Alternate Guitar Tuning yay or nay

Subject: Alternate Guitar Tuning yay or nay
From: Jayto
Date: 12 Aug 08 - 02:51 PM

I was wondering how many guitar players on here like and use alternate tuning on a regular basis? If you do use them what tuning do you prefer and why. I prefer standard E B G D A E when I do alter my tuning I usually drop my big E to D. Other than that I use rarely open G and DADGAD. I prefer and use on a normal basis standard and E B G D A D.

Subject: RE: Alternate Guitar Tuning yay or nay
From: Phil Cooper
Date: 12 Aug 08 - 03:16 PM

I use DADGAD and CGCGCD a lot more than standard. Mostly because I'm too lazy to keep re-tuning. I would be the first to tell a beginning guitarist that alternate tunings give you some limitations. I like figuring out ways around the limitations, but that gets back to the laziness issue. I would hesitate to say one way of playing guitar is better than another way.

Subject: RE: Alternate Guitar Tuning yay or nay
From: Jayto
Date: 12 Aug 08 - 03:18 PM

Yeah I don't think any way is really better. I agree about the limitations too. I play standard and most people think I play alternate the way I use open strings alot. It's just learning to use what you have available to it's max potential.

Subject: RE: Alternate Guitar Tuning yay or nay
From: M.Ted
Date: 12 Aug 08 - 03:19 PM

I like alternate tunings, in principle, anyway, but find that I seldom use them any more--One that I am fond of involves dropping the E to D and the A to G--it lets you play out of a four finger G chord and slide it up and down the neck, combine it with the open D and Dminor fingerings, and you can play a quick and dirty kind of chord melody. You can also play open position G or D scales with a great rolling bass underneath.

Subject: RE: Alternate Guitar Tuning yay or nay
From: Jayto
Date: 12 Aug 08 - 03:25 PM

Yeah I like to do that. I don't really like tuning my little E down I guess because I am not use to it so I feel limited because I have to think about my finger positions more. The only song I play like that is Black Mountain Rag. Anymore though I just play it in standard as well. I will use my thumb to note the G note on the big E on the 3rd fret and basically fake on open tuning lol.

Subject: RE: Alternate Guitar Tuning yay or nay
From: Leadfingers
Date: 12 Aug 08 - 03:39 PM

I play Banjo and Banjola in Open G , Mandolin and Tenor Banjo in E A D G and Guitar in standard tuning ! If I try to play guitar in Open G I fall off all over the place - Though I think that is just Laziness !

Subject: RE: Alternate Guitar Tuning yay or nay
From: lefthanded guitar
Date: 12 Aug 08 - 03:45 PM

Thanks for this timely thread. I have a spare guitar that I'd like to use in open tuning. Perhaps this thread will reveal which is the most ubiquitous tuning {and hopefully, it'll be the one that Dylan's Buckets of Rain is in; see other thread...hint hint ;-) }

Also would like to learn Tom Rush's beautiful Rockport Sunday, which SOUNDS like an open tuning to me.

I DO play Rocky Road with a dropped bass D

Subject: RE: Alternate Guitar Tuning yay or nay
From: Bobert
Date: 12 Aug 08 - 03:46 PM

Fir me the alternatine geetar tuning is EBGDAE... I played it for 25 years and ain't got much use for it these days...

I use so many tunings tghese days that I can't keep up with 'um but here's a cool one that I'm sure ya'll gonna like EBEBBE... Have at it!!!

B~

Subject: RE: Alternate Guitar Tuning yay or nay
From: The Sandman
Date: 12 Aug 08 - 04:02 PM

dadgbd,drop d,and also standard.

Subject: RE: Alternate Guitar Tuning yay or nay
From: Mooh
Date: 12 Aug 08 - 04:04 PM

Yes. Open G, dadgad, sometimes Em, Dm, or D. These would be dropped a tone or two on the baritone.

Peace, Mooh.

