'moutain modal' banjo tuning/DADGAD

Subject: 'moutain modal' banjo tuning/DADGAD
From: GUEST,Tunesmith
Date: 22 Aug 05 - 08:08 AM

What follows is my explanation of the connection between "Mountain Modal" banjo tuning and Dadgad guitar tuning. Now, the 5 banjo is strung in an "perculiar" way with the "short" 5th string being the highest sounding. Now, let's start by rearranging the strings so that they ascend strictly in pitch order. The original order " gdgcd" now becomes "dgcdg" - from low to high. It is now only a small step to see the connection with "dadgad". The first way would be to move the rearranged "dgcdg" tuning down a 4th to put it into the range of a guitar: this produces "adgad". Another way to look at it, is to take a guitar tuned to "dadgad"   and place a capo at the 5th fret. This produces "gdgcdg" which is(apart from the "extra" 6th string note)the same notes as "mountain modal" banjo tuning. I hope this helps!

Subject: RE: 'moutain modal' banjo tuning/DADGAD
From: Dave Hanson
Date: 22 Aug 05 - 09:20 AM

What!!!!!! ?????

Subject: RE: 'moutain modal' banjo tuning/DADGAD
From: GUEST,Hootenanny
Date: 22 Aug 05 - 09:42 AM

What!!!!!!! indeed. DADGAD is just one of several open tunings for guitar, simple as that. Doubtful that Davey Graham was the first to use it, I believe open tunings have been around longer than he has.

Subject: RE: 'moutain modal' banjo tuning/DADGAD
From: Jeri
Date: 22 Aug 05 - 10:53 AM

Makes a lot of sense. You take a modal tunng, change the order of the notes to match the order of another modal tuning, and make the pitch higher or lower to match another modal tuning. Once you do all that, you've got equal modal tunings. Insightful, really.

I've found that I rather enjoy playing banjo in an odd open C min tuning - gGCEbG. (Capo on 5, but that's beside the point.)

This tuning is almost the same as open D major on guitar, except to make the guitar equal to the banjo, you'd have to tune down 2 steps and lop off the 1st and 6th strings, then tune the 3rd string down so you have a flatted third instead of the more rounded third you frequently find in major chords.

In any case, this is a great banjo tuning that happened because I was trying to learn a song on it. Currently, I do 0 songs with banjo accompaniment.