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Thread: Newbie Intro

  1. #1

    Default Newbie Intro

    Hello, I知 Dick Wightman. Very new to tenor guitar. Please, just let me know if what I'll be doing with it isn't of interest to this forum.

    I do not play, or pick. Rather, I have always just chorded accompaniment to folk singing. I sang and chorded my way through the folk revival back in the day. When that died, I added storytelling, ventriloquism and a bit of comedy and continued doing part time entertainment while I completed a "straight" career, then on into retirement for a few decades. Yep, you guessed it, I知 pretty old... staring 80 in the eye.

    About ten years back I ran into physical problems that prevented playing the guitar. I eventually sold all my instruments. (Good Martins, darn it!)

    A couple of months ago unexpectedly I began regaining some hand strength. On a whim, I tried to see what I could do with a guitar and found that while things were a bit better I still couldn稚 handle a six string. However, I thought perhaps a tenor with its narrow neck might offer possibilities.

    Tenors are scarce! I found exactly one tenor for sale in town, a used Gold Tone, which I bought. I had it professionally se up and am using it with Chicago tuning, essentially same as what I was used to, and the world of my old music is reopening to me.

    I am trying to learn more about tenors as instruments and about their history. Even though I'm not worthy of them, I have always enjoyed good instruments and I have committed to a higher level craftsman made tenor guitar. I値l save further comment on that till it gets here and pictures can be shared.

    The other bit of excitement ahead is that being here on the West Coast, if I知 physically up to the drive at the end of the month I知 considering going to the Tenor Gathering in Astoria. Looks likeI should be able to see, hear and learn a lot there.

    So, more than you needed to know, but I didn稚 want to start out here sailing under false colors. I知 not a guitarist, but I am genuinely interested in these instruments.

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  3. #2
    Orrig Onion HonketyHank's Avatar
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    Default Re: Newbie Intro

    Welcome to the bunch, Dick. About the closest I can come to knowing about tenor guitar is what little I can play on a tenor banjo. And that is darn little. Man, those frets are FAR apart. I presume a tenor guitar is about the same scale +/-. I had a high school buddy with a tenor guitar. That was back in the days of Tom Dooley and The Man Who Never Returned (ie, Kingston Trio). He played Chicago tuning and basically strummed it like a big uke.

    You are welcome to hang out with us in the Newbies group. And you could jump in over in the Woodshed Learning group which has just started a class on music theory using a text from Brad Laird. It could get you doing scales and stuff right away if you want (or you could just study and lurk like several are doing).
    New to mando? Click this link -->Newbies to join us at the Newbies Social Group.

    Just send an email to rob.meldrum@gmail.com with "mandolin setup" in the subject line and he will email you a copy of his ebook for free (free to all mandolincafe members).

    My website and blog: honketyhank.com

  4. #3

    Default Re: Newbie Intro

    Thanks... You've got me nailed for sure... Chicago tuning and a strum :^) I guess it makes sense in terms of music physics, at least my musician wife says so, but to me, thankfully, the frets on the tenor with its shorter scale, when tuned to the closer gaps of the Chicago tuning, rather than the standard tenor fifths, ends up with tight chord patterns and the frets seeming closer together than those on a regular guitar. This is a tremendous help to me with my hand limitation. I'm told that when the same strings are tuned to fifths, the chord patterns end up much more spread out, which would be much harder for me in terms of pure physical movement.

    I'll take a look at the new

  5. #4
    Registered User fox's Avatar
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    Default Re: Newbie Intro

    Hi Dick, welcome to the forum.
    We have a few regulars who use Chicago tuning, lots and lots of baritone ukulele vids on YouTube that show all sorts of strumming patterns that could easily be used with your Goldtone.
    You are right that some chords are big stretches if you swap over to 5ths tuning but, there are also lots of two finger chords that are extremely easy!
    Hopefully you fingers and hands will keep improving.

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