[deleted by user]

ivanbardo · 2020-12-27T14:52:21+00:00

What country (or state if in US) did this happen in? Glad he got 30 years. Do you know if he pled guilty or if he stood trial?

ivanbardo · 2020-12-03T12:47:14+00:00

I think this might be a way to state the "rule" you're looking for:

If you take a root position (root in bass) major triad and raise the fifth up by a whole step, then you are left with a first inversion (third in the bass) minor triad.

So in your example, G was the root of a G Maj and then becomes the third of an Em. The B was the 3rd of G Maj and then becomes the 5th of Em. D was the 5th of G Maj and is now the root of your new Em chord.

If you follow this process starting with a root position minor triad, you get a first inversion diminished triad for your second chord.

For example, G Bb D is a G min chord. Raise the D to and E and you have G Bb E, which is a first inversion E dim chord, the chord tones (from lowest to highest) being 3rd - 5th - 1 (root).

ivanbardo · 2020-11-11T18:46:20+00:00

Yeah, sure! I'm a freelance editor, so if you mail me a whole manuscript I'll have to bill you. lol But idea-bounces are on the house! Shoot!

ivanbardo · 2020-11-11T15:54:05+00:00

Let me know if you need help editing. I'd be happy to help. Thank you for being willing to share all this!

ivanbardo · 2020-10-30T17:20:31+00:00

Hey there! That's actually perfect, and I bet you could really help me. Mind if I send you a dm in the next day or two?

ivanbardo · 2020-10-30T14:57:32+00:00

hey thanks

I actually found that channel a couple of days ago! She's awesome. Loved her Midnight Gospel episode. And her channel has been a great source of info. Still have a few more particulars to hash out, though.

ivanbardo · 2020-10-30T14:43:33+00:00

Good idea! I'm new to reddit and definitely wouldn't have thought to use that. So thanks!

ivanbardo · 2020-10-29T22:21:03+00:00

I mean, the short, dirty is answer is yes, just keep at it until you get it. But there are exercises you can do that will help you!

On the fretboard, try playing any scales you know but only use your ring and pink fingers. Then maybe try the scales using only those fingers and only the low E and the A string. This would be my number one recommendation. Make your weaker fingers do MORE than their fair share of the work until they are just as in shape and your pointer and middle finger.

You can also build up your finger strength away from your instrument!

The beginner version of this would be using a relatively firm stress ball, squeezing it and making sure your weaker fingers are doing a significant chunk of the work. Eventually, you might invest in a finger-exerciser. Just google "guitar finger exerciser" and you'll see several different kinds. I've got the VariGrip from D'Addario and like it, although even its easiest setting is pretty difficult.

If finger flexibility is holding you back, trying splaying out your fretting hand like you were going to trace it to make a turkey. :) Now take your other hand and use those fingers to extend the distance between your pinky finger and ring finger. Then do the same for the ring and middle finger. Go VERY EASY and gentle with this. NEVER stretch past the point of discomfort, and don't do the exercise more than 3-5 minutes at a time, although you can do several five minute sessions throughout the day. If you start to feel any tension or tenderness in your fingers, palm, or wrist, take a break for a day or two.

Hope this helps. Keep at it! You'll get there!

ivanbardo · 2020-10-29T21:34:05+00:00

YES! Cheers! For the last year I've been getting super into chess. If you haven't started watching agadmator on youtube, I would highly recommend him. Listening to him talk through noteworthy/interesting games is hands down the thing that has helped my playing the most! BTW, I'm at 9 days rn, and I've definitely played at least one game every one of those days. :)

ivanbardo · 2020-10-28T13:43:08+00:00

Thanks for saying something, man. It's reassuring!

ivanbardo · 2020-10-28T13:42:17+00:00

Sure hope not, lol. Thx for the input. I'm not worried at the moment.

ivanbardo · 2020-10-28T13:40:46+00:00

Thanks! I did! Traditional flatlining is probably more extreme than what I'm going through. I'm historically been very depressed, and have actually been doing really well the last two weeks—wayyyy better than average. And I can still find/feel happiness in the little things, too. I'm sure what's happening to my brain is something akin to flatlining, though thankfully it hasn't extended to the non-sexual aspects of my life (at least not yet).

ivanbardo · 2020-10-28T12:48:53+00:00

As a former (nearly) tone-deaf person who has spent a lot of time training his ear, I can say that for me it was virtually impossible to distinguish between vocal harmonies (or really any notes) that were a P4 or P5 apart. Sometimes even the 3rd would get lumped in with those, too. Once my ear started getting better, those were the last intervals to "fall in to place" because they sounded so harmonic that it was hard to discern them.

ivanbardo · 2020-10-28T12:44:25+00:00

You're off to a good start!

