sick of DADGAD

Subject: RE: sick of DADGAD
From: Midchuck
Date: 28 Apr 13 - 09:56 AM

I went through a phase years ago of being much into DADGAD, even traveled with a 6-string tuned to standard and a 12 tuned to DADGAD. One of the things that got me out of it, in addition to being too lazy to keep hauling two cases, was my children suggesting that I try BADDAD. I got the point.

I still use the "DADGAD capo" for a few songs in E (or F or G, using both the trick capo and a regular one)(or in D on the 12, which is normally tuned one whole tone flat), but I no longer bother with actual DADGAD tuning.

P

Subject: RE: sick of DADGAD
From: GUEST,Potato Fingers
Date: 28 Apr 13 - 09:14 AM

I just found this 13 years later. I love DADGAD. I have been playing it a lot since my first post, though I stick to standard most of time it seems.

I can't even remember being Potato Fingers in 1999.

Subject: RE: sick of DADGAD
From: Zen
Date: 29 Apr 08 - 06:03 AM

For a good decade or more I used to play almost exclusively in DADGAD. I have now moved back much more to standard tuning as I have rediscovered my first love blues and keep my favourite guitar in standard. I still use DADGAD for Irish and Scottish traditional music and keep my other guitar in it all the time... sometimes retuning slightly to DADF#AD for slide.

There is nothing intrinsically "wrong" with DADGAD... anything used to excess or played badly can be bad.

As an aside, I have noticed that the two guitars mentioned above seem to "prefer" and respond better to their respective tunings. I've seen in the past as well that certain guitars work better in some tunings than others.

Zen

Subject: RE: sick of DADGAD
From: GUEST,Jonny Sunshine
Date: 28 Apr 08 - 12:09 PM

I use DADGAD for some stuff. It's good for certain things, but has its limitations, unless you put a lot of work in. But the same is true of anything.

Subject: RE: sick of DADGAD
From: Mooh
Date: 28 Apr 08 - 08:09 AM

Can't say I'm sick of dadgad, though I use it less frequently than I once did. Open G, dgdgbd, is of more use at the moment, and sometimes open D minor, dadfad.

I wish there was more time to tinker with it (and restring for it), but Robert Fripp's "new standard", cgdaeg, has real possibilities for all styles.

The anti-dadgad sentiment is born out of the overuse of a few common "moves" in the tuning. They're fun and user friendly, but boring bordering on annoying when overused. Same can be said of the same old three or four "cowboy" chords played with a capo for every tune, in my opinion.

Not to state the obvious, but all this user friendliness is what has made the guitar so universal and accepted in the first place...the people's instrument.

Peace, Mooh.

Subject: RE: sick of DADGAD
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 28 Apr 08 - 05:44 AM

Well of course DADGAD is not the exclusive preserve of celtic music players. there are some great blues licks in there.

Artie Traum does a great couple of instructional DVD's for the stateside view of DADGAD.

Also I'd recommend Martin Simpson's little DVD about open tunings. Martin makes the point that all open tunings can pretty much be tackled with a similar bag of techniques. Clever guy. But easier to see where he's coming from than say Martin Carthy.

What C tuning is that Bryn?

I've had a go at CGCGCE, and i love that one Martin Carthy uses for Famous Flower of Serving Men - DGCGCD. I haven't really got to grips with his other tuning, which makes the guitar sound like a really old instrument - a hurdy gurdy or something.. To be honest, I can't really think like he thinks about folk music - which is at the root of it.

I think that the way you think about folk music will in the end overwhelm any technique that you adopt. Somehow you will end up with what is inside your head - how ever much brain damage one brings to the party!

Subject: RE: sick of DADGAD
From: GUEST,Jon
Date: 28 Apr 08 - 05:16 AM

Of what can be called "celtic", I usually only play in Irish sessions and can't really play guitar for accompanying it. I'm neither sick of DADGAD nor find what others seem to report here.

The main guitarist in the session I went to regularly when I lived in N Wales played in std tuning, finger picking, and playing a lot of chords up the neck.

Now I'm in Norfolk, I see 3 experienced guitar players in the 2 sessions I go to. One again in std tuning and finger picking, this time simple looking open chords but with enough variation to keep it interesting and fit the tune. The other two use plectrums. One largely "strums" chords in DADGAD, changing chords quite a lot, the other with the chords also plays a number of single (bass mostly) notes around the melody. Tuning wise, I'm told he starts of in std, dropping a d or two for some tunes and often migrating to DADGAD before the end of the night.

