You know that feeling, when you can’t wait to get home to play with your new toy? You get a new computer, or a new book, or new guitar, or whatever your thing is, and then you have to go off to school or work and you just can’t wait for that to end so you can get back home and get back to your new toy. Yeah. After some really cool stuff this weekend, that was me at the day job. And no, I did not get a new guitar or other instrument this weekend. Though, in some ways, I might as well have.
I’ve been struggling a little lately. Both with singing and with playing. I practice and practice and sometimes feel like I’m not getting it quite right. But I get to the best I can and then give it a go. I think I have been taking the approach that I’m just going to give it my best and see what I can learn from it. I also think I just assumed that that was the way something was going to sound if I sang or played it. Or in the case of playing something, it was as close as I could get right now and I’ll just keep getting better as I keep playing it. Which is true. Yes. It’s also true, that somethings, I may have been doing the hard way, or
even made them harder for myself without realizing it.
That seems like that might be the case with the guitar. And for starters, it has to do with the strings. For the longest time, I knew and understood very little about my strings. While I know a little more now, I am nothing close to an expert. I don’t expect to be. Used to, when I needed strings I just asked for the super light ones. I paid no attention to gauge or even what they were, nickle, cobalt, steel, whatever. Then I had someone suggest a particular string for the guitar I was getting. I still got a light gauge string though. That changed earlier this year. I was getting a new guitar and wanted fresh strings for it and I asked my sales guy for a recommendation. He recommended the 10’s in the D’Addario NYXL. Ok. So that’s what I got.
For those not quite clear as to what I’m talking about when I say 10’s, it has to do with the wire gauge of the highest pitched E string. It is typically the thinnest string. Each string, as you go to the lower sounding strings on a guitar, gets a little thicker. The lowest sounding E string, on my guitar that has a 10 on the highest, is a 46. Before, when I asked for super light weight strings, as far as I can tell, they usually gave me 9’s. So the high sounding E string is a 9 and the low sounding one is a 42. This is really important because of the amount of strength it takes to play the notes and the chords, and especially the barred chords.
For some reason, and I’m not entirely sure the what or the why, I decided I was going to put 10’s on everything. I think it had to do with looking at some specs on a manufacturer sight or something. I really don’t know. But that’s what I did. Except for two guitars. I had sets that had been specifically bought for each of them based on the guitar’s characteristics. Those were and still are 9’s. Everything else got 10’s when I restrung things earlier this year. After which I struggled with the sound of several of the instruments and I got frustrated with them. Then I bought the Gretsch. The thing that is important about the Gretsch is it’s scale length. It’s shorter and works more comfortably for my hands. That was such a difference for me that I didn’t even think about the strings being 10’s and besides, that is what the manufacturer ships them with.
I didn’t think much about the strings on any of my guitars at all until a conversation this weekend. I went to the Carolinas Box Guitar Club meeting and in amongst everything we all talked about, Fred and I had a discussion about strings and scale lengths and
physiology. He made some suggestions and recommendations of things to try. And as I was processing all this information, I was still processing it a day later by the way, it started to dawn on me that some of the things that I had been getting frustrated with or were causing a lack of satisfaction on my part were all problems I had created for myself. By changing everything, or nearly everything to the 10’s I had made each of those instruments more difficult for me to get a satisfying sound out of and I had made learning new techniques that much more difficult.
Here’s the how and why. I am reasonably small in size, and I’m female. The person who’s recommendation I took when I got the 10’s is knowledgeable, has typically given good recommendations, and plays guitar. He is also twice my size. This is important. Because,
I will need to play and practice for a very long time to develop the strength in my hands to play some of what he can. The thicker strings take more effort to fret. It doesn’t mean I can’t ever get there. It means, it will take much longer and my frustration could win out before then.
Now that I know that, I am in the process of changing out strings and trying some lighter gauges. Even lighter than I have used before. I have ordered some Reverend Willy’s in 7’s. That’s super light. I think they will be fun to try on the Les Paul. I’ve moved one over to 8’s and have another I think I will do the same with. I have one that I will keep 10’s on it because I’m using it to learn to play slide on and that requires more of a touch than full on strength. I put 9’s on the Gretsch and I fell in love with playing it all over again. I couldn’t wait to get home from the day job to get my hands back on it. My guitar was calling again.
My head is still spinning from some of what I learned this week and the week before. There has been so much, and so much that I could discuss. There have been more than a few things that just a bit of additional knowledge has made a huge difference in how I
think about things and have left me feeling like my head has been blown wide open. One thing that has come out of it for me is that, recommendations are fine and helpful, but also take into account your playing style, and your physiology. Yes, a certain string might be ideal for an instrument for many people, and even the manufacturer. Try it. But if it’s not working for you or, if you know, your playing style makes better use of something different, or your size or strength mean something different is better for you, then work with that, not against it. Playing music is fun. Learning to play music takes work. Why make it harder than it’s already going to be.
I’ve included a couple of pictures I lifted out of my video from the Carolinas Box Guitar Club meeting. I can’t thank Fred enough for inviting me. And everyone there for their patience and tutelage. The pictures might look like I’m leading things. I wasn’t. I was there to sing and learn and I sure got to do that. We’ve got another Charlotte Blues Jam coming up this next weekend. That should be interesting with all the new information spinning around in my brain. I’m a bit excited about it all.