Subject: RE: Alternate Guitar Tuning yay or nay
From: Jayto
Date: 12 Aug 08 - 04:19 PM

Oh I forgot I do use G minor some. I wrote a few songs with this tuning. I love this one but it is such a pain to be re-tuning and re-tuning over and over in a live setting. It wastes so much time. I don't like having the stage cluttered with a ton of guitars either. I use G minor on the banjo alot. I use EE-AA-DD-GG on my bozouki and mandolin and open G on my dobro or for slide guitar sometime G minor.

Subject: RE: Alternate Guitar Tuning yay or nay
From: Don Firth
Date: 12 Aug 08 - 04:48 PM

Each to his own poison, of course.

But I stick almost exclusively to standard EADGBE, with occasional dropped-D. Personally, I find plenty of scope in standard tuning, and I really hate constantly retuning my guitar.

Also, a good guitar is built for particular stress levels, and changing these stresses by cranking the strings up and down simply isn't good for the soundboard.

Not just my idea. I was told that by a luthier.

Don Firth

Subject: RE: Alternate Guitar Tuning yay or nay
From: PoppaGator
Date: 12 Aug 08 - 05:09 PM

I've tried to get into alternative/open tunings, if only in order to play a little slide, but I hate retuning, and also don't know many of the ins-and-outs of any other tuning besides standard, which I've been using for almost 45 years, and become pretty familiar with.

I've learned a few songs in Open-D (Vastapol), and occasionally retune to play them, but most of the time I can't be bothered.

I don't even like to retune the one string for Drop-D, even though it gives a nice bass note for playing in D. Not long ago, I began to capo the top five strings at the second fret to play D-shape chords but actually in the key of E. I like this arragnement much better than retuning the bass string down two half-steps, because you can use "normal" (standard) chord shapes when fretting that bottom string. Of course, you lose the ability to play the bottom string open as part of E-shape chords, but that's a fair trade-off for gaining that bass string for D-shapes ~ and you can play standard shapes in many more situations than when you tune down to Open D.

I have a Shubb capo and just put it on the neck upside-down and clamp it off-center, leaving the one string open. A more elegant solution is to cut a quarter-inch or so of rubber off a capo so as to be able to put in on the guitar neck in normal position while leaving the one bottom string open. I'll do that one of these days, whenever I see fit to buy a second capo.

I realize this is a minority opinion. I would guess that twice as many Mudcatters use alternate tunings than stick strictly to standard. In fact, there are many who use alternate tunings more than they do standard, some even to the complete exclusion of standard. Blues players use Vastapol (down to open D or up to open E) and Spanish (down to G or up to A) for slide playing, and Celic/Irish/"Celtoid" players really like that DADGAD.

Subject: RE: Alternate Guitar Tuning yay or nay
From: Will Fly
Date: 12 Aug 08 - 05:15 PM

There's a capo whose name escapes me (but I have one in my music room) which consists of 6 rubber wheels on a rod. Depending on which wheels are "up" and which are "down", the capo can nearly simulate some open tunings. To be honest, I play a fair range of music, from folk to blues, jazz, etc., that it's actually easier in the long run just to use standard tuning all the time. Having said that, I do enjoy playing "She Moved thro' The Fair" in DADGAD, and "Down In The Valley To Pray" in DADF#AD tuning.

Subject: RE: Alternate Guitar Tuning yay or nay
From: PoppaGator
Date: 12 Aug 08 - 05:33 PM

Is that the "Third Hand" brand capo?

I first learned about the partial capo trick from a Mudcat thread, years ago. The difference between capoing selected strings and actually retuning is that any string that you fret (rather than play open) is exactly the same as standard tuning, so you can use most of the familiar chords, including all the barre chords and pretty much everything up the neck.

I've seen players use two capos at once, one across all six strings, and a partial capo further up the neck.

DADF#AD is Open D "Vastapol" which is functionally identical to Open E Vastapol (i.e., same fingerings and chord shapes); you tune up to the one and down to the other. Electric blues players tend to use the Open E version because their light-guage strings and heavy-duty instruments can easily handle the extra tension, and their bandmates can play in E, generally a preferable blues key compared to D. Acoustic players more commonly tune down to Open D to avoid putting too much tension on the neck; plus which, if they're playing solo, key of D is just as good as E ~ maybe better, depending upon vocal range.