Rather than being sick of the same patterns and methods used in this "celtic" music, I find the variety of styles I've heard used very effectively even just in regular local events quite interesting.

Subject: RE: sick of DADGAD
From: Bryn Pugh
Date: 28 Apr 08 - 04:59 AM

I have posted previously that I have never been able to get DADGAD together, and not from want of trying. Pierre BenSusan, Dick Gaughan play in nowt else.

I am comfortable in open C, open G and open D, as well as Concert tuning (EADGBE).

So, I'm glad it isn't just me. Didn't I read somewhere on the 'Cat that Martin Carthy had given DADGAD the go-by, had KBd it ?

Good for him, sez I. Oh, and while I'm about it, would it not be more accurate to say that Davy Graham discovered DADGAD, rather than 'invented' it ?

For 'Celtic' music, locally, read 'diddly-diddly'- I have yet to hear any recognisable Brythonic, as opposed to Goidelic, Muzak.

Far from being sick of DADGAD, I never mastered it in the first place to become sick of it.

Subject: RE: sick of DADGAD
From: GUEST,Edward De Bono
Date: 28 Apr 08 - 04:43 AM

These DadGad merchants make me sick with their plink plonky approach to the guitar!

Subject: RE: sick of DADGAD
From: Les in Chorlton
Date: 28 Apr 08 - 03:00 AM

Has anyone tried BAGDAD?

Although some thought it was a good idea at the time many were at least unimpressed. The more it has been tried the more problems it seems to have generated. I've tried it at the Folk Club with "The Gentleman Soldier" and it went down a bomb!

Subject: RE: sick of DADGAD
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 27 Apr 08 - 06:59 PM

I think its a bit like giving up saoking - you'll get round to it when you're ready.......

Subject: RE: sick of DADGAD
From: The Sandman
Date: 27 Apr 08 - 04:29 PM

a good thing to do[in standard or any tuning]is to make a diagram of the fret board,then you can work out all your different inversions.
   dadgad like some other open tunings, offers you the
possibility in d and g[ particularly] of making different inversions of modal dyads,easily.
one finger, second fret g string,dadaad.
two fingers, seventh fret g string,fifth fret a string,dadddd.
three fingers,fifth fret fifth string,seventh fret g string,fifth fret, a string, dddddd.
you would have some job doing the last two in standard tuning.
the opportunity to play power chords[dyads],with added sevenths ninths etc,becomes generally simpler in dadgad,and you have sympathetic ringing from the strings to add to the sound.
standard tuning is the most flexible tuning,particluarly if your song modulates.Dick Miles

Subject: RE: sick of DADGAD
From: Don Firth
Date: 27 Apr 08 - 04:06 PM

Yeah, Tunesmith, this is one of the reasons I spent a bit of time studying classic guitar; so my accompaniments wouldn't be just the same old thing. It's a matter of working out something interesting and different without making it too complicated and letting the classic guitar training show. Framing the song without distracting from it. If everyone comments on how great the accompaniment is, it has failed in its purpose--to accompany--the song and act as a setting.

I learned this from a picture framer I worked for one summer. Artists from all over used to get their work framed at his shop and he was considered to be an artist in his own right. He said, "A good frame borrows elements from within the painting--shape of the molding, color, and so on, to set the painting off in space. But if people say "Gee, what a great frame!" and don't particularly notice the painting, it's a failure!"

Same principles work for song accompaniment. You don't have to be a guitar virtuoso, you just have to use your head.

Don Firth

Subject: RE: sick of DADGAD
From: GUEST,DonMeixner
Date: 27 Apr 08 - 03:32 PM

I have never been able to get very far along the way with DADGAD so I stopped trying. As my fingers continue to worsen and I play more Bouzouki, in GDAD, I have to wonder why it is so reviled by some. Isn't a different tuning really just another bullet in the gun, so to speak?
I'll go after it again sometime soon I imagine.

Don

Subject: RE: sick of DADGAD
From: GUEST,Tunesmith
Date: 27 Apr 08 - 03:18 PM

The trouble with standard tuning is that one generally - in folk clubs - hears the same chords in the same note sequence, with the same resonances, and this is bound to get tiresome. Those who play more sophisicated music i.e. classical, have composers who can mix things up.

Subject: RE: sick of DADGAD
From: Don Firth
Date: 27 Apr 08 - 01:34 PM

I never use anything but standard tuning, with an occasional forays into dropped D. I find standard tuning plenty rich and versatile, and it will be a long time before anyone exhausts the possibilities.