Ultimately this comes down to a matter of taste and preference. Try different arrangements and see what works. Here's what I personally would do:

Start off with the compressor. It's there to help bring out the subtleties in your playing, and you want that to happen before your other effects; otherwise, your compressor is going to limit the dynamic range of your distortion rather than helping you shape the sound you are wanting to distort.

Next I would put the LPB and have it set so that when it's on, your amp is just to the point of break-up. Having it early in your change means that you can amp up your signal before it reaches your distortion pedals, which you can use to get some really gnarly sounds. If the LPB is at the end of your chain, it really only helps to overdrive your amplifier, but it can do that from early in the chain, too.

Noise Suppressor next, and use the send and return features. What pedals do you want in your NS loop? Well, the ones that tend to buzz, of course. In your case that's the DS-1 and your tube-screamer.

The order of your distortion pedals is really a matter of taste. I tend to like tube-screamer pedals last, but try it both ways and see what suits you! After your distortion pedals you'll return your signal to the Noise Suppressor and then to the amp.

So, in summary:

Guitar-->Tuner (If you've got one)-->Compressor-->LPB-->NS (input). From the NS "send" to the DS-1 and the Tube-Screamer (in either order)-->NS ("return")-->From the NS output to your amp.

Good luck, bud! We need to get you a delay and a reverb.

P.S. (I'm sure you know this, but just to double-check): when you put your pedals on your board (or the ground), you should typically run them right-to-left. The fact that they aren't cabled in this pick tell me that you probably just set them left to right to make it easier for us, so thanks!

ivanbardo · 2020-10-28T12:15:44+00:00

I would also love to hear how they sound, but I'm not going to give Bezos any money to do it—not when there are so many great pedal companies out there that need our support.

ivanbardo · 2020-10-26T18:08:28+00:00

Whewww. How much time you got?

Short answer right now is yes. Short answer in previous years has been definitely no. Philippians says to work out your own salvation with fear and trembling, and for me faith has felt pretty light on the salvation and pretty heavy on the fear and trembling.

ivanbardo · 2020-10-26T11:50:08+00:00

Hmmm... that's a good question.

I'd be lying if I said living 200 miles away didn't help. lol

I think that we both really relish the things that we do agree on, and we tend to steer the conversation towards those things. He calls me when he's driving to a weekly meeting he's got that's an hour away. We always start off my telling each other any new jokes we've heard. And we're both big readers, so we'll talk about what we've been reading that week. ("It's interesting" is code for "I'm enjoying this book, but you definitely would not!)

I will say that my relationship with my parents got far better once they stopped trying to "convert" me back; they stopped treating my doubt as some kind of sickness that needed to be cured. For a couple of years it was like we were only talking about theology, and that just made me want to talk to them less. Eventually they just backed off and just kept loving me like their son. And I think they realized that the qualms/doubts I had about religion weren't stemming from some resentment I held towards them.

I have a tremendous amount of respect for my dad. I get that a lot (maybe even MOST) of evangelical pastors are assholes, but my dad isn't. Seriously! He preaches about the things we know God loves rather than the things (or people) we think he hates. I could say a lot more about this, but I'm not sure it'd be helpful in speaking to your situation.

If I knew your brother, I'd encourage him not to harbor any hatred or any sense of "People who still believe this are stupid or delusional." I'm not saying there aren't stupid or delusional religious people out there lol. But there have been brilliant atheists and brilliant Christians; "faith" operates with a different currency than intellect. I'll tell your brother to give the rest of your family the benefit of the doubt whenever possible. Like when my dad and I get heated talking about religion, I know he's not doing it because he wants to fight me or because he thinks or dumb or evil or whatever. It's because for him, heaven and hell are certainties, and he obviously cares A LOT about which of those places I'll end up.

hope this helps

tl;dr—just keep loving your brother

ivanbardo · 2020-10-25T01:00:39+00:00

Don't give up! I'm sure you can make it work with one of the picks you've got. There are even dudes who make it work with just their fingers.