Subject: RE: Alternate Guitar Tuning yay or nay
From: Jayto
Date: 12 Aug 08 - 05:50 PM

Where does the name "Vastapol" come from?

Subject: RE: Alternate Guitar Tuning yay or nay
From: 12-stringer
Date: 12 Aug 08 - 07:00 PM

From a 19th century parlor guitar instrumental called "Siege of Sebastopol," which is played in open D. Open G is frequently called "Spanish" because it was used for a 19th century parlor guitar piece called "Spanish Fandango." The names of the tunes came to be applied to the tunings themselves.

Subject: RE: Alternate Guitar Tuning yay or nay
From: Zen
Date: 12 Aug 08 - 07:26 PM

Mostly standard EADGBE these days. Sometimes dropped D, DADGAD, DADFsharpAD and EADEAE.

Zen

Subject: RE: Alternate Guitar Tuning yay or nay
From: Acorn4
Date: 12 Aug 08 - 07:37 PM

I like open tunings but seem to get through more strings if using them a lot and always have that anxious feeling when re-tuning up.

Subject: RE: Alternate Guitar Tuning yay or nay
From: Bobert
Date: 12 Aug 08 - 07:50 PM

Ummmm, seems a couple folks write their tunings from bass to high... Maybe I've got it wrong but I've always ben taught that the top of the fret, the 1st string, was the high E and therefore listed first in writing tunings... So that makes standard tuning EBGDAE???

Guess I'm wrong??? No wonder a lot of folks tunings sound crappy and/or break strings gettin' into them... And no wonder I make up my own tunin's...

Lexdexia??? Anyone else think like me???

B~

Subject: RE: Alternate Guitar Tuning yay or nay
From: Murray MacLeod
Date: 12 Aug 08 - 08:03 PM

Bobert, the best way to figure out the "correct" way to write the tuning is first to input EBGDAE into Google, then input EADGBE and compare the number of hits you get for each.

Subject: RE: Alternate Guitar Tuning yay or nay
From: Jayto
Date: 12 Aug 08 - 08:14 PM

I write E B G D A E because that is how they are numbered. 1.E 2.B 3. G and so on.

Subject: RE: Alternate Guitar Tuning yay or nay
From: Don Firth
Date: 12 Aug 08 - 08:23 PM

Yeah, I've always seen it EADGBE (eleventy-fourteen different guitar technique books covering all styles of music), reading from left to right while looking at the fingerboard face-to-face.

Don Firth

Subject: RE: Alternate Guitar Tuning yay or nay
From: Bobert
Date: 12 Aug 08 - 08:49 PM

I ain't never read a geetar book, Dom, so I'll have to take yer word for it... I've found all the basic open tunings by myself and write 'um down backwards... Nop wonder noone has come back and said the the EBEBBE is a purdy cool tuning...

Try it as EBBEBE and see how ya' all like it... Yeah, okay, its heavy on tonic... I call it my Wild Root tuning... lol...

B~

Subject: RE: Alternate Guitar Tuning yay or nay
From: Don Firth
Date: 12 Aug 08 - 08:52 PM

Also kinda heavy on the fifth. . . .

I'll drink to that!

Don Firth

Subject: RE: Alternate Guitar Tuning yay or nay
From: Uncle Phil
Date: 12 Aug 08 - 09:16 PM

EADGBE, start with the bass E string cause that's the one closest to you if you look at the strings while you're playing. Same reason that the bass E is the first line in chord diagrams.

I'm almost always standard tuning, but occasionally drop an E string to D -- either one or both.
- Phil

Subject: RE: Alternate Guitar Tuning yay or nay
From: Midchuck
Date: 12 Aug 08 - 09:20 PM

When my children were children, and I was doing stuff in DADGAD a lot of the time, they told me I should tune to BADDAD. I refused.

P.

Subject: RE: Alternate Guitar Tuning yay or nay
From: Amos
Date: 12 Aug 08 - 10:06 PM

I love fooling around in DADF#AE. But it is a pain to retunew, so I really should get a second Martin dreadnought just for alternate tunings.


A

In my dreams....

