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i think fret markers are typically on lower end student models, to help beginners learn their way around the fretboard.
classical guitarists are too busy sight reading to look down at the fretboard and flamencos are too busy squinting and scrunching their faces into strong displays of emotion plus checking out the bailoras.
ive only ever used a mark on 7 from there every where else is easy.
why would a mark on 7 be better than a mark on 5 or 9? I've read on a classical forum that if there's only one dot they would prefer it on the 7th. but I just can't understand why.. would you be able to enlighten me?
I play for dancers and singers in a show on a somewhat dark stage, and I use a dab' of White Out on the 5th and 7th, based on capo on the 4th for mostly the whole show (solea, I slide up to 6th, but the previous 5th & 7th dots now give me a 3rd and 5th mark. If I have to change for a guest singer or whatever, I can simply rub them off, make new ones, or just use them as a reference from where I am.
I use them because I'm caught between watching a cantaor and a dancer (or several), and then trying to quickly acquire the 6th position for the start of a falseta or something. It helps.
And I'm just not that good, so I'll take any help where I can get it!
Good classical players can find a position without looking, but some find the mark at 7 useful anyway because they can't help but hesitate before making a large shift. There's usually only one mark because no more are necessary; you automatically know where 1-4 and 12 are without having to guess, and 5 is so close to 4 that it doesn't need a mark. The nebulous Mystery Zone is 6-11. One marked fret there eliminates the possibility of disorientation and the instant of hesitation that can ruin a chord grab. Also, 7 is the fifth of the open string, so it makes musical sense to put it there instead of, say, 6 (ohno tritone!!) or 8. I prefer classicals to be marked but haven't decided the fate of my blanca.
My first good classical had a marker for the seventh fret and after practicing with it for a year I came to realize how useful it was. It makes it really easy to find your place on the fret board. Two side markers can cause some confusion, but I never had to think twice about the seventh fret marker. I wish my flamenco had one. Even with a capo one marker can still be useful.
Even if i would like to and had a guitar with markers, i couldnt use them because i play lefthanded and on a normal guitar they would be on the wrong side of the neck! But i think it would harm me and confuse me more instead of doing good, because i never learned to play with markers (i never had any).
Searching the foro to see what others thought about fretmarkers. Never liked them but I have a guitar that has an unintended mark at the 7th fret (it’s actually a filled pore) and I’ve become absolutely dependent on this mark of the devil now.
I had a marker on the 7th for years. With my new guitar form Anders Eliasson it was time for me to get rid of the habit of having a marker.
It took me about 3 months to get used to it.
The next thing happened: if you cannot rely on a marker you start relying on where you are with your fingers before you get to the higher positions.
F.i. If you have a C short on the 1st position, your 3th finger is 5th string 3th position.from there it is two frets to the 5th position in a barre A chrord.
So you relearn yourself this kind of movements and use the position you where before as an anchor.
Sorry this has nothing to do with the thread, but i have to write it down now, or i will forget it...
why is the personal pronoun "I" written in capital letters, but the others like "you, he, she, it" is all small letters???
I do it because my first grade teacher told us that is how it is done. It wasn't until second grade that I began to question authority. It wasn't until third grade that I began to defy it. By then the capital "I" was an ingrained habit.
If you go back in time you will find a lot more capitalization in printed English. In 16th century English there is about as much capitalization as in mid-20th century German. Most of it has gone out of style, but for some reason "I" remains upper case.
I started on the guitar playing flamenco. After quite a few years I started playing classical music, on a classical guitar. For years I played on the classical guitar with no fret markers. Then I bought the best classical I have now. It has fret markers on it.
I learned a new piece on the new classical. When I went back to the previous guitar and played the new piece, I found myself looking for the damned fret markers. Now two more classicals have fret markers on them. The original still has none.
None of my flamencas have fret markers. I regularly play flamenco without capo, or with capo on 2 or 3. I don't miss the fret markers playing flamenco.
With just a 7th fret marker, Using a capo hasn’t been an issue like I thought it would be.
According to dictionary .com: How did we start capitalizing I? It turns out that this unusual convention was a bit of an accident. In Old and Middle English, the word for I was closer to its German cousin, ich, and it was often spelled ic. At this point, the word was not capitalized. However, the pronunciation changed over time and so did the spelling, losing the consonant C.
At first, the new word, i, was left lowercase. By the time Chaucer wrote The Canterbury Tales in the late 1300s, I, the personal pronoun, was slightly taller than its lowercase equivalent. From that point on, it was typically capitalized.
I just noticed Paco's guitar has a marker on the 7th fret. Almost looks like he put some white paint there rather than inlay. Screenshot from Zyryab video
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You would be surprised at how many professional players want (and need) fret markers. More than do not in my experience. Not always 3,5,7,9,12,15,17 but sometimes just at 7 and 9.
When I had my custom Culpepper made I had him add a simple side dot at the 7th fret, that provides all the reference I need and is extremely subtle. On a previous guitar with no markers I put a small "white out" side dot at the 7th as well and I found (for me) it helped a lot.
According to dictionary .com: How did we start capitalizing I? It turns out that this unusual convention was a bit of an accident. In Old and Middle English, the word for I was closer to its German cousin, ich, and it was often spelled ic. At this point, the word was not capitalized. However, the pronunciation changed over time and so did the spelling, losing the consonant C.
At first, the new word, i, was left lowercase. By the time Chaucer wrote The Canterbury Tales in the late 1300s, I, the personal pronoun, was slightly taller than its lowercase equivalent. From that point on, it was typically capitalized.
You can pull that thread even more and arrive here ....
Taken from "A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities" John Murray 1875. Keywords being capitis diminutio, regarding the relationship between Patronus and Libertus.
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Traditionally no side dots are used on neither classical nor flamenco guitars. However i find them to be useful and not everybody is a professional player. I don't actually see a reason why steel stringed guitars have them and nylons don't.
I inlayed a fret marker at the 7th fret, and I like having it. But when I put a capo on the 1st fret I forget to compensate. But only the first time I hit the wrong fret, then I can mentally shift the marker no problem.
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