Travel Guitar vs Guitalele vs ???

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steelmooch

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Aug 5, 2010
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Hello, all...what a cool little section of the forum!  :) 

I was wondering about your thoughts/experiences with "travel" acoustic instruments. 

I'm a campfire strummer who sings and devises little family arrangements (a few key notes of a Buffett song on the little steel drum for our daughter, a beat on the djembe for our son, and an occasional, catchy back-beat on the claves for my wife, for example) a lot better than I actually play

We enjoy it and have fun together, though. 

My full-sized, go-to 12 string (and it's hard case) is just too large to take with us on the road, but I want something

A 3/4 size guitar would help somewhat, but not a lot.  A "backpacker" guitar like the Martin Backpacker or the Washburn Rover might be good, though a bit costly for us.  A guitalele looks small and neat, but such a high pitched instrument (supposed to be similar to a regular guitar capo'd in the 5th fret) might compromise the songs we've taken the time to arrange and write out {obvious lack of music theory at play here...please excuse}. 

Any advice?  Things you've played or heard played around the campfire?  Best recommendation for a mostly-strummer wanting to keep the family involved? 

Thanks!  :) 
 
You need a ukulele. Very small, very inexpensive and sounds great. If you think the uke is a toy then check out Jake:

https://youtu.be/mljFr7yuYzk
 
Thanks, Tom!  That video is awesome.  I actually heard him play on a live Buffett album before, but didn't realize "who it was", necessarily...how cool! 

Definitely a possibility...I just worry about the "vocal range" part of it...as we sing a lot better than we play, and oftentimes carry the melody of our songs with our voices because of our inability to "pick" the melodies. 

We'll keep practicing...thanks for sharing! 
 
I've got a Baby Taylor I'd be willing to sell cheap.  It comes with a Taylor hard case.  It's not a GS Mini but it gets the job done.
 
steelmooch said:
Definitely a possibility...I just worry about the "vocal range" part of it...as we sing a lot better than we play, and oftentimes carry the melody of our songs with our voices because of our inability to "pick" the melodies. 
The vocal range of a song is not defined by the register of the instrument, it is defined by the key it is in. If a song is too high for you to sing then you should transpose it to a lower key.
 
... we sing a lot better than we play, and oftentimes carry the melody of our songs with our voices because of our inability to "pick" the melodies.

Welcome to my world!

I 'discovered' the uke as an 'easy to take along' instrument just 5 years ago, but I have a baritone/bass voice. Sometimes, transposing a song doesn't work (e.g. I end up with chords that are tough for me to play); In these cases I just sing an octave lower, or I'll arrange a song so I can play it on my baritone uke.

This uke is a little larger than my other ukes, but is still quite a bit smaller than a full size or 3/4 size guitar. Also, unlike the other ukes, it's tuned like the musically-highest 4 strings on a guitar (the 4 nearest the floor), which makes it easy for a guitar player to transition. Some musicians have told me I can't do what I'm doing, but it sure allows me to sing in my register and accompany myself on a uke.
 
Not everybody is good at transposing 'on the fly'.  In many cases I recommend a capo.  It may be counter intuitive but you can lower the vocal range by raising the key of the song.  (As Tom suggested) Capos are also quite useful when there are more than one instrument.  Guitar #1 plays D, Guitar #2 capos 2 frets and plays C, guitar #3 capos 5 and plays A.

I use 2 capos on one guitar at the same time for several arrangements.  And don't even get me started on altered tunings.  :eek:
 
Another alternative to the capo (for us less able players) is to use an online transposer. Several of the online sites for chords & lyrics listed/linked on this page, including Chordie, have built-in transposers. There are also stand-alone online transposers such as this.
 
[quote author=8Muddypaws]I should have specified that the capos are 'partial capos'.[/quote]

Aye Russ, two 'full capos' played at the same time would definitely be an oops moment  ;D  I still have several partial capos you previously suggested, and occasionally play with them.
 
I bought a capo when I first started playing guitar and hated it so I never have used one since. You have a built in capo it is called the index finger. I find it much easier and transposing on the fly is not that hard if you study music theory a lot.
 
Some of my music associates have masters degrees in music and use capos.  It has nothing to do with capability and everything to do with the sound. 
 
Tom said:
Aye Russ, two 'full capos' played at the same time would definitely be an oops moment  ;D  I still have several partial capos you previously suggested, and occasionally play with them.

I have been following this topic with curious interest, knowing nothing about these instruments.
Of course your post above, taken out of context hit my funnybone.

"Definition: capo is a name for a captain in the mafia family, the family will consist of many captains and the boss which is a capo crimini. "
Tom... remind me to always try to stay on your good side.. By gawd.. you play with capos.  ;D
 
LOL Bob. A musical capo (pronounced kay-po), is essentially a clamp that's applied to the strings of an instrument (such as guitar or ukulele) to shorten their effective length, which changes their tuning. See photos. It allows the instrumentalist to change the key they're playing in without having to change the relative positions of their fingers.

Russ (8muddypaws) uses several different styles of capo (partial capos) that only shorten the length of some strings. Using combinations of different partial capos at the same time, he's able to create some interesting sounds on his guitar.

Instead of using a capo, some musicians "transpose" the key on the fly (in their head), and use different relative finger positions to play the different chords in the new key.

But this is all way too clever for me  :-[
 
8Muddypaws said:
Some of my music associates have masters degrees in music and use capos.  It has nothing to do with capability and everything to do with the sound.
I did not say anything about capability at all. How did you arrive at that silly conclusion? I said I did not prefer to use them. To each his own.
 
Bob, just an FYI ...

Imagine two "full" capos, meaning that they both depress all strings, having them "clamped" at different locations on the fretboard. The one that's closest to the body/sound box of the instrument would be the one that dictates the length of the strings. The other capo would be ineffective. Thus the reason for Russ' clarification about "partial capos".
 
If I remember the correct term from my classical guitar days the actual name of the device is capotasto or something like that.  Nothing to do with mafia capos.  Yup, even classical guitarists have been known to use them.  But only when playing mafia gigs.
 
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