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This is where you'll want to place your finger.

While watching the "Where the Light Is" John Mayer concert, I noticed something interesting that he was doing with his guitar. Mixed in among his usual playing was, he was playing above the nut on the guitar. This is actually a fairly easy trick and I’m rating this as ‘beginner’ level.

So, let’s do this. Of course, you can’t do this trick if you have a locking nut like on a Jackson, but if you have a Strat or another open-nut electric guitar - then you can do this, and it makes the entire string vibrate (while played open).

Very near to the nut simply press down on the string and release. I’m including a crudely edited photo showing you where to this (approximately). This requires quite some finger strength and a bit of resistance in the pads of your fingers to do.

Give it a try, tell me how it worked out for you. I would love to hear your experience.

I Don’t Trust Myself With Loving You by John Mayer.

• What type of guitar do you play most? (Acoustic/Electric/Classical/Other)
• Age
• How many years have you been playing?
• Skill Level (1-5, with 5 being expert)
• Gender (Man/Woman/Other)
• True or False - r/Guitar is doing a good job
• True or False - I think this survey is stupid
• My favorite guitarist of all time is...
• How many years to level 5?

Below are the results and some commentary for each question. I've also conducted some further analysis, but remember  that this survey is not scientific. You cannot generalize about the population of r/Guitar on the basis of this survey because the survey was optional.

How old are you?

I was really surprised by the number of guitarists under 15 using r/Guitar. The population as a whole looks to be pretty young.

Ages of Respondents from r/Guitar on reddit.com

What type of guitar do you play most?

Type of Guitar Played

No surprises here.

How many years have you been playing?

Number of Years Played vs. Number of Respondants

Unsurprisingly, the majority of folks have played less than 10 years.

How well would you rate your guitar skills (1-5, 5 being expert)?

Skill Level, 1-5, with 5 being expert.

It looks a lot like a normal distribution! Most people rated themselves as mediocre - at a 3.

What is your Gender?

Male/Female

We had several other genders represented on r/Guitar. They included Narwheagle, otter, Andalite, Rock God, meat popsicle (twice!), Taco, and Armadillo.

True/False - Survey is stupid? r/Guitar is doing a good job?

This question had some problems.

This question was a bit unfair. I did not realize that you were forced into choosing at least one of the answers. Some countries like to run elections this way.

My Favorite Guitarist of All time is...

How many years does it take on average to master the guitar?

Correlation between years played and years to "level 5"

I had some fun here and plotted peoples self-rated skill level and the number of years they have been playing. This illustrates that it takes on average around 35 years to reach arbitrary level 5! Some people reached this level in less than 10 years though. This graph extends to level 6, which is kind of like going to 11, but you couldn't choose it in the survey. Oh well.

5th Fret Method

The fifth fret method is great if you are playing by yourself, but it is a relative type of tuning. This means you won't be able to play with say, a piano in a harmonious manner unless you are exactly in tune.

• Place your finger on the 5th fret of the 6th string. Sound both the 6th and the 5th string together. Adjust the tuner of the 5th string accordingly until they sound the same.
• Place your finger on the 5th fret of the 5th string to Tune the D(4th string).
• Place your finger on the 5th fret of the 4th string to Tune the G(3rd string).
• Place your finger on the 4th fret of the 3rd string to Tune the B(2nd string). This is the only string at which you do not use the 5th fret.
• Place your finger on the 5th fret of the 2nd string to tune the E(1st string).

Notice that you do not tune the E(6th string) at all. If this string is out of tune, they all will be out of tune from what we know to be an E, A, D, G, and B. But, they will sound harmonious.

7th Fret Method

It is also a relative type of tuning, although they will be displaced precisely one octave.

• Place your finger on the 7th fret of the 1st string. Sound both the 1st and the 2nd string together. Adjust the tuner of the 2nd string accordingly until they sound the same.
• Place your finger on the 8th fret of the 2nd string to Tune the G(3rd string). This is the only string at which you do not use the 7th fret.
• Place your finger on the 7th fret of the 3rd string to Tune the D(4th string).
• Place your finger on the 7th fret of the 4th string to Tune the A(5th string).
• Place your finger on the 7th fret of the 5th string to tune the E(6th string).

This method tunes everything relative to the 1st string, or "High E."

The following screenshots should tell you everything you need to know about the program.

The program lets you export chord images.

Chord lookups are easy. Just type in what your looking for. You can order chords by ease of play, musical score, or fret.

There is a nice chord progression editor.

Custom Chords can be inserted

What this program is lacking is a reverse chord lookup, which would allow you to punch in the finger placements for each fret and then tell you the name of the chord. Fortunately, there are programs like this available online.

I should also add that there are flash applications online with many of the same features as this program. For example, Chordbook.com. The advantage of having this in a desktop program, however, is that it offers a few features you won't find online like exporting chord images, more instrument options with playback, sorting chords by ease of play, etc. It’s a nice simple interface too.

Interestingly, there are two versions for mac, but only one for windows. The mac versions (which look like the screenshots) are Chordmate express ($20) and Chordmate pro ($40), while the singular windows version is $25.

Chordmate - $20/40 Mac; $25 Windows

For example, the program allows you to change the speed of a song. So you can slow it down, making it easier to hear every note. Additionally, there is a looping option that enables the player repeat a section of the song. This can be useful for tabbing a song out or building speed on a particular section. Players can also add markers to a song, as you might do to annotate where the chorus and refrain portions are, or a particular solo.

Overall the program is designed well (it looks nice), although the trial version will overlay the track your listening to with static after only a few minutes in an effort to get you to buy. This doesn't offer much room for a thorough evaluation. Furthermore, the price seems a bit steep ($49), but if your one who plays by ear or tabs songs out a lot, this could be worth it.

The interface is simple and straightforward

Additional options allow you to isolate base, mids, reduce vocals, and shift balance.

Capo - $49

Download Capo Website

Doing this has allowed me to add my favorite tablature sites, while ignoring the lyric sites that you tend to get when searching for tabs and some of the crappier spammier sites. Hopefully this will make looking for tabs easier - and only provide users with the higher quality tabs.

Anyways, here is is. Give it a try and tell me what you think.

Guitar Tablature Search Engine