Subject: RE: Alternate Guitar Tuning yay or nay
From: Phil Cooper
Date: 12 Aug 08 - 10:45 PM

One of the reasons I went to DADGAD from open D was that I was breaking G strings tuning back up from the F#. Also trying the A alternate (EADEAE) you broke a lot of G string's tuning back up from the E. I must admit that at a lot of the concerts Margaret and I do, I bring two or three guitars so I don't have to spend much time re-tuning.

Subject: RE: Alternate Guitar Tuning yay or nay
From: GUEST,Wyn Wachhorst
Date: 13 Aug 08 - 12:48 AM

Don Firth please contact me at:
[e-mail]
concerning your earlier post about Rolf Cahn and Jo Mapes. I too took guitar lessons from Rolf and had the Bay Concerts 101 LP that he made with Jo mapes but lost it. Will pay well for a copy.

Wyn Wachhorst

Subject: RE: Alternate Guitar Tuning yay or nay
From: GUEST,Wyn Wachhorst
Date: 13 Aug 08 - 12:51 AM

Don Firth please contact me at [e-mail] regarding Rolf Cahn & Jo Mapes' Bay Concerts LP 101. Will pay for a copy.

Wyn Wachhorst

Subject: RE: Alternate Guitar Tuning yay or nay
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 13 Aug 08 - 03:14 AM

I thnk the UK standard would be written EADGBE not the other way round.

THere are several trick capos. Both Kyser and Shubb do a capo to fit 5 strings, so fit it on the second fret and you have drop D one tone up (when the strings are open). I use a banjo capo for that.

The Shubb G7 frets the A Dand G so fit it on the second fret and you have DADGAD one tone up (when the strings are open).

THe American third hand does as described above but I find it a pain to get the little rubber wheels lined up.

There is an English equivalent to the third hand that I greatly prefer. It is called teh Scott Tuning Capo and it has oblong plastic cams that click into place "on"or "off". I modify mine by sticking little rubber pads on to the down ends of the cams to reduce the tendency that all capos have to pull strings out of tune.

It must be some years since I learned a new song that does not use one of the trick capos. Although I am working on "the Nutting Girl" and I will do that in standard.

Subject: RE: Alternate Guitar Tuning yay or nay
From: Bryn Pugh
Date: 13 Aug 08 - 04:20 AM

If any one is interested, I have a chord sequence for my version of open C - 6th to 1st - E G C G C E - which sequence is in addition to barre 5th and 7th fret.

The chords are F, G, Bb, Am and Faug.

PM me if you're interested.

I am confortable also in open D, and open G.

I have posted previously about DADGAD - I have, I promise you, revisited this, and am making an even bigger balls of things in this tuning than previously.

Subject: RE: Alternate Guitar Tuning yay or nay
From: Murray MacLeod
Date: 13 Aug 08 - 05:06 AM

Subject: RE: Alternate Guitar Tuning yay or nay
From: Amos - PM
Date: 12 Aug 08 - 10:06 PM

I love fooling around in DADF#AE.

you quite sure about that first E string, Amos ?

Subject: RE: Alternate Guitar Tuning yay or nay
From: Murray MacLeod
Date: 13 Aug 08 - 05:13 AM

Subject: RE: Alternate Guitar Tuning yay or nay
From: Bryn Pugh - PM
Date: 13 Aug 08 - 04:20 AM

If any one is interested, I have a chord sequence for my version of open C - 6th to 1st - E G C G C E

Bryn, I don't like the idea of having a major third way down in the bass like that. Better by far to put on a thicker sixth string and lower it all the way to C imo

Subject: RE: Alternate Guitar Tuning yay or nay
From: Bryn Pugh
Date: 13 Aug 08 - 06:41 AM

Yes, but that would f*ck my F, G and Bb chords up. When I play the tonic chord - the C chord, unfretted and unfingered I don't play the bass E (6th) string anyway.

I am not aware of any law which states that all six strings have to sound in any given chord : de gustibus nil disputandem ?

In this tuning - E G C G C E - if the 1st is tuned to F, it is possible to play a staccato accompaniment to "Searching for Lambs".

