I enjoyed physics, actually minored in it, but I must have slept through that explanation, if it was covered.
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Overwound guitar strings also go dull or ¡®dead¡¯ after a period of time. Though it¡¯s more often oil and dead skin cells that collect in the overwound wire. Careful cleaning with a high quality organic solvent can extend the life of good guitar strings a long time.
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My lab assistant played 5 string electric base in a jazz band and she¡¯s take her strings off every 6 months of so, boil them in a soapy water solution, then plain water, bake dry and reinstall. She¡¯d gotten 5 or 6 years out of the same set.
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By moving your plucking fingers toward the fretboard, away from the soundhole in an acoustic guitar you get a softer more lute like sound at the expense of volume.
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The ¡°action¡± or string height above the fretboard is a concern. Lower action, closer to the fretboard, is easier to make notes but requires a more delicate touch, but, if the action is too high, then when you press the string down you change the tension enough to force the note sharp.
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Deciding on a string height is delicate balancing act between skill, technique and style of music you like.
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I paid a luthier to customize the action on my guitar and install an adjustable bridge. She also offered much needed advice on fingering and fretting technique and exercises to improve my technique..
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I much prefer a zero fret over a standard nut. The intonation is more accurate if there are any open strings and the open strings sound 'cleaner.' I can't qualify "cleaner." I need to capture the audio and run it through a FFT program to see if there are any differences. I own two guitars, one with a traditional nut, the other with a .zero fret.
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Then there is the sad reality that most guitar necks are slightly bowed.
This is an issue that has to be taken under consideration.
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I play alone for my own enjoyment so being? a fraction of a hertz out of tune isn¡¯t an issue. It¡¯ nice to get lost in a difficult piece and the world goes away for a time. Our daughter calls it ¡°Zenning out.¡±
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The friend of a friend has an Ebow:
It¡¯d almost be worthwhile to switch to an electric guitar for the nice effect the Ebow gives. An Ebow will work on an acoustic guitar but the ¡®touch¡¯ required is beyond my skill set. The sound is very soft, magical, maybe a cross between a harp and violin.
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I ran this past our daughter, classical trained pianist, ¡°Tremolo traditionally referred to a slow rhythmic change in volume and vibrato to a slow rhythmic change in pitch. Though today the terms are often used interchangeably.¡±
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I finish ¡°My Lady Greensleeves with vibrato on ¡°A¡± on the ¡°G¡± string, slowing the vibrato as the note dies away.
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I¡¯ve never played for anyone but family, the luthier so she could made some judgments on the best action height for me and my EE friend as he taught me his version of House of the Rising Sun. He plays what he calls ¡°broken arpeggios¡± and does some odd stuff to the timing that even our daughter can¡¯t quite pinpoint. He crams 6 notes where 4 goes but it isn¡¯t forced.
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Like me he¡¯s self taught and does a lot of things ¡°wrong,¡± but some of his interpretations are very nice.
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His interpretation of Classical Gas is amazing. His wife plays flute their version of Nights in White Satin is haunting, she extends the flute part and plays a nice counter point. String instruments make sense, shorter strings, or thinner strings under more tension, produce a higher note. A flute is insane. My friend's wife played the scale and her fingers were all over the place. I'm certain there is solid math underlying but it is far from clear. I do get the "push air across a tube with twice the velocity?and produce a tone 1 octave higher."
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Pete_G4GJL