You know what's really really frustrating?

[distressed_romeo]

Attempting to play Bach's keyboard music on classical guitar. You have to transpose the bass parts up or down an octave a lot of the time, which usually ruins the contrapuntal feel, and on top of that I keep running out of notes within a practical finger-span.

The wierd part is, I can see exactly how a lot of this stuff would be more manageable if my guitar had a high A string on top... I need an 8 string, like Paul Gailbraith plays...

 

[Xtremevillan]

You know what's really really frustrating?
Attempting to play Bach's keyboard music on classical guitar. You have to transpose

You wanna know what's really really hard?

Transposing music.

**Reading music.

---

Yeah, I think an 8 string is the best for the classical range. Plus I always had this crazy idea that if you turn up your distortion really high, then plug a piano or something filter on it, you could two-hand tap (Broderick style) and get an awesome thing going.

 

[El Caco]

Every Good Boy Deserves Fruit

 

[Xtremevillan]

I've tried to read sheet. I was OK for a little while.

 

[Groff]

I've tried to read sheet. I was OK for a little while.

I can read it, I just can't translate notes into guitar frets.

 

[Desecrated]

You know what's really really frustrating?
Attempting to play Bach's keyboard music on classical guitar. You have to transpose

You wanna know what's really really hard?

Transposing music.

**Reading music.

---

Yeah, I think an 8 string is the best for the classical range. Plus I always had this crazy idea that if you turn up your distortion really high, then plug a piano or something filter on it, you could two-hand tap (Broderick style) and get an awesome thing going.

MySpace.com - Garry Goodman - LOS ANGELES, California - Jazz / Rock / Funk - www.myspace.com/garrygoodman

Listen to the song halaekala. There you got an good example of playing two hand taping with something in the same range as a piano.
Also take a look in the extended range forum, I think I posted some videos of guys doing exactly what your talking about.

 

[Desecrated]

Attempting to play Bach's keyboard music on classical guitar. You have to transpose the bass parts up or down an octave a lot of the time, which usually ruins the contrapuntal feel, and on top of that I keep running out of notes within a practical finger-span.

The wierd part is, I can see exactly how a lot of this stuff would be more manageable if my guitar had a high A string on top... I need an 8 string, like Paul Gailbraith plays...

Order a high a string and see if you like it.

I think for bach a tuning like adding a high G would almost be better, for a 7-string it would then be EADGBEG. Cause then you would have a third instead of a 4th on your highest string and that should make the counterpoint more accessible.

 

[bostjan]

There are a lot of Baroque pieces in general that would be a hell of a lot easier with a high A. I can't think of a time I've needed to go lower than a low A (55 Hz), but I find plenty of opprotunities to grab a higher string (A 440 Hz). This includes any newer Baroque-ish stuff originally written for keyboard.

I think a lot of classical players would agree that a high A string would be the most logical addition to the standard-tuned seven string.

 

[Desecrated]

There are a lot of Baroque pieces in general that would be a hell of a lot easier with a high A. I can't think of a time I've needed to go lower than a low A (55 Hz), but I find plenty of opprotunities to grab a higher string (A 440 Hz). This includes any newer Baroque-ish stuff originally written for keyboard.

I think a lot of classical players would agree that a high A string would be the most logical addition to the standard-tuned seven string.

I think so to ,
But since I actually have one, I can say that tuning the last string to a third gives you better fingering when playing 4 voice counterpoint. BUT that might just be my opinion.
I'm sure that we can find a dozen of players who already tune to high A and get great result with them. But if you browse this forum as much as I do, you know that distressed is the master of odd tuning and I just wanted to suggest a fun/easy way of doing things.

But the easiest thing is of course to get a high A string and then try out both thing.

Bostjan
Have you tried a high A string ? I would really appreciate your opinion of one.

 

[Xtremevillan]

Now I got gassin' for the Ibanez 8.

 

[distressed_romeo]

Hmmmm...the high G idea's an interesting one. Really wish I had my seven with my now just to do some experimenting...

 

[The Dark Wolf]

The wierd part is, I can see exactly how a lot of this stuff would be more manageable if my guitar had a high A string on top... I need an 8 string, like Paul Galbraith plays...

Yep. He told me pretty much the same thing, hence, the 8-string. Although his primary motivation was to really have that range for Brahms pieces he was studying. From there, the next logical step was Bach.


Brahms guitar - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[bostjan]

I've never messed with any of those four-part fuges, but I've had two of my electric guitars tuned with a high A. I'd love a seven string classical, and I almost bought an eight string classical, but I opted to get another electric instead.

I used to do the high G tuning on my electrics when I couldn't find strings that would tune to high A.

 

[stubhead]

A: Have you ever heard Eliot Fisk's various transcriptions of Scarlatti harpsichord pieces? It's completely terrifying, on top of his work with Bach, Vivaldi & Paganini violin stuff. He's one of the very few people I just BUY whatever he records and it's always worthy.
Eliot Fisk - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (His home site is down right now.)

B: Have you ever run across the tuning that Robert Fripp calls the "New Standard Guitar Tuning?" I'm sure he didn't invent it - it's just fifths instead of fourths - but he teaches all his Guitar Craft classes in it:

C G D A E G, low to high.

The high string should be a B to remain all perfect fifths, but you can't get a string to do that. I kept a guitar around tuned that way for a few years (56-40-26-14-10-9), but I just couldn't get to it regularly enough to do anything but screw up my regular practice. It's also called an "octo-mandolin" tuning. Someday, somewhere, some long-fingered kid is going to jump on that tuning and blow some minds.

 

[distressed_romeo]

Yeah, I'm familiar with NST, and have experimented with it in the past. I actually found it suprisingly intuitive. It would definitely be interesting trying to adapt some classical pieces for it.

Nowadays, with Garry Goodman's strings, a guitar tuned in perfect fifths across the whole neck is a serious possibility...