The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #33851   Message #454268
Posted By: GUEST,Les B
02-May-01 - 06:56 PM
Thread Name: Help: Banjo Style/Tuning Question
Subject: RE: Help: Banjo Style/Tuning Question
CC - I messed with the double C tuning and a couple of the minor/modal tunings when starting to clawhammer (I 3-fingered first), but recently I've been trying to do the same tunes in the standard open G tuning - capoing up two and playing in C or G to arrive at D or A.

This saves lots of time in jams where people jump from key to key, and I get pretty bored with playing in D or A for an hour at a time, especially when someone needs to sing in C or G etc.

Somewhere, recently, I saw a comment that Pete Seeger, in retrospect, would have suggested the open G as the basic tuning, instead of the C tuning he pushed in his banjo primer.

The nice thing about open G, it's a chord, so even if you "over brush" you're still playing strings that harmonize, wheras double C is a bit dischordant sounding to my ear.