Hey Friend,

I solved a technical mystery last night that clears one of hurdles I had to making videos and recording guitars. It was kind of a big one, as I couldn’t get a good signal from the guitar into the recording interface.

Since I switched from Windows to Mac earlier this year, I’ve been slowly learning the differences and overcoming most of the challenges presented. But this one was a real bear, because I was afraid I'd have to scrap some equipment and get new.

Now you know I love new gear, but not when it’s replacing something that should work just fine.

The old Line6 Toneport GX that worked faithfully on Windows through multiple operating system changes just wasn’t playing nice with the Mac OS. The Gearbox software hadn’t been updated since 2012 or something, so I didn’t think it would run. I tried a newer application, but Line6 wants $100 bucks to use that. 

I don’t like throwing away perfectly good equipment due to age, so I hunted for the old software and downloaded it. It wouldn’t install the software as a full package, but someone else suggested opening the contents of the package file and installing individual pieces...

Voila! It worked!

After some testing, it looks like I’m back in business. Now I have two other minor challenges to address, and with any luck, I can check those off my list shortly. Then we can do some videos!

I don’t regret moving off Windows a bit, but it sure has been a learning curve, and there are a few things I wish Apple would improve on. 

Sorry for the “jump to the left” (any Rocky Horror Picture Show fans out there?). I know we were going to talk more about some easy patterns to remember on the fingerboard today. I was excited to get that guitar interface problem off my plate, though!

I won’t leave you hanging. Here’s a quick one.

I’ve mentioned that guitar strings are tuned to the perfect fourth. If you pluck the open E note on the sixth string, and then place your finger on the fifth fret and pluck, you have now played the perfect fourth interval:

1    2    3   4   5    6    7    (8)

E  F#  G#  A  B  C#  D#  (E)

   |     |      |    |   |      |     | 

  W  W    H  W W   W   H

That’s an A note you’ve just played. Which is the pitch for the fifth string A. And this works for other strings as well, so if you have a reference pitch to tune at least one string, you can get all the rest tuned easily.

In fact, that's one of the ways we used to tune up before practice or a gig...

There’s a second benefit to this is, you now know that, not only is the A note the pitch of the fifth string, it is also on the fifth fret of the preceding string E. 

Okay, so play the fifth fret on one string, and you have the pitch for the next string up as you ascend in pitch. 

There is an exception to this rule, and we’ll look at that tomorrow. Have a great one!

Peace~

Dave