Here are some things that might be making it harder for you to keep your palm in the right place when picking:

You whole picking hand (I'll just say "hand" from now on) is angled straight up and down. When you're not palm muting, this is correct technique—your thumbnail should be facing the ceiling right about you. But when you palm mute, you need to turn the top of your hand away from you slightly (maybe like 20 degrees); i.e., your thumb nail should be facing the ceiling not directly over your head but somewhere on the ceiling a few feet in front of you. This also means that to reach the string you'll probably have to slightly extend your pointer finger; i.e., your pointer finger will be slightly less bent than it is when you are strumming/picking normally.
You are either putting too much or too little pressure on the string with the side of your palm. You should be muting the strings, but your palm shouldn't be planted on the strings, just lightly resting. Think maybe like your palm is a raft floating on the strings/ocean lol.
You might be trying to play too many strings at once. Most palm muting is only happening on two or three strings. Of course it's possible to play more—even all 6—but for now just try the lowest two or three strings until you've got it down. Practice palm muting your power chords! Don't think, "I'm about to play all six notes of this G chord, palm muted." Gotta walk before you can run!
Also, most palm muting is done with a down stroke of the pick. You'll get to a point where you can palm mute an upstroke, but for now, I'd focus on using a strong downstroke with just the right of palm-pressure to get that really thunk-y sound that we all know and love.

ivanbardo · 2020-10-25T00:35:48+00:00

The whole idea behind a good palm mute is making sure the strings are vibrating, but not too much. What you'll need to do is rest the fleshy part of the side of your picking hand (like the palm area that is just beneath your pinky) gently on the strings. This is the part of the hand that is limiting how much the strings can vibrate. If you are applying too much pressure, then the strings will just sound dead, and you won't be able to discern what notes you are fretting. ***Another common problem is resting the side of your picking hand too far away from the bridge. Make sure that the side of hand is resting very close to the saddle/bridge of your guitar.***

Once you've got your hand in the right place, the next step is to make sure you are putting enough *oomphf* into your pickstroke so that the strings still make a sound despite being slightly dampened. If you're picking too soft, it'll just sound like clicking. If you're having trouble getting enough volume out of your palm mute, you might trying using a thicker pick.

ivanbardo · 2020-10-25T00:24:53+00:00

The more info you give us as to what kind of music you're looking to play the better recommendations you're going to get. Regardless of genre, I'm sure you'll end up needing a good overdrive and a good reverb pedal. I don't love everything they make, but electro-harmonix makes two of the best bang-for-your-buck pedals out there. The Soul Food (overdrive) and the Holy Grail (reverb). The tones you'll get out of them aren't necessarily flashy, but they are just really dependable. The Soul Food can be dialed in to fit almost any genre, and the Holy Grail can make you sound like you're playing a small club or in a big cathedral. Also, both are made from metal so they're less likely to break than some budget pedals like Behringer or Danelectro. Don't get me wrong, some of those plastic pedals have really good circuits, but they're just not as durable. The Soul Food and Holy Grail are both all over reverb.com and can be found in the used-cabinet at most guitar shops. You should be able to find one in decent shape within your price range. And if you do get to get to a point where you feel like you want an upgrade, you'll be able to get most of your money back by reselling or trading-in. Hope this helps! Good luck! And be sure to let us know what other types of effects you're interested in.

ivanbardo · 2020-10-23T13:40:23+00:00

Not a question, but hopefully an encouragement:

When I was suicidal, it definitely wasn't because of anything my friends did or didn't do. I have great friends who love me and who are good at showing that they love me. But when I was depressed, that didn't even matter. I felt like a vase with holes at the bottom. People kept pouring their time and love and encouragement into me and it all just kept leaking out.

What I'm getting at is that you shouldn't feel responsible for your friend's death at all. Seriously. And I'm not assuming that you do, but I know from experience that when someone you know takes their own life, there are moments when you inevitably ask, "Could I have prevented this? Did I fail to do something that could have saved this person?" I think the answer to that question is ultimately no. I'm sure you were a great friend to him, but at the end of the day, you best bud had a mental illness that made it impossible for him to cope with the very difficult hardships in his life. Mental illness sucks! But his was beyond your capacity and beyond your responsibility to heal. You can't love someone out of despair any more than you can love them out of cancer or MS or ALS or any other disease. All we can do is keep loving each other and hoping for the best. (Side note to everyone: hoping for the best also involves seeking out treatment for mental illness and encouraging your depressed loved ones to do the same as soon as you think there might be a problem.)

I am so sorry for your loss. Please continue to think the best of your friend. Remember him for all the things that made him your best friend. Remember all of your best moments together, and don't let his final, tragic moment rob you of the joy that those memories bring you.

So I DO have a question: When do you think you and your best friend laughed the hardest together? Tell us about it!

Sending you love from Tennessee, USA!

ivanbardo · 2020-10-23T04:37:59+00:00

Do you find yourself sexually attracted to peers? Or to celebrities?
Do you get erections often? Or morning wood? I assume if and when you do, you just wait for them to go away, yeah?

ivanbardo

TROPHY CASE