Subject: RE: Alternate Guitar Tuning yay or nay
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 13 Aug 08 - 06:51 AM

'Blues players use Vastapol (down to open D or up to open E) and Spanish (down to G or up to A) for slide playing, and Celic/Irish/"Celtoid" players really like that DADGAD.'

I think this was the conventional thinking, Poppogator. Its certainly the one I held to - until a few years ago when I was lucky enough to go a seminar held by Ken Nicol (of Steeleye Span).

Ken helped me look beyond these assumptions. open tunings are for us all. Dadgad for example is great for ragtime and blues and more pianistic type playing. D major, G modal - these are all there merely as ways we can change the horizon - what we do with them is our affair.

None of them belong to any clique - no ore than standard tuning is the sole preserve of te classical player.

Subject: RE: Alternate Guitar Tuning yay or nay
From: The Sandman
Date: 13 Aug 08 - 07:47 AM

dadgbd is also good for playing blues in a major.
how good is dadgad,when it comes to ragtime modulations,very often when one is in standard,and playing in c there is a modulation to e major.
now if you were in d major in dadgad,you would be modulating to f #major.
the advantage of double drop d,is that you can get all your modal chords[for d and g] but still have standard on your four inner strings.

Subject: RE: Alternate Guitar Tuning yay or nay
From: mattkeen
Date: 13 Aug 08 - 09:24 AM

I use a variation of the C modal tuning and that is
CGCDGC

I got to it have been experimenting with DADEAD (an old Martin Carthy one) and dropped it all a tone.

Was recently in a workshop with Phil Beer and he uses standard with occasional drop D, and was pretty persuasive about its benefits.
Phil does a good modal English style as well great slide and Lowell George type of things mixed with some quick Bluegrass type flat picking.

I can't turn back to standard tuning now - but I think that standard has many advantages especially IF you play accross a few different styles.

Subject: RE: Alternate Guitar Tuning yay or nay
From: Jayto
Date: 13 Aug 08 - 09:52 AM

Thanks for the info on vestapol 12 stringer. I play Spanish Fandango and I play it in lol you guessed it open G major. Thanks

Subject: RE: Alternate Guitar Tuning yay or nay
From: Murray MacLeod
Date: 13 Aug 08 - 10:37 AM

Subject: RE: Alternate Guitar Tuning yay or nay
From: Phil Cooper - PM
Date: 12 Aug 08 - 10:45 PM

One of the reasons I went to DADGAD from open D was that I was breaking G strings tuning back up from the F#. Also trying the A alternate (EADEAE) you broke a lot of G string's tuning back up from the E

If that was happening to me, I would have an expert set-up man look at the G string nut slot. I can't say I have ever had a G string break on me while tuning back up to concert pitch, but I keep the slots well lubricated with graphite to avoid just such an eventuality.

Subject: RE: Alternate Guitar Tuning yay or nay
From: PoppaGator
Date: 13 Aug 08 - 12:47 PM

Hi Al (WLD) ~ I know I was oversimplifying, or repeating conventional wisdom, when I mentioned the tunings most commonly associated with blues playing, on the one hand, and Celtic-style on the other. There are many different people with different creative styles using all sorts of tunings for all sorts of purposes, as we've been seeing all though this thread.

And of course, as someone so admitedly ignorant in this area, I should not be taken too-too seriously on this topic. (On the other hand, there's something relevant about the "conventional wisdom," or it would never have become so conventional in the first place.)

My very limited open-tuning repertoire, three songs in open D ("Vastapol"), actually illustates your point, since the songs are quite different from each other in overall sound and style:

Mississippi John Hurt's "Payday": Although MJH came from Mississippi and is generally (very generally) classified as a "blues artist," this is more of a country folksong or ballad than a true "blues," certainly not in the hard-edged Delta blues style.

Paul Brady's arrangement of "Lakes of Pontchartrain": From the Irish-traditional repertoire, with a guitar-chordal sound nothing like anything you can get in standard tuning, and equally unlike anything remotely related to The Blues.

