McAnally's (The Community Pub) > Author Craft
Weirdo Guitar Question
AverageGuy:
--- Quote from: Umptyscope on December 27, 2009, 05:53:38 AM ---a couple of the notes off by, say, a note and a half. Hence new fingering, etc.
--- End quote ---
Well, if it's like that, a couple notes off by a full minor/Major 2nd-3rd, you could get away with new fingerings... Me, I'd be lazy and mute the strings, but you could make it work. You'd probably play a different note in a chord because otherwise you'd have to stretch for quite a few notes, leading to a pretty awkward if not impossible hand position. Well, maybe not if the notes were tuned up instead of down, but the notes would probably be tuned down-- you loosen the strings to tune them down, tighten to tune up, but if they were tightened too much before the spell there's a good chance they would've just snapped. The guitar'd probably've been tuned that way on purpose. Also, if it was that off, those strings'd feel a little different from the others either way.
Piotr1600:
So, how about this:
The guitar body/neck/strings, bridge are in fact utterly indestruct-o.
Buuuut... The cheap tuners, crappy bridge, and only barely acceptable fret job are just indestructible versions - they're perpetually allowing the guitar to go out of tune, or the string to buzz horribly on certain frets, and with a bad bridge, you know the intonation is gonna suck.
MC tunes, plays a couple of chords, and the tuning slips, retunes, plays some more, retunes
It's like the worlds most aggravating instrument, which ought to be good for some kind of entertainment... For the readers, at the expense of the MC...
BTW - I'm pretty sure I owned this actual guitar at one point in my life... <LOL>
Starbeam:
--- Quote from: Piotr1600 on December 28, 2009, 05:31:25 AM ---So, how about this:
The guitar body/neck/strings, bridge are in fact utterly indestruct-o.
Buuuut... The cheap tuners, crappy bridge, and only barely acceptable fret job are just indestructible versions - they're perpetually allowing the guitar to go out of tune, or the string to buzz horribly on certain frets, and with a bad bridge, you know the intonation is gonna suck.
MC tunes, plays a couple of chords, and the tuning slips, retunes, plays some more, retunes
It's like the worlds most aggravating instrument, which ought to be good for some kind of entertainment... For the readers, at the expense of the MC...
BTW - I'm pretty sure I owned this actual guitar at one point in my life... <LOL>
--- End quote ---
If things slip that much, you'll get quite a bit of frustration out of the character. My violin had a string that would always slip and go out of tune, sometimes just after tuning it. Now if it happens during a song, that can be really annoying. Can't always stop just to retune, and that would give need for knowing how to move his hands around to still be able to play and not sound horrible.
Sully:
--- Quote from: Starbeam on December 28, 2009, 01:37:09 PM ---If things slip that much, you'll get quite a bit of frustration out of the character. My violin had a string that would always slip and go out of tune, sometimes just after tuning it. Now if it happens during a song, that can be really annoying. Can't always stop just to retune, and that would give need for knowing how to move his hands around to still be able to play and not sound horrible.
--- End quote ---
Get your pegs fitted again.
If you want to make it simple, but aggravating, have everything in a fixed state.
But have it tuned with scordatura. ;D
Alternative/Cross tuning. I'm not sure what the common variants are for guitar. But for violin, which is typically tuned G/D/A/E, bottom to top, it isn't uncommon in some folk music traditions to raise the bottom two strings a note, ending up tuned at A/E/A/E. To give it a bit more resonance, and to make the fingerings symmetrical whether you're playing high or low. Or if a song is in D major, you might lower the top string a note, from an E to a D, to allow a constant D drone to be played easily and continuously.
Of course, if you're used to a particular tuning, you naturally finger each note for that particular tuning. Change the tuning, and your fingers will get all messed up!
Sometimes, the composer is trying to screw up your fingers. For example, in the 6th cello suite by Bach, the top string(an A) is tuned down(to a G), because the chords are practically unplayable with the standard tuning. But using an alternate tuning, it is playable, and sounds good.
Or, if you want to save yourself the trouble of having to understand and explain scordatura to a musically illiterate audience, just tune to a different baseline.
Generally speaking, in modern times, we tune to an A(Band people, shut up ;) ). This A is defined to be the sound wave of 440 wavelengths per second.
However, historically, that A has ranged from 415 to 460. That's quite a difference, when half a wavelength/second is easily detectable by professional musicians! It's varied by region and ensemble as well. Eastern Europe tends to tune a bit sharper(higher) then Western Europe/US, for instance. So while the guitar might be perfectly in tune in Spain, it'll get more and more out of tune as the character makes their way to Turkey.
Continuing that theme, guitar isn't a standardized instrument at all. So different regions will build them to slightly different proportions(sometimes largely different), play with different techniques(Flamenco vs flat-pick vs jazz, etc), so the instrument might be regarded differently from place to place as well.
delphinerose:
Starbeam is right. Generally a lot of guitar players have two guitars on hand already tuned. I know one who works this way. He has... Actually he uses a total of four guitars. Two are tuned to A. The other two to E. Nobody wants to tune and re-tune a la Bob Dylan circa '66.
I love the idea you would want to use a guitar in your story, Umpty. If I could give a little suggestion, of course this being your story. I personally wouldn't make the whole guitar indestructible but give it some special powers that even the owner wouldn't know about. A spell in which cast, but the main thing would be to figure out what exactly is so magical about the thing. It could be a string, a fret, or something as little as the knob. Then get yourself a guide about guitars so maybe the hero can take it apart and wonder which part of it is magical. An electric guitar would be best because it's solid body if you really want to smash somebody or something with it.
The two wrestlers who would use a guitar to smash over their opponents heads would be The Honky Tonk Man and later on Jeff Jarrett.
delphinerose
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