Chords for A Digital Freakshow of a Guitar | The World's Weirdest Guitars #5

Hello everyone and welcome back to the series where I demo the world's weirdest guitars.
Today we are checking out a monstrosity from the 80s, the Casio DG-20.
Have you ever wondered what
it would sound like if a cheap keyboard had a child with a guitar?
Well we're going to get to
the bottom of that age-old question soon.
But before we get into it I want to quickly let you
know some especially exciting news.
As of today I have just launched a brand new guitar course
called Samurai Guitar Theory Beyond the Basics.
This course is aimed at the intermediate guitarist
looking to take their understanding to the next level.
Among the things I look at are more complex
chords, a deep dive into modes, it's all professionally animated, there's in-depth
documentation, quizzes, lists of things to practice, and more.
This initial month it's 50%
off with promo code early bird and if you buy it bundled together with my first course the
rudiments you can get both of them for the normal price of one using that same promo code.
Links to
that are in the description or you can find it at www _ _ .samuraiguitartheory.com. Don't forget to use
promo code early bird.
Anyways on to the weirdness.
Today's instrument the Casio DG-20 is truly unlike
anything else I've ever seen.
It's a plastic digital guitar made in Japan in the late 80s and it looks
like it belongs in a sci-fi movie more than it does my guitar collection.
Now playing guitar is pretty
simple when you think about it.
You put a string into motion by hitting it producing a sound.
That vibration is amplified in one way or another.
You do this well and you're making music.
The way
the DG-20 works is completely different.
Built into this thing is a synthesizer, a piece of
technology that digitally generates a sound.
The guitar part of it sends information to the
synthesizer telling it what sounds to produce.
I'll get into more details in a bit.
For now I think it's
best just to show you what this can do.
I've got the acoustic guitar setting selected.
I'm going to
kick in the drum machine, hit the mood lights, and see what happens.
_ _ _ _ _ [E] _ _
_ _ _ _ [Dbm] _ _ _ _
[A] _ _ _ _ _ _ [Abm] _ _
_ _ _ _ [A] _ _ _ [E] _
_ [Abm] _ _ _ [E] _ _ [Eb] _ _
[Dbm] _ _ _ _ [A] _ _ _ _
[B] _ _ [E] _ _ _ _ [Ebm] _
Many guitarists spend thousands
of dollars on boutique gear chasing a pure and beautiful tone.
I spent $300 on this and now I
sound like a Nintendo Wii menu.
Let's go over the features that this spaceship looking freak show
has to offer.
First of all there's a drum machine built in.
Like you heard I can select a number of
different beats like reggae for example.
[N] _ _ _ _ _ _
I can cue it to do a fill or _ _ _ I can perform a fill myself
using these pads here. _
_ _ _ _ _ _ Nothing overly exciting or groundbreaking there.
I'm personally more interested
in the guitar synth side of things.
The layout is that of a typical guitar.
There are six strings
and the rubber fretboard is laid out like a normal one.
The strings however are plastic and untuned.
If I strum them acoustically it wouldn't really make much of a noise since they're so slack.
[Gb] _ _
_ _ [A] The way this works is I put my finger on one of the strings on one of the frets which tells the
synthesizer which note I've selected.
When I hit the string it tells the synthesizer to turn [B] on
that note. _ _
So the way you conceptualize and play this instrument is the same as a normal guitar
but there's nothing acoustically happening.
It's all just a bunch of ones and zeros being chucked
around inside a computer.
Now let me tell you while you think about it like a normal guitar
you kind of have to play it with a unique touch.
It picks up the slightest accidental bumps of a
fret or [C] string and plays those notes as loud as the notes that you want to play.
So you need to
be rather precise and gentle otherwise it sounds quite ugly.
Let me show you what it sounds like
if I tried to play this thing like how I play my normal guitars.
[Em] _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _
[Db] To me that sounds like if somebody
programmed a robot to play music but they made a horrible horrible mistake in the code.
Since
there's no string tension I find that playing with a pick it doesn't really work.
Instead finger
picking offers much more control.
Here's that same example that you just heard with significantly more
precision.