And I don't have to keep cranking the strings up and down.

Don Firth

Subject: RE: sick of DADGAD
From: SunrayFC
Date: 27 Apr 08 - 01:24 PM

And if you can't play the guitar, learn GAGDAD, use one finger and you are away!

Subject: RE: sick of DADGAD
From: GUEST,Tunesmith
Date: 27 Apr 08 - 01:03 PM

If you're sick of Dadgad, I'm really, really, really sick of standard tuning!

Subject: RE: sick of DADGAD
From: Grab
Date: 27 Apr 08 - 11:06 AM

WLD, I'd add Thomas Leeb to that list too, although his techniques extend well beyond just using the tuning.

Subject: RE: sick of DADGAD
From: GUEST,Volgadon
Date: 27 Apr 08 - 05:43 AM

I still like 'celtic' music, but definitely not as much as I used to. Just doesn't grip me like it did. Eastern and Eastern European music speak to me a lot more. They use various weird or alternative tunings, not necesarily DADGAD.

Subject: RE: sick of DADGAD
From: GUEST, Richard Bridge
Date: 27 Apr 08 - 05:40 AM

I am using the cutoff shubb and/or the third hand and/or the English "Scott tuning Capo" (all needed a little modification) to accompany mostly English song. Don't think of me as any sort of guitar guru though!

Subject: RE: sick of DADGAD
From: GUEST,SonnyWalkman
Date: 27 Apr 08 - 05:11 AM

A partial capo, Shubb and Kaiser both make one, at the second fret on the 3rd, 4th and 5th strings puts a standard tuned guitar into EBEABE (i.e. one step up on DADGAD). This can give you the same 'Is it Major? Is it minor?' ambiguity when you require it, while at the same time maintaining standard chord shapes for any barre chords above the capo.

Additionally by varying how much of a first position D chord shape you hold down (i.e. by either fretting the 1st string or leaving it open)you also have access to tunings which approximte both dropped D and double dropped D - although they are actually in E. Effectively access to 4 tunings without actually retuning a string.

You can even move it into other keys by using a second 'full' capo 2 frets below the partial one, I've seen Steve Earle do this.

But, as several previous contributors have noted, it's what you do with any tuning rather than the tuning itself which is where the fun is. 'Celtic' melodies fall easily under the fingers in DADGAD and are fun to play but it's a tuning that lends itself to other styles of music too - try blues.

It would be a shame if people were discouraged from experimenting because a particular tuning was thought to have become hackneyed from over association with one particular style of music.

Subject: RE: sick of DADGAD
From: The Sandman
Date: 27 Apr 08 - 04:32 AM

some people can be boring in standard.
personally I favour standard,for anything related to aminor or major,I like it in c too.
drop d,Ifind useful and also double drop d.
Ef#bf#bd#[a bmajor tuning]is interesting too.
dadgad is fine if its used properly.
but surely that applies to any tuning,I find alternating tunings useful.Dick Miles

Subject: RE: sick of DADGAD
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 26 Apr 08 - 06:13 PM

Some people are bloody bores however their guitar is tuned. But here are a couple of stunning guitarists whose work I would urge you to check out before abandoning DADGAD.

Ken Nicol (Steeleye's lead guitarist) plays wonderful stuff in DADGAD on solo gigs. Celtic sure enough, but also blues, ragtime, jazz, pianistic instrumentals and accompaniments. Get to one of his occasional seminars if you can.

For a stunningly original view of DADGAD - get to Paul Openshaw's seminar on DADGAD at Wessex Folk Festival in Weymouth this year. Paul has devised a way to play in every key using DADGAD and there are no flies on him. A brilliant man.

Subject: RE: sick of DADGAD
From: GUEST,Al Frost of Petoskey
Date: 26 Apr 08 - 03:09 PM

After Pierre BenSusan came to our town this past summer I became curious about His guitar tuning which is Dadgad. After 40 years of slowly losing interest in regular guitar tuning music I have had a great rebirth with DADGAD. It brings more life out of the guitar and is wonderful for creating and improvising, since the open strings match any notes on the second, fouth, seventh , and ninth fret ( and most of the 5th fret).
The sound can become repetetive if one does not learn the cord positions   and becomes competent enough to know what he ( she) is trying to express before trying to so . It's fun during the first few months to play the scales with the open strings ,adding the bass, but as Bensusan's works show, its not just the tuning that is important . It is the talent level of the writer, the heart of the artist ,and of course the skill level.
Thanks to all for their inputs , I find it all immensely interesting.
[e-mail]

