Re: dgdgbd Guitar tuning and its suitabilty for ITM
If it works for you then why not? You might find minor tunes harder to accompany if you are tuned to straight open-G. I believe Paul Brady used this tuning a lot for a while and then dropped the bass string down to a C giving cgdgbd, finding it easier then to play minor tunes.
Stand by for a dreadful Joni Mitchell (with wig glue) fest...
DGDGBD is classic 'G' tuning for slide or lap steel (as opposed to the perhaps more common EBEG#BE 'E major' tuning). The G tuning is slightly more suitable for country/ major scale stuff, leave the old hat E tuning to the dreaded BLooZ botherers!
The trouble with using tunings based on a chord is that playing inversions gets a bit 'fretty', fingering IV and V chords tend to be a straight barre at the 5 & 7 fret and ii, ii & vi chords are just troublesome on account of having to work out how to drop the 3rd of the chord down a semi to obtain a minor triad, All this tends towards a unresolved suspension fest and turns eveybody harmonically into Joni Mitchell. And as soon as there are sus 2nds, 4ths and 9ths around seemingly no-one can resist playing (rhythmically) in that dreadful 70's syncopated way where suddenly and typically Ellas McDaniel is the main influence.This happens everyday at a session somewhere because someone will be using the dreadful DADGAD or some variation which actually has unresolved suspensions built in!
I suggest you try EADGBE! The above limitations have been evolved out!
Re: dgdgbd Guitar tuning and its suitabilty for ITM
It seems good for flat picking melodies,especially as a lot of tunes are in G major, D major and related minor keys.
I found C major, D major, E minor, without using barre chords, and an inversion of A minor using top 4 strings only.
Bminor as a non Barre ,fourth fret 543 strings but the rest open. F#minor playing 5 strings was the only barre shape I was forced to use.
Re: dgdgbd Guitar tuning and its suitabilty for ITM
Yhaalhouse is right that it is open-G tuning (as I had already said). It is certainly not a hybrid. I would ignore everything else he said though. The man talks pish.
Re: dgdgbd Guitar tuning and its suitabilty for ITM
I'm so glad Mr Alarm has not had the wit to reply in a negative manner without a counter to the points one raised! A Happy Hot Water Bottle Year to you sir!
If only six string twanglers would stop thinking like El Kabong and learn how to busk and play real music like all other musicians then they wouldn't constanly feel they have to discuss tunings, strings, capos, searching the web for clues/ tabs/ chords, makes of instruments or sit in their bedrooms play the only piece they realy want to do : a twelve bar shuffle in A major!
Re: dgdgbd Guitar tuning and its suitabilty for ITM
Not sure how to reply...
"The trouble with using tunings based on a chord is that playing inversions gets a bit 'fretty', fingering IV and V chords tend to be a straight barre at the 5 & 7 fret and ii, ii & vi chords are just troublesome on account of having to work out how to drop the 3rd of the chord down a semi to obtain a minor triad, All this tends towards a unresolved suspension fest and turns eveybody harmonically into Joni Mitchell. And as soon as there are sus 2nds, 4ths and 9ths around seemingly no-one can resist playing (rhythmically) in that dreadful 70's syncopated way where suddenly and typically Ellas McDaniel is the main influence."
...is just rubbish. Sure you can barre chords in open tunings. Ritchie Havens plays in open D and barres with his thumb, for example (he has very big hands!). It is not however, as TCL has pointed out necessary to barre in open tunings. In fact I was, by chance, singing a song last night in open D and didn't barre once.
I would normally accompany in DADGAD and would play inversions all over the neck without the need to play a barre chord, although there is nothing wrong with using barre chords.
Perhaps if you wrote in coherent sentences and removed half of the venom people would find it easier to engage with the points you make. I am not holding my breath though.
Re: dgdgbd Guitar tuning and its suitabilty for ITM
Hello comrades.
Open G can be used to back ITM but it is rather limiting and you tend to fall into predictable patterns.
I find that it is better suited to accompanying songs such as The Month Of January, Slieve Gallion Braes, Blackwaterside or Fair & Tender Ladies.
Regards.
Sam.
Re: dgdgbd Guitar tuning and its suitabilty for ITM
mines a coke
Actually I just learned its actually spelt Barre I thought it was bar cause your finger formed a bar
didnt understand the rest of that therory stuff though
Re: dgdgbd Guitar tuning and its suitabilty for ITM
I always thought it was "bar", 'cause I mostly play those chords in taverns, pubs, and such places. Then I found out it was "barre" because those chords are popular with ballet dancers.
Re: dgdgbd Guitar tuning and its suitabilty for ITM
OK, you got your Memphis tuning: ABCDEG (But you torque down to F#, then you’ve got Tuscaloosa tuning, OK?--boom, just like that.)
