DADGAD, hmm

[rick-slo]

Any time I mess around in DADGAD too long I feel I am losing IQ points, composition and listening wise. Everything starts to sound the same and repetitive. I soon head back to standard tuning. Point me towards some creative, interesting DADGAD pieces that avoid relying heavily on DADGAD clichés.

[jseth]

Wish I could help you Derek, but to me, DADGAD (and most alternate tunings) are very much like that place that's "a nice place to visit, but I wouldn't want to live there..."!

I do like the different textures and sounds, but it's just playing around for me. After all these years in standard tuning, it's tough to jettison it all just for the thrill of a different sound or two.

I do have Doug Young's book about DADGAD, and it's very well written... you might get a hold of that and see where it leads you. It doesn't have a bunch of tab'd songs, but it is on the path to allow YOU to choose whatever you want to play in that tuning...

Good luck!

[James_214ce]

https://youtu.be/q9Me42csgzU

[M19]

I love playing "Three Steps to Joy" myself...

[rick-slo]

Jeseth, I hear you. I have written some DADGAD pieces I like, I just can't persist with DADGAD for long.

James, I used to claw hammer that piece on the banjo and I use that style on some of my guitar music. However where does the DADGAD start in this video?

[James_214ce]

Originally Posted by rick-slo

Jeseth, I hear you. I have written some DADGAD pieces I like, I just can't persist with DADGAD for long.

James, I used to claw hammer that piece on the banjo and I use that style on some of my guitar music. However where does the DADGAD start in this video?

Oh, my bad - it is actually DADGBD, or double drop D.


aka Neil Young D Modal

[ljguitar]

Originally Posted by rick-slo

Any time I mess around in DADGAD too long I feel I am losing IQ points, composition and listening wise. Everything starts to sound the same and repetitive. I soon head back to standard tuning. Point me towards some creative, interesting DADGAD pieces that avoid relying heavily on DADGAD clichés.

Hi rs

At healdsburg 2013 someone suggested to Al Petteway during his workshop that DADGAD is limited and boring, so he broke into some Jazz chord comping up and down the neck (while tuned to DADGAD).

I suggest Al Petteway's Celtic, Blues and Beyond for some great other than Celtic sounding and great signature tunes in DADGAD. Spindrift & Sligo Creek are two worth just putting into your fingers to absorb what he can do with DADGAD for fun.

I have Celtic, Blues & Beyond as a teaching DVD, which is a 2003©.

I think his Theme for the Thornbirds on the tribute album for Mancini (The Pink Guitar) was recorded in CGCGAD or CGCGCD

His song Eureka Hotel which is slow blues rag in DADGAD is great.

His workshop was on playing Appalachian music in DADGAD and it opened up some new cliches for me (freed me from a couple ruts I'd stepped into).

Also Doug Young's book on DADGAD if I remember right talks about straying into other styles.

[rick-slo]

Thanks for the suggestions Larry. I'll see what clips I can find on the internet.

[JonPR]

I guess it depends what you mean by "DADGAD clichés", but a lot of the reason for choosing such tunings is precisely those special sounds they provide that EADGBE doesn't.
Here's some favourites of mine:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eqdi6evOclY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FonNSNB3kxI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZ7oYCx6tBw

A cliche is a cliche for a reason.

[Earwitness]

Originally Posted by JonPR

I guess it depends what you mean by "DADGAD clichés", but a lot of the reason for choosing such tunings is precisely those special sounds they provide that EADGBE doesn't.
Here's some favourites of mine:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eqdi6evOclY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FonNSNB3kxI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZ7oYCx6tBw

A cliche is a cliche for a reason.

Wow. Those were not my cup of tea at all ! I guess I'm not a dadgad target audience.

[Gcunplugged]

Look up Shenandoah on YouTube by Doug Young. To my ear, this does not sound like most DADGAD tunes.

Gary

[Doug Young]

DADGAD has all the same notes in it as any other tuning. It's not the tuning, it's what you do with it.

I recall an early review of Pierre Bensusan, where the reviewer talked about how Pierre's music was totally free of all the cliches of most guitar music (in standard tuning). So it's funny to hear people now talk about DADGAD cliches. I think it's in part because standard tuning cliches are so common, we don't even recognize them as such.

I also recall an early interview with Laurence Juber, where he was talking about how he avoided alternate tunings because he felt if he played in DADGAD, etc, he'd sound just like everyone else. Of course it wasn't long before he jumped in anyway, and is now associated strongly with DADGAD, but he sounds totally different than Pierre. So the tuning doesn't force him to sound a certain way.

You can sit down with Pierre and hear him play stuff that's a dead ringer for Joe Pass in DADGAD, or listen to Al Petteway play Country Blues in DADGAD, or Tony McManus or Robin Bullock play Bach. The tuning doesn't constrain you.

Examples: check out http://www.premierguitar.com/article...D_Bach_Edition for an example. Or check out Mike Dawes, who used to post here a bit, playing Tony's Goodbye Porkpie Hat:



Or Al Petteway playing a rootsy Wayfairing Stranger:



There's also no reason to use it if it doesn't solve a problem for you. I cringe every time I hear someone say they're going to play "a DADGAD song" :-) The tuning's a tool, the music should come first. Standard's a very good tuning, and there are many others that work well, depending on your needs, so if you can't figure out how to do something with DADGAD that you like, move on to something else.

[philjs]

Originally Posted by rick-slo

Point me towards some creative, interesting DADGAD pieces that avoid relying heavily on DADGAD clichés.

Check out Laurence Juber...all DADGAD, all the time, and anything goes.

Phil

[rick-slo]

Doug, different tunings set you down different paths, especially when composing something entirely original. Take a great melody and you can come up with something lovely in most tunings.

For what it's worth I don't like most of Bensusan's music, which I do in part blame on his specializing in DADGAD. Regarding Juber, earlier today I went through a book of his of songs played in DADGAD, I was not enamored with most of them. That gave me the impulse to start this thread.

That said there are songs in any tuning I have heard that are very nice.

[rick-slo]

Originally Posted by philjs

Check out Laurence Juber...all DADGAD, all the time, and anything goes.

Phil

The book I was sight reading through today was Juber's "The Guitarist Anthology, vol 1"