Subject: RE: sick of DADGAD
From: Guy Wolff
Date: 02 Jan 05 - 11:05 AM

Lucky I didnt read this way back when I was recording Banish Misfortune on the green cd in DADGAD . It might have scared me off .. I am so out of the loop that I had no idea lots of people play Bannish Missfortune in DADGAD..!! I got to get out more. !!! ( thank my stars the CD is selling anyway)
                     I love this tuning . ( Funny I an 54.... humm ) Lots of self realazation here ... Maybe I need to go to DADGAD councleing . Dose anyone know where there might be a DADGAD anonomus meeting ... It is just Sawmill tuning moved over one string but everyone might be board of that tuning too . God what am I to do !! . I know I can learn Paul Mcartney's Blackbird in DGDGBD and really wow the crowd ( something eles I play on the couch at home and love ) . Happy New Year at any rate.. All the best , Guy

Subject: RE: sick of DADGAD
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 02 Jan 05 - 08:20 AM

Here are two tunings that are well worth trying - one is DGDGDD, which InOBU in New York told me he came up with when his hand was knocked up, and he's fallen in love with it.

I was a bit nervous tuning the B string up to D, but it didn't seem to mind. And then I tried keeping that but tuning the other strings from G to A, so that it's now DADADD, and that's a great one too.

They both make it feel like playing a cross between a dulcimer and a bouzouki. Well worth trying.

The idea of having having different strings tuned in unison hadn't occurred to me till Larry suggested it, and I've never seen it in any of those alternative tunings books. (Though that's done with the balalaika, which is normally EEA.)

Subject: RE: sick of DADGAD
From: PennyBlack
Date: 02 Jan 05 - 07:50 AM

The guitar originally had four courses of strings, three double, the top course single, that ran from a violin-like pegbox to a tension bridge glued to the soundboard, or belly; the bridge thus sustained the direct pull of the strings. In the belly was a circular sound hole, often ornamented with a carved wooden rose. The 16th-century guitar was tuned c–f–a–d¢, the tuning of the centre four courses of the lute and of the vihuela.

From the 16th to the 19th century several changes occurred in the instrument. A fifth course of strings was added before 1600; by the late 18th century a sixth course was added. Before 1800 the double courses were replaced by single strings tuned E–A–d–g–b–e¢, still the standard tuning.

PB

Subject: RE: sick of DADGAD
From: Kaleea
Date: 02 Jan 05 - 01:16 AM

Chordstrangler--yep, I've seen it in some catalog or other. Can't honestly remember which one.

Subject: RE: sick of DADGAD
From: EagleWing
Date: 01 Jan 05 - 05:15 PM

McGrath of Harlow said "I might start a thread on that, asking for other Irish songs that aren't."

Dirty Old Town
Shoals of Herrin
(and quite a few other McColl songs) seem to end up on "Best of Irish" type CDs

Frank L

Subject: RE: sick of DADGAD
From: Mooh
Date: 01 Jan 05 - 11:40 AM

chordstrangler...This conversation is five years old so maybe it doesn't have all Mudknowledge in it. Do a search and you'll find lots of Third Hand references. Happy New Year!

Peace, Mooh.

Subject: RE: sick of DADGAD
From: chordstrangler
Date: 31 Dec 04 - 02:27 PM

Have any of you tried a thing called the Third Hand Capo.   My brother bought it back from the States for me over 15-years ago. Basically it is a capo with an individual cam for each string so that you can release any string of your choice but when you play a barre chord the tuning reverts to standard.
I have used it in writing many songs. It gives a perfect mix of open and standard effects....I wonder if it is still being manufactured and why nobody has mentioned it.   By the way, it also works on banjos, mandolines et al.....M

Subject: RE: sick of DADGAD
From:
Date: 31 Dec 04 - 09:01 AM

try DADDAD.

Subject: RE: BS: sick of DADGAD
From: Mbo
Date: 30 Dec 99 - 01:35 PM

WOW, Mick, you know Morgan Llywelyn? I read her books "Red Branch" and "Lion of Ireland." Great books! After I read them, it inspired me to seek out the old tales. Nothin' like 'em!

--Mbo

Subject: RE: BS: sick of DADGAD
From: Big Mick
Date: 29 Dec 99 - 11:38 PM

Morgan Llywelyn, an author friend of mine, and I were discussing Druids once. I remember her being pissed off over "new-agers" re-creating Druids and Celtic music as what they wanted it to be instead of what they are or were. I agree with her completely. When one speaks of Celtic music as if if were a style, instead of a family of styles, I know that they don't really understand it at all.