And Tuscaloosa gonna change your life, man--that’s all there is to say. Gonna stoke six hell fires in your belly, drop a mule's bray down your 40 acres, send mojo powder blowing from that cabin chimney by the women’s washing river. A weak man best not twist no six pegs down into no Tuscaloosa.
Still, having said all that, however, I will say that dropped D tuning has its merits as well.
Re: dgdgbd Guitar tuning and its suitabilty for ITM
I think yhaalhouse makes a valid point.
It's shouldn't be a case of "I think I'll try this different tuning - then things might be easier to play". It should be a case of "I'll use this tuning because in it I can get the sounds I want".
I use various tunings and really like open G but I can only play by ear competently in standard and so that is what I use every time for accompanying or flatpicking tunes.
If you want to use open G then you need to spend a lot of time getting thoroughly acquainted it. To the point where listeners don't know immediately that your not playing in standard. Like DADGAD, open G can have very characteristic sounds (like the second inversion C chord). They can sound very pleasing but become a bit of a bore if that's all you can do.
Re: dgdgbd Guitar tuning and its suitabilty for ITM
I already use other tunings, including standard, drop d and Double drop d.
I like the sound of open G, because I find it flexible, I can play Melodies easily because I already play 5 string banjo.
dgdgbd Guitar tuning and its suitabilty for ITM
dgdgbd Guitar tuning and its suitabilty for ITM
Any Opinions.
# Posted on December 28th 2010 by Joseph Tailyour
Re: dgdgbd Guitar tuning and its suitabilty for ITM
If it works for you then why not? You might find minor tunes harder to accompany if you are tuned to straight open-G. I believe Paul Brady used this tuning a lot for a while and then dropped the bass string down to a C giving cgdgbd, finding it easier then to play minor tunes.
# Posted on December 28th 2010 by No Cause For Alarm
Re: dgdgbd Guitar tuning and its suitabilty for ITM
Looks like a bit of a hybrid to me. Why would you use it?
# Posted on December 28th 2010 by gam
Stand by for a dreadful Joni Mitchell (with wig glue) fest...
DGDGBD is classic 'G' tuning for slide or lap steel (as opposed to the perhaps more common EBEG#BE 'E major' tuning). The G tuning is slightly more suitable for country/ major scale stuff, leave the old hat E tuning to the dreaded BLooZ botherers!
The trouble with using tunings based on a chord is that playing inversions gets a bit 'fretty', fingering IV and V chords tend to be a straight barre at the 5 & 7 fret and ii, ii & vi chords are just troublesome on account of having to work out how to drop the 3rd of the chord down a semi to obtain a minor triad, All this tends towards a unresolved suspension fest and turns eveybody harmonically into Joni Mitchell. And as soon as there are sus 2nds, 4ths and 9ths around seemingly no-one can resist playing (rhythmically) in that dreadful 70's syncopated way where suddenly and typically Ellas McDaniel is the main influence.This happens everyday at a session somewhere because someone will be using the dreadful DADGAD or some variation which actually has unresolved suspensions built in!
I suggest you try EADGBE! The above limitations have been evolved out!
# Posted on December 28th 2010 by yhaalhouse
Re: dgdgbd Guitar tuning and its suitabilty for ITM
It seems good for flat picking melodies,especially as a lot of tunes are in G major, D major and related minor keys.
I found C major, D major, E minor, without using barre chords, and an inversion of A minor using top 4 strings only.
Bminor as a non Barre ,fourth fret 543 strings but the rest open. F#minor playing 5 strings was the only barre shape I was forced to use.
# Posted on December 28th 2010 by Joseph Tailyour
Re: dgdgbd Guitar tuning and its suitabilty for ITM
Yhaalhouse is right that it is open-G tuning (as I had already said). It is certainly not a hybrid. I would ignore everything else he said though. The man talks pish.
# Posted on December 28th 2010 by No Cause For Alarm
Re: dgdgbd Guitar tuning and its suitabilty for ITM
I'm so glad Mr Alarm has not had the wit to reply in a negative manner without a counter to the points one raised! A Happy Hot Water Bottle Year to you sir!
If only six string twanglers would stop thinking like El Kabong and learn how to busk and play real music like all other musicians then they wouldn't constanly feel they have to discuss tunings, strings, capos, searching the web for clues/ tabs/ chords, makes of instruments or sit in their bedrooms play the only piece they realy want to do : a twelve bar shuffle in A major!
One thanks you all!
# Posted on December 28th 2010 by yhaalhouse
Re: dgdgbd Guitar tuning and its suitabilty for ITM
Not sure how to reply...
