Not really what you had in mind I'm sure, but strangely enough, Enda Scahill tunes his banjo ADAE. I thought he might miss that big open G but he says the open A is handy when playing in A and D. What a wild man.
I do, and have done for years. I avoid using a capo for rhythm playing, and find I can play chords in any key using that tuning. I often am the only rhythm instrument at a ceilidh dance, and you've got to keep playing when you change key, so relying on capo shifts is no good.
I should add that I mostly play Scottish music, where there are more tunes in A and less in G than in Irish, but I can and do play in G.
E minor sounds good (play it like the top 4 strings of a guitar A7), so if you substitute an Em for G where possible (ie one bar G, one bar Em rather than 2 bars of G or whatever) it's actually quite a good key. The chords of C, Am, D, D7, Bm etc are all fine in that tuning.
It's great for accompanying tunes in keys of A, Am, D, Dm, Bm etc.
I'm not going to go into detail about how to play every chord, but I do play chords all the way up the neck, including 12th fret. Great tuning.
to be honest: i was still looking for the (impossible)
solution: how to get along with g-maj without using a
capo.
i love that tuning- but have never found a satisfying
way to deal with g-maj.
but as mentioned last time: maybe its just the key itself...
IMHO the ADAE tuning is most useful for players who want to do more tunes than accompaniment. Modal chords tend to be more difficult than on the more conventional GDAD or ADAD tunings.
I'm a friend of both Joe Foley and Tom Walsh. As I understand it they adopted the ADAE tuning many years ago, and they always use it. Their decision was based on their desire to play melody, but I think the best tuning for melody is still conventional GDAE. However the low A facilitates bass runs for tunes in D. There is a major disadvantage when playing in G, a capo becomes pretty essential.
When I got my first bouzouki I used the ADAE tuning and struggled for years before changing to GDAD which suits me best, as I base my bouzouki style on chords.
bouzouki-tuning: adae
bouzouki-tuning: adae
hello,
are there any users of that tuning?
2nd time to start a discussion.
hoping...
günther
ps: adae - from bottom to top.
# Posted on February 18th 2005 by adae
Re: bouzouki-tuning: adae
Im not too sure - but I remember playing Joe Foleys Bouzouki a few weeks back and remember it tuned like that...
Tom Walsh tunes his mandola this way too...
hes on this site - his user name is mandola
# Posted on February 18th 2005 by Hugo Chavez
Re: bouzouki-tuning: adae
thanks a lot, stefanpaz
# Posted on February 18th 2005 by adae
Re: bouzouki-tuning: adae
That's a good one, I like adding a low D to that tuning for a cittern. dadae
# Posted on February 19th 2005 by B Rad
Re: bouzouki-tuning: adae
Not really what you had in mind I'm sure, but strangely enough, Enda Scahill tunes his banjo ADAE. I thought he might miss that big open G but he says the open A is handy when playing in A and D. What a wild man.
# Posted on February 19th 2005 by patrick cavanagh
Re: bouzouki-tuning: adae
I do, and have done for years. I avoid using a capo for rhythm playing, and find I can play chords in any key using that tuning. I often am the only rhythm instrument at a ceilidh dance, and you've got to keep playing when you change key, so relying on capo shifts is no good.
I should add that I mostly play Scottish music, where there are more tunes in A and less in G than in Irish, but I can and do play in G.
E minor sounds good (play it like the top 4 strings of a guitar A7), so if you substitute an Em for G where possible (ie one bar G, one bar Em rather than 2 bars of G or whatever) it's actually quite a good key. The chords of C, Am, D, D7, Bm etc are all fine in that tuning.
It's great for accompanying tunes in keys of A, Am, D, Dm, Bm etc.
I'm not going to go into detail about how to play every chord, but I do play chords all the way up the neck, including 12th fret. Great tuning.
Dagger Gordon.
# Posted on February 19th 2005 by CWGordon
Re: bouzouki-tuning: adae
thanks for all the replies.
to be honest: i was still looking for the (impossible)
solution: how to get along with g-maj without using a
capo.
i love that tuning- but have never found a satisfying
way to deal with g-maj.
but as mentioned last time: maybe its just the key itself...
perhaps a new topic: the character of keys...
günther
# Posted on February 22nd 2005 by adae
Re: bouzouki-tuning: adae
Hi
IMHO the ADAE tuning is most useful for players who want to do more tunes than accompaniment. Modal chords tend to be more difficult than on the more conventional GDAD or ADAD tunings.
I'm a friend of both Joe Foley and Tom Walsh. As I understand it they adopted the ADAE tuning many years ago, and they always use it. Their decision was based on their desire to play melody, but I think the best tuning for melody is still conventional GDAE. However the low A facilitates bass runs for tunes in D. There is a major disadvantage when playing in G, a capo becomes pretty essential.
When I got my first bouzouki I used the ADAE tuning and struggled for years before changing to GDAD which suits me best, as I base my bouzouki style on chords.
Hope this is of some use!
Regards
Mark
# Posted on February 24th 2005 by lysaghtm