Enter, the Newbie

[Nefir!]

Hail, tappers

I feel this would be a good moment for me to finally step out of the shadows and introduce myself.

My name is Eugene, and I've had my Mobius Megatar TrueTapper Dragon (tuned in Bass Bottom uncrossed parallel tuning) for about a month and a half now, though I've been reading these forums and other tapping resources for quite alot longer than that.

What an amazing instrument! The sound is silky-smooth and the tuning seems to be working out really well for me (thanks, Traktor!).

For someone with no prior musical experience, I expected to be stuck at brick walls for months, struggling to figure out the most basic of basics - but it did not happen! Quite the opposite, I feel I am progressing pretty well from square one (at least, compared to my expectations - I have no clue how fast the average beginner truly learns).

I've been working daily from the Easy Touchstyle Bassics PDF, with a metronome, and am currently working on mastering the first Master Excercise. The chord shapes feel intutive, and I can do them almost mindlessly now, and pretty quickly too. I suppose being ambidextrous would help alot, but I have to work with what I've got, and so far it seems to be enough.

I'm not even close to being good enough to actually have constructive questions to ask, but I am well on my way there. Who knows, pretty soon I might be actually doing something useful with those chords!

Anyway, just saying hi. :)

[rockola]

Hi Eugene, welcome to Tappistry!

For someone with no prior musical experience

You chose the tap guitar as your first musical instrument? That's pretty rare. How did that come to be?

[rjgoos]

Nefir,

Congratulations on the new instrument!

Uncrossed parallel tunings are increasing in popularity. Jeff Moen has some nice MP3s at his site (touchguitarist.com) using an uncrossed parallel tuning. Jim Wright, Teed Rockwell, and many other accomplished touch style players use tunings in this family. My point is..you are in good company.

How do you like the sound of your instrument? Is it comfortable to play standing and/or sitting?


RJ Goos

[Nefir!]

You chose the tap guitar as your first musical instrument? That's pretty rare. How did that come to be?

Yes, I get that quite alot :)
The idea has been simmering in my head for a couple of years now, and it would have remained that - just a silly idea - if not for Trey Gunn's performance on King Crimson's Power To Believe tour. That experience turned up the heat, and brought my idea to a full boil.

For a few months afterwards, I discussed my thoughts with some of my musician friends (none of them are tappers, though), and the consensus was the following: an instrument is an instrument. They are all challenging to learn from scratch, whether its a guitar or a megatar. I was ready to commit to just one instrument, and decided to spend my free time on a "hard" instrument that I really wanted to learn to play instead of choosing an "easy" instrument that I did not. Hope that makes sense :D

How do you like the sound of your instrument? Is it comfortable to play standing and/or sitting?

When I first got it, I had to make some adjustments to the truss rod and string heights due to some major fret buzzing. Something must have gotten out of whack during shipping. However, once that was done, the sound was pure and clean (when I play more-or-less correctly :D). I love it.

I only play standing up. I have a tiny little room with barely enough space turn without knocking things over, but I suppose a stool will work... I might try it in the future. The strap provides plenty of support, and I am sure it will work very well for seated playing, even without a megbar (though I imagine that would make things more comfortable).