Mississippi Fred McDowell's "Twelve Gates to the City": Although. strictly speaking, NOT the blues ("Devil's music") but rather a spiritual, the slide-guitar sound and technique is closely akin to real hard Delta blues. This is the only song I play using the bottleneck/slide, although I can noodle along indefinitely in a 12-bar or 8-bar blues chord pattern in this tuning, repeating the easy and obvious slide riffs ad infinitum.

I had the very good fortune to meet Fred McDowell many years ago, and to sit up all night getting loaded and swapping songs. He taught/showed me two songs, one each in Vastapol and Spanish tuning: "12 Gates" (see above) was the former, and I'm very sorry to report that I don't remember the other (Open-G) number. I'm pretty sure it either "Kokomo" or "Write Me a Few of Your Lines," which are pretty nearly identical. I gradually forgot because I know nothing else to play in that tuning, and therefore I have retuned to "G" much too infrequently over the years to keep in practice, or even to retain any "muscle memory" of what I had briefly (overnight) learned.

Subject: RE: Alternate Guitar Tuning yay or nay
From: Phil Cooper
Date: 13 Aug 08 - 03:22 PM

Murray, thanks for the note on the G string issue. I was playing a cheaper guitar then, so that could have a lot to do with it. I have better guitars these days, but pretty much figured out what works for me.

Subject: RE: Alternate Guitar Tuning yay or nay
From: Nick
Date: 13 Aug 08 - 03:26 PM

I use the following in frequency order:

EADGBE
DADGBE - for all sorts of things
CGCGCE - love Dougie Maclean
DADGAD - tunes mostly but a few songs
DADF#AD - Joni Mitchell songs for my wife
CGCGCEb - Dougie again
CGDGBE - Vincent Black Lightning
CGDGAD - Joni Mitchell and self penned tunes
DADAAE - Joni Mitchell again
DGDGBD - Blues
CGCGBbD - John Martyn
DADGBD - fiddling about at moment

Subject: RE: Alternate Guitar Tuning yay or nay
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 13 Aug 08 - 03:42 PM

Captain Birdesye

The guy to see is Ken Nicol. An incredibly fluid thinker when it comes to the guitar. He turned my ideas right round. In many ways he symbolises the best of the folk revival. He's just so damned clever!

If you want the E modulation in DADGAD broken down to baby talk (as I confess I needed) look no further than the late Artie Traum's instructional dvd's about DADGAD - they come in a set of three - and I found them all pretty cheaply on the net. the song he does it with is 'KC Moan' - its really easy and it sounds difficult!

Artie is smart enough to realise that if you have bought his DVD, you probably have your own style of picking. He just gives you direction. And that is so COOL!

If you need instruction on how to play every key in DADGAD - get down to Weymouth and Wessex folk festival - there is a guy there called Paul Openshaw. he has found a way - but its not for the faint hearted!

Poppogator

of course - you're right. if you try to learn about G tuning without knowing about Robert Johnson - you don't really know anything about G tuning. You should be aware that that moon is not made of green cheese. You should know the earth wind and fire elements of folk music.

I just think that there is a great cross fertilisation of ideas nowadays. Look how many people have been influenced by someone like Flaco Jimenez's work with Ry Cooder on the Chicken Skin Music album.

Paul Brady uss G tuning. but he uses the the 6th string tuned down to C. Both him and Carthy write their own rules. I'm not sure any of it will ever make sense to the rest of us. Paul plays with a plectrum and some of his work is like a rock guitarist - muting strings with the heel of his left hand and the his second finger on the right hand.

I envy you meeting Fred McDowell. I'm not sure (having said that) that i would have managed to connect with these guys. You think your own life has been tough and shitty, and your parents even worse - but then you realise these guys had it even worse than that!

Subject: RE: Alternate Guitar Tuning yay or nay
From: Mooh
Date: 13 Aug 08 - 03:45 PM

Also like CFCFCF, BbFBbFBbF, but need to reguage.

Peace, Mooh.

Subject: RE: Alternate Guitar Tuning yay or nay
From: PoppaGator
Date: 13 Aug 08 - 04:23 PM

Al,

Yeah, Fred and I both knew and felt we were from entirely different worlds, sharing lilttle more than a taste for gin, reefer, and guitar playing. In the short term, for one long night, that was enough.