"The trouble with using tunings based on a chord is that playing inversions gets a bit 'fretty', fingering IV and V chords tend to be a straight barre at the 5 & 7 fret and ii, ii & vi chords are just troublesome on account of having to work out how to drop the 3rd of the chord down a semi to obtain a minor triad, All this tends towards a unresolved suspension fest and turns eveybody harmonically into Joni Mitchell. And as soon as there are sus 2nds, 4ths and 9ths around seemingly no-one can resist playing (rhythmically) in that dreadful 70's syncopated way where suddenly and typically Ellas McDaniel is the main influence."
...is just rubbish. Sure you can barre chords in open tunings. Ritchie Havens plays in open D and barres with his thumb, for example (he has very big hands!). It is not however, as TCL has pointed out necessary to barre in open tunings. In fact I was, by chance, singing a song last night in open D and didn't barre once.
I would normally accompany in DADGAD and would play inversions all over the neck without the need to play a barre chord, although there is nothing wrong with using barre chords.
Perhaps if you wrote in coherent sentences and removed half of the venom people would find it easier to engage with the points you make. I am not holding my breath though.
# Posted on December 28th 2010 by No Cause For Alarm
Re: dgdgbd Guitar tuning and its suitabilty for ITM
Hello comrades.
Open G can be used to back ITM but it is rather limiting and you tend to fall into predictable patterns.
I find that it is better suited to accompanying songs such as The Month Of January, Slieve Gallion Braes, Blackwaterside or Fair & Tender Ladies.
Regards.
Sam.
# Posted on December 28th 2010 by sam bracken
Re: dgdgbd Guitar tuning and its suitabilty for ITM
Popcorn?
# Posted on December 28th 2010 by DrSilverSpear
Re: dgdgbd Guitar tuning and its suitabilty for ITM
mines a coke
Actually I just learned its actually spelt Barre I thought it was bar cause your finger formed a bar
didnt understand the rest of that therory stuff though
# Posted on December 28th 2010 by bazouki dave
Re: dgdgbd Guitar tuning and its suitabilty for ITM
I always thought it was "bar", 'cause I mostly play those chords in taverns, pubs, and such places. Then I found out it was "barre" because those chords are popular with ballet dancers.
# Posted on December 28th 2010 by Jon Kiparsky
Re: dgdgbd Guitar tuning and its suitabilty for ITM
it goes like:
1. 'proper' tuning
2. dadgad and open tunings and all the joni ritchie havens cobblers
3. guitar hero (just 3 buttons to worry about)
perhaps they could do an 'Irish Session' version. A lot of 6 string botherers here would be v happy!
# Posted on December 28th 2010 by yhaalhouse
Re: dgdgbd Guitar tuning and its suitabilty for ITM
>perhaps they could do an 'Irish Session' version
That would be the intro level. Doesn't matter what buttons you push: you win!
# Posted on December 28th 2010 by Jon Kiparsky
Re: dgdgbd Guitar tuning and its suitabilty for ITM
but still more complicated to win than what your average six string devil session wrecker can achieve!
# Posted on December 28th 2010 by yhaalhouse
Re: dgdgbd Guitar tuning and its suitabilty for ITM
Popcorn=BMF
# Posted on December 28th 2010 by Oeidipus
Re: dgdgbd Guitar tuning and its suitabilty for ITM
OK, you got your Memphis tuning: ABCDEG (But you torque down to F#, then you’ve got Tuscaloosa tuning, OK?--boom, just like that.)
And Tuscaloosa gonna change your life, man--that’s all there is to say. Gonna stoke six hell fires in your belly, drop a mule's bray down your 40 acres, send mojo powder blowing from that cabin chimney by the women’s washing river. A weak man best not twist no six pegs down into no Tuscaloosa.
Still, having said all that, however, I will say that dropped D tuning has its merits as well.
# Posted on December 29th 2010 by NEW Pure Drop® Ear Canal Oil
Re: dgdgbd Guitar tuning and its suitabilty for ITM
Ledward Ka'apana. The master.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=87S3cUdiX-g
# Posted on December 29th 2010 by jwvansteenwyk
Re: dgdgbd Guitar tuning and its suitabilty for ITM
I think yhaalhouse makes a valid point.
It's shouldn't be a case of "I think I'll try this different tuning - then things might be easier to play". It should be a case of "I'll use this tuning because in it I can get the sounds I want".
I use various tunings and really like open G but I can only play by ear competently in standard and so that is what I use every time for accompanying or flatpicking tunes.
If you want to use open G then you need to spend a lot of time getting thoroughly acquainted it. To the point where listeners don't know immediately that your not playing in standard. Like DADGAD, open G can have very characteristic sounds (like the second inversion C chord). They can sound very pleasing but become a bit of a bore if that's all you can do.
# Posted on December 29th 2010 by DonaldK
Re: dgdgbd Guitar tuning and its suitabilty for ITM
I already use other tunings, including standard, drop d and Double drop d.
I like the sound of open G, because I find it flexible, I can play Melodies easily because I already play 5 string banjo.
# Posted on December 29th 2010 by Joseph Tailyour