Chords for Carl Miner Q&A!

Hey guys, Lindsay here over at the North American Guitar,
here with the one and only Carl Minor.
And we're going to tackle some of the frequently asked
questions that we see over on YouTube.
It's been a popular request for a video like this for a while,
so we're going to launch into it right now.
This may be the first time these people have heard my voice
speaking, rather than speaking through my fingers.
That's true, yeah.
You get to actually hear Carl as you are, as just a guy.
Totally.
So probably the first and the most one
of the most common questions we see is,
what is the name of that tune, and where
can I find the tab for it?
So let's put this question to rest right now.
Is any of the music pre-written that you come in
to play on these guitars?
No.
We have to put, definitely have to put that one to rest.
I get that question a lot.
The songs that I play are composed, so to speak,
or improvised on the spot.
When you guys hand me a guitar, I try to play a few chords
and see what feels natural on it.
And then I come up with something.
I will say, in the future though,
_ _ we definitely want to release more of these songs,
and probably suss them out, and get the ideas kind of solidified,
and give them names.
So for the time being, you guys can name them [G] whatever you want.
And if you tab [Ab] them out, send them to me.
_ Yeah, so anytime anybody comments like, oh,
I think I know that song, they don't.
It's just you're sort of just pulling from the ether.
Well, there's a chance I could be [F] totally ripping it off
from somebody, because there's not a new idea left out there
that I know of.
That's true.
But I try not to.
I try to make them as original as I can.
Well, another comment that we see a lot is,
what do you think of any particular guitar?
At this point, you've played hundreds of guitars for us,
so we can't cover all of them.
But are there a few that maybe are recent favorites
you might want to talk about?
That's a tough one.
There are so many really good ones.
I love the stuff that Collings makes a lot. _ _
I think that we don't get to see a lot of them here,
but the Julian Lodge edition Collings guitars
are one of my favorite that I get to play once in a while.
_ _ I love old Gibsons and old vintage Martins.
I tend to kind of be attracted to woodier, drier, darker sounding [Eb] instruments. _
I think those probably inspire me more than anything
when I get old guitars like that in my hands.
Nice.
Yes, so sort of on a related note,
what do you look for in a guitar,
beyond, I guess, just the dry, woody, old stuff?
Yeah, you know, _ I, for a long time,
have bought guitars largely based
upon what I need professionally.
When I'm recording for other artists,
there's always something that I feel like I need,
and I'll tend to shop for what that need is.
If I need something that's brighter,
or maybe the current trend in guitar sounds is something,
I'll shop for that.
But for my own personal playing and writing,
I tend to like things that are pretty neutral, you know,
not too bright, and that play really well.
That's just kind of my two things.
They can't be too bright or too _ specific sounding for me
to write on.
They have to feel good.
That sounds generic.
There are too many options to list off,
but what are some of your go-to guitars for the studio
and for on stage?
I don't get to play on stage a lot.
In the studio, I'm generally going to a Gibson J45.
It's a Gibson J45 Vintage, so it's
a relatively new, torrified guitar.
I use that probably 90% of the time.
_ It's that.
There's also a Collings D1A that I play a lot.
It's sort of the Martin D18 thing.
And then I have a Waterloo, an all-mahogany Waterloo
that I use a bunch.
Those three are the main ones.
I use it with a lot of other guitars.
In a studio situation, I'll probably
bring anywhere from 10 to 12 guitars,
instruments rather, mandolins, banjos, and [N] bazookies,
whatever.
Cool.
Awesome.
_ Well, who are some of your biggest influences?
_ Boy, when I started off, Chet Atkins was my guy.
I listened to him a ton, which led into Tommy Manuel,
my obsession with Tommy. _
But I think as I got older, melody
became really important to me.
So I gravitated towards singer-songwriters
who had good melodies.
_ _ And in pop music, there's a lot of great melody writing.
This is going to sound like a joke.
Don't judge me for this.
Any of you.
Good for you guys.
No judgment.
I listened to a lot of Celine Dion and 90s R&B stuff,
because some of the writing back then was really, really great.
And the arranging, the musicianship, and all of that.
_ But yeah, it is all over the map what I listen to.
Just as long as it's somebody with a lot of skill
in what they do, I'm happy to dig into it.
Awesome.
_ Well, last but not least, for folks
who want to support you and your music,
do you have anything online they can either purchase or stream?
I have one song on Spotify.
It's been on there for a while.
But in the future, there's definitely
going to be a lot more released.
In fact, we've talked about doing a North American guitar _ _ _
sessions, so to speak, of some of the favorite songs
that people like that we've done on these videos.
So we're probably putting out a recording of that soon.
Maybe 10 or 12 songs.
And maybe even the tabs.
We'll see.
If I have the energy to sit down and write all that out,
or you do, whoever.
Oh, no.
I'll pay you.
_ _ But that's something probably sooner than later
we're going to release.
And then more releases from me to stream after that.
Cool.
Well, consider that the teaser for the future Carl TNAG Sessions recording.
Thank you so much for doing this.
Thank you.
We all really appreciate it.
And I'm sure all of the fans on YouTube will appreciate it, too.
Definitely.
We'll leave comments and ask any more questions.
What pick do you use?
Oh, what pick do I use?
Yes, thank you.
Kevin, our sound guy over there yelling.
I use a _ Dunlop _ Tortex Flex _ 1.
Hold on.
Let me see if I have one in my pocket here.
No, I don't.
It's a 1 _ _ _ .16.
Is that what it is?
I think so.
Whatever you're saying.
Look at this.
Right here on the floor, there's one.
It's a Tortex Flex 1.14.
It's the wide triangle.
I guess that's a triangle.
Yeah, it's a triangle.
Triangle, right.
That's my primary guitar pick.
Other than that, it's usually going
to be something much, much thinner
if I'm playing rhythm or something like that,
or super thin Fender kind of thing. OK, cool.
Yeah.
So there you guys go.
All the Carl secrets.
Absolutely. _