I found myself in that enviable position, able to hang out with such a legend, because the student-government types who were producing a college blues festival knew me as a scholarship boy who grew up in mixed-race neighborhoods, better able to understand and communicate with artists who we all knew were essentially from another world.

It was difficult enough for me to make sense of Fred's utterances ~ those poor-little-rich-boy types would have been hopelessly out of touch and unable to communicate at all. I remember Fred commenting, "oh, you likes them spatchel songs"; at first I understood him to be saying "special," which I found a bit puzzling, but after a while (and after multiple repetitions), it became clear he was saying "spiritual." I was amazed at his insight; I was NOT playing/singing any explicitly spiritual material, but he could perceive that my vocal approach to the blues was largely based upon my having lived next-door to an African-American church for several very formative years. I didn't know that my singing betrayed that church background, and I doubt that any white person, or even many black folks of a younger age, would ever have perceived that. But Fred proceeded to teach me the spiritual "12 Gates" precisely because he sensed my Gospel-singing influence.

On another occasion, I was assigned to play host to the Chicago blues band JB Hutto and the Hawks. Despite years of lving in a northern city, JB had about the thickest country-Black accent I've ever heard ~ much more inpenetrable than Fred's. I really couldn't understand a thing he said; we had to make do with gestures and facial expressions.

Subject: RE: Alternate Guitar Tuning yay or nay
From: Peace
Date: 14 Aug 08 - 12:39 AM

When I wanted to get back to writing, I had to "relearn" how to play guitar. I recalled the way I used to play, but it was too difficult to do in reality. So I went to an open tuning because for those brief times one has to switch chords It was easier than standard tuning. One thing that does arise is that it has limitations--as does ANY tuning on guitar. In my youth I used five tunings depending on the song, its placement in a set, etc. As I improve, I will begin again with others. But for now, open's where it's at for me.

Subject: RE: Alternate Guitar Tuning yay or nay
From: Will Fly
Date: 14 Aug 08 - 03:27 AM

Damn this thread! After reading it, I just had to go home, get out the other guitar and put it into DADF#AD. Started work on Cow Cow Davenport's "Cow Cow Boogie". Have you people nothing better to do then to put temptation in the way of old men?

Subject: RE: Alternate Guitar Tuning yay or nay
From: Peace
Date: 14 Aug 08 - 03:30 AM

That;s the tuning I'm using. Fun, huh?

Subject: RE: Alternate Guitar Tuning yay or nay
From: Bryn Pugh
Date: 14 Aug 08 - 07:09 AM

Dear Nick,

Wow ! Half of the tunings you set forth in your post (13 Aug 03.26) simply wouldn't have entered my consciousness.

Thank you !

I'm going to have some fun with some of these, and I think now - (speaking only for self, you understand, and with apologies to WLD, which I explain below) I am going to cut my losses on

DADGAD.

WLD - you were kind enough, in a previous post when open tunings in general, and I think DADGAD in particular were being referred to, to encourage me to "hang on in there, Bryn - DADGAD is waiting

for you".

Thanks, WLD, for your encouragement, too, but I think, after 12 weeks of trying, in many senses of this word, I shall have to stick to the tried and tested E G C G C E ; DADF#AD, and DGDGBD.

For me, this discussion has been not only helpful, but inspiring as well - nice to discuss things, especially with the folk I mention here, not forgetting Peace and Mooh

[wild, those tunings, Mooh - good job I've just stocked up on strings - Martin Silk & Steel, if anyone's mithered :-)].

Love to you all.    Bryn

Subject: RE: Alternate Guitar Tuning yay or nay
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 14 Aug 08 - 09:02 AM

Bryn - if we could meet up sometime - I'd show you some of the stuff I've found - which ain't a great deal - I'm no bleeding Segovia.

But I promise you its quite fun, and painless - e-mail me your address and I'll send you some stuff. [e-mail]

Subject: RE: Alternate Guitar Tuning yay or nay
From: GUEST,Ian Pittaway
Date: 14 Aug 08 - 09:52 AM

I started a similar thread to this a while ago which may be of interest.