_ _ [E] _ _ _ [A] _
_ _ [B] _ _ _ _ [G] _ _
[E] _ Still isn't amazing by any means but at least it's coherent.
What does make this thing
quite fun is the wide range of sounds.
Here's a jazz organ for example. _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ [B] I _ _ [E] _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ guarantee you [Ab] someone somewhere in 1987 would have played one of these at their Sunday morning
church service and what a sight that would have been.
Let's check out another setting.
How about
[Em] distorted guitar? _
_ _ [D] _ _ [C] _ _ [B] _ _
[E] _ _ [F] I've made worse sounds in my life.
That one was actually pretty fun.
Let's try
out the [Em] mandolin setting. _ _ _
_ _ [D] _ _ _ _ _ _
[C] _ _ _ _ _ _ [D] _ _
_ _ _ [Em] _ _ _ _
If the boss theme from a vintage NES game sounded like a mandolin then
that would have [B] been pretty dang close.
Now how about my personal favorite?
_ Funky clavinet.
[A] _ _ [Bm] _ _ _ _ [E] _ _
_ _ _ [Bm] _ _ _ [E] _ _
[D] _ _ _ That one setting alone makes this thing worth it.
If I retire from YouTube I'm telling you right now
it's because I've gone out into the world to try to make it as a DG-20 funky [N] clavinetist.
So that
brings us to the point of the video where I give you the official Sammy G review.
Ultimately this
is more of a toy than it is a serious instrument.
The sounds aren't amazing but I'm a terrible
keyboard player so to be able to get those synth sounds is really quite fun.
It's easy to use.
As a
guitarist I find a lot of synths somewhat overwhelming but with this there's no technological
learning curve.
You just turn it on and you're ready to go.
You don't even need to plug it into
anything.
I ran a cable out into my recording software and used the power supply but there's
also a battery pack and a speaker built in in case you want to take it to the campfire.
The biggest
issue I have with this thing is the playability which unfortunately prevents it from having any
real practical value.
Even with quite a bit of practice it would regularly spew out loud rogue
notes.
Every example you heard today took me far more takes to get sounding good than normal.
Final
verdict it's quite fun to play around with.
They're pretty cheap but if you want the sounds that this
thing does in a professional setting you're better off getting a MIDI pickup or learning to play the
piano.
To wrap it up here's a jam I made entirely using sounds from the Casio DG-20. _ _
_ _ _ _ [E] _ _ _ _
[A] _ _ _ _ _ _ [C] _ _
_ _ [G] _ _ _ _ [Am] _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ [C] _ _
_ _ [G] _ _ _ _ [Am] _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ [C] _ _
_ _ [G] _ _ _ _ [Am] _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ [C] _ _
_ _ [G] _ _ _ _ [Am] _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ [C] _ _
_ [F] Ladies and gentlemen there you have it.
I want to remind you [Bb] that my second guitar course Samurai
Guitar Theory Beyond the Basics has [Am] just been released.
I'm [Gm] especially excited to be able [Bb] to
offer something to the intermediate guitar player looking [Cm] to take their playing to the [D] next level.
I never consider myself [Bb] all that naturally talented.
In order to get where I am I needed
to [Gm] develop a musical system.
That [Eb] system is what I teach in my [G] courses.
There's some tougher concepts
that I go through like [Bb] modes and extended chords that many of us [Dm] struggle with which is why I
hired a professional [Gm] animator to make those things as clear and intuitive as possible.
For this month Beyond the Basics [C] is 50% off with promo code [F] Early Bird and if you buy that [Eb] bundled
together with my first course you can get that one for 50% off as well with the [Gm] same promo code.
You can find that over www _ [F].samuraiguitartheory.com. Thank you all for [F] watching.
If you want to get
caught up in [Bb] the series where I try out out of the ordinary guitars you can hit [F] that link up there.
If you're [D] new here hit that subscribe [Gm] button and stay tuned for [Eb] regular musical content.
If you enjoyed [Dm] this video let me know by leaving a [G] comment and hitting that like button.
Until next time [Bb] I'm Samurai Guitarist and I will see you [D] again soon. _