingers are where they need to be is far more important than adhering to some strict dogma of proper position.
So, I guess I'm saying to play things wherever it's most comfortable for you and not where somebody else plays it. Just out of curiosity, do you have a classical guitar background?
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Post by legerdemain07 on Jan 2, 2021 22:39:09 GMT -6
Thanks for the reply. I don’t have a background in guitar other than a few lessons ~20 years ago and what I’ve taught myself out of books. I’ve found that the studies in BYCU come easier for me if I follow positions and patterns, at least up until now, so that’s what prompted my question. I’ve learned to do string bends with my pinkie, but I agree that barring multiple strings with it is quite difficult. I’ve been practicing with the position switches you described and it’s starting to come easier.
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Post by joachim on Jan 3, 2021 2:30:31 GMT -6
Phil, that's some good advice - I agree completely. I also used to try and figure out scales and positions rather than trusting your ear and figuring out what notes are being played. That approach robbed me of the most valuable lessons in MBYCU, and I ended just memorizing a bunch songs that I quickly forgot again.  |
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Post by grampalerxst on Jan 3, 2021 6:01:02 GMT -6
The way I finger it I would say the first four bars are in 5th position with 2 short/transient drops down to 4th position.
In any given position either the first finger or the 4th finger is allowed to stretch down or up, respectively, one fret while the others remain at their assigned frets, as part of the position. So the most reliable way I've heard to identify position is the position is one fret below the fret where the middle finger would reside in one-finger-per-fret orientation. To play the second eighth note of bar 1, since it is a double stop, my middle finger has to drop to the 5th fret while my index is down on the 4th, so by the "middle finger rule" I'm in 4th position at that point. In the spirit of TMI, if those were just the upper single notes of the double stops, rather than the double stops, my index would go down to 4th fret but my middle could stay up near 6, meaning the whole bar in that instance could be said to be in 5th position.Point is, once you start adding double stops, triads, or chords into melodic playing the idea of position can get increasingly nebulous.
All that said, the other guys are right, it's fun for the nerdiest of us to analyze that sort of stuff, but your hand needs to do what it needs to do to sound the notes. I think of positions more as conveniences than anchors. When I approach a new piece it doesn't even occur to me what position I am in most of the time. I do try to keep track of what scale patterns I'm close to (i.e., which "blues box"es are nearby). I may flow between them, but I'm not thinking, "Okay, 8th position up to 10th position then down to 5th position," or the like. Whatever position I'm in at a given point is just unconscious fallout from whatever fingering/fret board location gives me the best odds of successfully sounding the notes. |
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