Well, I demo’ed games for Rio Grande at the chicago toy and game fair this weekend. It had moments of fun mixed with much tedium. I don’t think I’ll do it again, though I don’t regret doing it either. I got a guitar from James, and quickly learned that I am not a very capable tuner. With the help of some get-you-hooked-&-make-you-pay software, I tuned it much, much faster, and it sounded much much nicer. If I had a g1 or an iphone, I could do it with an app. Only about 8 more months before that happens.
I am now clear for my intended travel to sf in december. 11 days in the bay area, christmas to the monday after new years. Yay?
I think it’s a yay, no question mark.
Good luck with the guitar!
Have you played a different musical instrument before?
Trumpet, in elementary school. I wasn’t all that good at it.
Okay, I have sent a variant of “The Mike method for teaching yourself guitar” to “scu at that cmu alumni club dot cc thing”
It assumes little to no music background, some degree of mathematical sophistication [I explain scales via group theory] and a predisposition to various forms of “metal”
Bad Mike, no biscuit. No idea where that address goes. =) scu at pobox dot com. =)
acoustic guitar? electric?
do you know about the ‘harmonic tuning’ method?
Acoustic.
I assume the harmonic method is the “tuning strings to one another and thus tuning them progressively worse the further one goes from my base string” method? Yep, familiar with that 😉
no no.. haha.. google it 🙂
i haven’t found a really good explanation but it may help with your tuning issues.. some people seem to like it.
(i, personally, do not, but that should not really be considered 😉
Explanation of the harmonic method:
This makes no sense unless you watch someone tune with the harmonic method first.
First, approximate the dynamics of a guitar string as
u_{tt} = u_{xx} – u_{t}
(pardon my LaTeX notation for time and space single and double derivatives)
[actually its
u_{tt} = k_1 u_{xx} – k_2 u_{t}
but the concepts are the same of you drop a few constants.
Shit, you can drop the u_{t} term altogether and harmonics still make
sense]
Set the boundary conditions to u(0) = u(L) = 0
where L is the length of the string (you change this by pressing the frets on the guitar)
Now, use Fourrier analysis to figure out the dynamics of the string if it starts out with some initial function u_0(x)
[this is the initial shape of the string, for instance, before you pluck it]
On an electric guitar, the signal out is some nonlinear function of
the string displacement at the location of the pickup.
signal_out(t) = f(u(x_p,t) )
where x_p is the pickup location, and f() is some non-linear function.
You can pretend f is linear and most of the concepts work [you can pretend this holds for accoustic guitar, and the concepts still work — although I think with accoustic its more like
signal_out(t) = u_{x}(L,t)
]
Now notice that each component of the fourrier transform of your initial signal oscillates in time with a frequency proportional to its spatial frequency. The lowest frequency is the frequency of the note you’re playing.
Note that if you constrain u(x_h,t) to be 0 for all time, for some x_h which is a rational multiple of L, you only stop some components of the initial solution. The components that pass through all have time frequencies which are multiples of what the original frequency would be times the denominator of the rational number relating x_h to L. These are “harmonics”.
Now note that the interval 2 strings are supposed to be apart, while its
2^(5/12) in well-tempered tuning, is picked to be very close to 3/4.
Picking the node near that fret for your harmonics gives you 4 times the base frequency for your harmonics. Picking the node near the number 7 fret, corresponding to 2^(7/12) or approximately 2/3, gives you a harmonic with a frequency 3 times the base note. When the higher string is tuned exactly 4/3 times the frequency of the lower one, 3*(4/3) = 4*1, or the pitches match up.
why do you always come to town when i’m scattered/away? why you gotta hate on me like that? i’ll be in wa/or during all of that time…:(
Heh =) which part of oregon are you going to be in and when? I was thinking of visiting portland, because it’s an 11 day trip and I’ve never been to portland. =) but I probably out to fly into (or out of) portland, if that’s my plan =)
I’ll be staying just outside PDX from Dec 28 until Jan 2. My best friend and I have an annual date for that time frame. Maybe if you make it up to PDX we can make something work?
Sadly, the timing seems to make it unlikely. I guess you’ll have to wait until I move back or visit again. 😉
And why you always runnin’ out of town when I come around? Why you gotta hate on me like dat? 😉
Hey! I would settle down and stay put, given my choice. Well, aside from these New Years plans, because those are with my best friend – but this work travel, that’s not my cuppa tea, I assure you!
Whereas I’m a nomad by nature.