Subject: RE: Alternate Guitar Tuning yay or nay
From: Roger in Baltimore
Date: 14 Aug 08 - 10:13 AM

To get back to the original question, I use alternate tunings frequently. I learned DADGAD fairly early on thanks to Tom Rush's "Poor Man". He called it D Modal tuning and a banjo player helped explain what that meant. I use it some for "blues" as well as other songs. I use G and D tunings, mostly G. I use them for blues, but primarily for non-blues songs. In G tuning, I sometimes tune the bass E string down to G giving me a GGDGBD. Gives me a heaby bass when fingerpicking. 'Course you can't do that with light gauge strings 'cause you end up with spaghetti.

I find that alternate tunings provide some variety in performance, as they often don't "sound" like standard tuning.

Roger in Baltimore

Subject: RE: Alternate Guitar Tuning yay or nay
From: The Sandman
Date: 14 Aug 08 - 12:52 PM

Iam just investigating CGDGAD[Gordon Tyrells tuning].
but still believe[so far] the most flexible tuning after standard is dadgbd.because you can get alot of the modal sounding chords in g and d,but still have the middle four strings like standard.
depending on the chord progression,it is possible to some extent to play modal chords in the key of e, and a in standard tuning.

Subject: RE: Alternate Guitar Tuning yay or nay
From: bubblyrat
Date: 14 Aug 08 - 01:56 PM

I have been using double-dropped D (drop the top E as well )for some time now. I like to play a lot of tunes ,with a plectrum,and find the D configuration to be ideal for that ; G is pretty realistic too,although I capo the first few frets a lot and stick to the D shapes . This tuning allows some interesting chord possibilities and progressions when accompanying Irish music, for example,but it needs practice to avoid sounding some of the strings sometimes, otherwise it can sound awful !! But the advantages of some of those bassy ,meaty,two-fingered chords outweigh the drawbacks !! Of course, you need to increase the bottom D string guage, if you are going to use that tuning a lot-- at least .56 or .57. Luckily, my favourite Daddario phos/bronze are .13-.56, so that's what I've used constantly for about 2 years now. Give it a try !!

Subject: RE: Alternate Guitar Tuning yay or nay
From: The Sandman
Date: 15 Aug 08 - 10:56 AM

cgdgad,IMO seems to give more scope KEYWISE than dadgad,its easy to play in D major, C major ,G major.Perhaps Gordon can Enlighten us more.

Subject: RE: Alternate Guitar Tuning yay or nay
From: Murray MacLeod
Date: 15 Aug 08 - 07:24 PM

Open G is probably the least used of the open tunings, not sure why this is the case, Leo Kottke used it to great effect, and of course "Spanish Fandango" is a perennial favourite.

For the absolute ultimate in Open G virtuosity however, you need to watch Chris Proctor playing "Huckleberry Hornpipe". It's a long video, but if you pull the slider along to 10.30 you will go straight into 3 minutes of pure magic. Or of course it's well worth watching the video from the start.

I very seldom see a guitarist play something and think "I could never do that no matter how long I practised" but this is one of these times ...

Subject: RE: Alternate Guitar Tuning yay or nay
From: HarleySpirit
Date: 15 Aug 08 - 07:26 PM

Hi,
Most of my life, I've used Standard EADGBE tuning. To expand my horizons, I've experimented with several alternate tunings, settling on "Open G", DGDGBD. Why? It suits my finger picking style and the type of music I like to play. I've really gotten into it, and now use it exclusively for all my arrangements.

Harley

PS: Let me tempt you with my assortment of
Harley's Alternate Tunings Chord Charts - in Keys

Subject: RE: Alternate Guitar Tuning yay or nay
From: Guldhamstern
Date: 15 Aug 08 - 07:33 PM

I always use E B G D A E tuning. Well, sometimes I use D A F C G D, but the strings is relates to each other the same way.

I nearly can't touch a guitar that isn't tuned in some of the tuning above.

Subject: RE: Alternate Guitar Tuning yay or nay
From: The Sandman
Date: 15 Aug 08 - 07:52 PM

surely, it depends upon whether you want to use the guitar for song accompaniment or for playing instrumentals,and for what style of music.