I have been raised with the music of my people all my life. I come from a working class family and if Granda were alive to hear the music that he taught me to sing referred to as "elitist", he would likely fall down laughing. He and his aul cronies would sit around playing the stuff in the kitchen or on the porch. Many times I would be summoned from play with "Mickey, lad, have you a wee song, or a bit o' the heel and toe for the lads here". They were good times. The music of the Irish and the Scots, much of it, is about life, death, drink, love, hate, rebellion, peace.......in short it is the music of a peoples dreams.....good dreams and nightmares. Sure there are musicians that have limited talent and haven't bothered to really study Ceol na Gael, and they are making some pretty lousy stuff. But their are many more who have been inspired by the old music and are making some brilliant new stuff. The bottom line is that the music will withstand these times as it always has.

With regard to DADGAD, it is no different than any other technique, or style, or tuning. It has its uses and when properly applied is wonderful.

Big Mick

Subject: RE: BS: sick of DADGAD
From: _gargoyle
Date: 29 Dec 99 - 10:51 PM

No doubt "FlashDance" ond "DanceFlasch" ond "Lord of the Flesch" ond "All-Its-Permutations",,,,,,,, haved played themselveas out in the States....

Time to move on to India, Pakistan, Burmda.

Subject: RE: BS: sick of DADGAD
From: emily rain
Date: 29 Dec 99 - 08:24 PM

McGrath: you're my new hero.

Subject: RE: BS: sick of DADGAD
From: Tim Salt
Date: 29 Dec 99 - 06:39 PM

I think DADGAD is a great tuning when used to accompany certain songs and ballads but like anything can become boring, repetitive and overused if the player doesnt think about whatever it is s/he is trying to convey to the listener.

As for tunes there is an excellent book written by Sarah McQuaid "The Irish DADGAD Guitar Book" ISBN 0 946005 93 1 and published by Ossian Publications Co Ltd, PO Box 84, Cork, Ireland. A tape is also available to go with it.

Even if you don't intend to play celtic music, and I don't, it's a good introduction to chord structures etc.

Subject: RE: BS: sick of DADGAD
From: Little Neophyte
Date: 29 Dec 99 - 05:46 PM

A profound posting McGrath. That one goes in my note book of wise words.

Catspaw, now I know it has taken me over a month to finally read this thread, but what on earth were you talking about with the glasses bothering you?


BB

Subject: RE: BS: sick of DADGAD
From: Mbo
Date: 29 Dec 99 - 04:46 PM

Hey guys, I didn't mean THAT different! For example "The Chinese Polka," "Christmas Eve," "The Drunken Piper," "The Carraroe Jig," "Kirrie Kibbuck," are the kinds of tunes that I was talking about--things that are a bit different, but by no means out of the genre. Maybe "distictive" is a better word. There are examples of this in Classical music as well. Some music really gets you going, while other pieces seem, no so much as "all sound the same," but rather indistinct. And it all works on a personal level. Some things I find "indistinct" sound exciting to others. Just like those tunes I arrange--I use chords that I think sound good--I'm not intentionally trying to be different, or set myself apart, but with my accumulated musical knowledge, taste, and ear come up with something that may sound like I'm trying to distance myself from others. It's really just me. Some people say they can't listen to other's music, because they might be influenced by it in their own works. I say give it all to me, and then my personal expression will be born of the collective music memory. Then again, I play some stuff exactly as I've heard other do it, and as time goes by, I remember less of the original, unconsciously add more of me in. That's originality.

--Mbo

Subject: RE: BS: sick of DADGAD
From: Duncan
Date: 29 Dec 99 - 04:42 PM

Easy rider, I have been playing Open D for about 18 Months Standard Tuning for 30 Years, I use two guitars ( Not at the same time I'm not that versatile.)

I am interested in TAb for Open D and am interested in swapping TABs of various Tunes if you are interested, I am thinking of putting together a book of tunes in Open D tuning

My email address is [e-mail] hope to hear from you.

Subject: RE: BS: sick of DADGAD
From: JedMarum
Date: 29 Dec 99 - 04:08 PM

well spoken Mc Grath. I agree with you!

Subject: RE: BS: sick of DADGAD
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 29 Dec 99 - 04:06 PM

I was listening to some fella on the wireless talking about Irish music.

