I need a C sharp

 

I heard a song that really caught my ear and thought “that’s what music should sound like”, and that I ought to figure out how to plunk it out on the guitar.  Those old folk songs in 1960 pretty much only needed three chords, like E, A, B7, but we could play that sequence in any key, so my fingers are fluent in lots of chords.  How hard could it be?

 

This song is a more sophisticated sound than I’m used to making, but no problem, we have Google.  A quick search led me to lyrics and chords.  It requires several chords I’m not used to, but the real problem is the C#.  I never needed a C# before.  I looked up the chord diagram and told my fingers to do it.  They rebelled and told me to f-off.  I tried to impose my will.  I tried brute force.  I searched alternative fingering for a C#.  None seem to work.  Darn.  Me and my fingers seem to be at an impasse.  I’m not sure I’ll ever be able to bend them to my will for this one.

 

I’m doing fine with all the other chords in this tune, A, D, E, B (that one’s a little harder, not my favorite), F.  I can pull off the F#m and the D#m (these aren’t familiar to me but I can do them); but I’m totally dead in the water with the C#.  I need all the chords, and for this to make any sense, they have to just flow.  Part of the problem is that my guitar is so old, the action isn’t what it used to be.  Each string requires a big push, a lot of travel, to make good contact with the neck and the fret.  Maybe a new high-quality guitar would help.  That wouldn’t make any sense though with my only incidental interest in music now.

 

 

Working on C# got me to thinking about chords and notes, and I came to a giant gap in my music knowledge.  (I don’t have to head off very far in any direction to discover a gap in my music knowledge.  I only ever played by ear, repeating sounds I liked.  I never actually learned anything about music.)  The gap that appeared before me yesterday however was about playing major and sharp chords.  I play an F chord, I can slide it up to F# by moving it up a fret.  Same with A and A#.  But something entirely different happens with an E chord.  I slide that one up one fret and it’s not an E#, it’s an F.  So that means there is no such thing as an E#?  I recognize the pattern on the strings and frets, sometimes there are notes between major notes, and sometimes there aren’t.  Is this a difficult philosophical concept, or is this something that can easily be explained by someone who knows music, to the equivalent of a musical first grader?