And he said something like this:

When I first heard Irish muisc in sessions I used to say "All that stuff sounds like the same tune."

And after a bit I started to listen to it properly, and I'd say "No, it's all different tunes."

But in the end I was playing it all the time, and I decided "Yes, this stuff really is all the same tune - and it's a tune I like."

William Blake said "The fool who would persist in his folly will become wise."

I think people place far too high a value on being original and different. If you set out to be original you're on a wild goose chase. Originality creeps up on you from behind, while you're trying to do something the way it's supposed to be done, for it's own sake.

Subject: RE: BS: sick of DADGAD
From: Mbo
Date: 29 Dec 99 - 03:15 PM

Check me out! I never use alternate tunings--just plain ol' C--and I don't use capos either. But somehow I can still be original. Personally, I like to do somewhat strange chords when playing Celtic (Irish & Scottish in this instance). Infact, it may sound strange or even unharmonic to some, but if you listen to them enough, they seem perfect. I'll have to put one them on the MIDI Page for an example. As for Celtic music, I like Irish, Scottish and Breton music, and I enjoy multitudes of playing styles, from The Clancy Brothers to the Chieftains to Shooglenifty to Martyn Bennett. Though I am on a bit of an Irish kick lately, I still play other the other stuff too. And I also like Windham Hill, especially George Winston! As for the remark about "it all sounding the same" at times, I must agree. Sometimes Altan of Dervish or The Cast playing some tune set can be really boring to me. I guess their fun for dancing and such, but personally, I hand pick the tunes I play--I look for something that is a bit different, memorable, or at least can potential in one of my own arrangements. BTW Dan Ar Braz & Soig Siberil RULE!

--Mbo

Subject: RE: BS: sick of DADGAD
From: Seamus Kennedy
Date: 29 Dec 99 - 02:44 PM

People tend to get sick of something when it's overdone. The novelty of Davey Graham, Bert Jansch, John Renbourne, Pierre Bensusan was wonderful, intersting and stimulating. But once everybody starts doing it, it loses its appeal. Don Meixner, I agree about the bouzouki in Irish/Celtic/ Gaelic music too. Johnny Moynihan, Donal Lunny and Andy Irvine started a great sounding new trend, but it's been beaten to death. As for the elitists who look down their noses at the Wild Rover, the Unicorn (Shel Silverstein never wrote a bad song!), the Black velvet Band et al., they are all fine songs that can stand up with any. They have great audience recognition/appeal. But they have been done to a turn.

Subject: RE: BS: sick of DADGAD
From: T in Oklahoma (Okiemockbird)
Date: 29 Dec 99 - 02:21 PM

Easy Rider, the question of so-called "Celtic" harps was discussed in this thread.

I think the word "Celtic" is itself so vague that it can often be misleading.

T.

Subject: RE: BS: sick of DADGAD
From:
Date: 24 Nov 99 - 01:08 AM

Easy Rider: There was a fairly extensive thread on harps started by Helen. Try clicking here. With any luck it will take you to the thread. I think Helen once gave URL for a good harp site; but I am not sure it is in that thread.

Murray

Subject: RE: BS: sick of DADGAD
From: Rick Fielding
Date: 23 Nov 99 - 12:47 PM

Yup Bill, he did (sort of). The same way Earl Scruggs "invented" bluegrass banjo picking, and Bill Keith "invented" melodic style. These people were the first to "record" these styles, so that enough folks heard them and passed them on. Davey said that he wanted to play along with Morroccan musicians and the DADGAD tuning allowed him to.
Rick

Subject: RE: BS: sick of DADGAD
From:
Date: 23 Nov 99 - 10:26 AM

Bill C, You're lucky, I usually have to play in the spare bedroom with the door closed. John

Subject: RE: BS: sick of DADGAD
From: Bill C
Date: 23 Nov 99 - 09:46 AM

If it's played on the guitar, its guitar music. You can't usually do a literal translation from one instrument to another when they have such different fingerings, stringings, techniques and outputs.

But you're right in that a lot of the harp repertoire is adaptable to guitar with pretty minimal changes. Guitar is the greatest instrument for imitating other instruments, IMHO.

It takes a hell of a good guitarist to play in the same tuning and repertoire all the time and not bore people. (See Bensusan, Pierre.) I could listen to JP Cormier just playing guitar all day. Us lesser fretbuzzers have to resort to switching instruments, trying different styles, alternating between songs and tunes, and learning things originating from different continents. (Or do like me, and just play in the living room, anything I like.)

Bill