Pole. More comfortable in alternate tuning?

[Ken Carr]

My first experience with "Orkney" tuning (CGDGCD) was listening to Stephen Wake who is a phenomenal Celtic guitarist. I have learned several of his arrangements. I have also listened to Steve Baughman and Martin Simpson and a few others. At first I was thinking of it as being a "Celtic specific" guitar tuning. Boy I was wrong. I have come to discover that it is much more versatile. It can't be assigned to one specific genre of music. So far, I haven't heard anyone else playing the kinds of songs with this tuning that I am working on. Example: Bill Gaither - He Touched Me, It Is Well With My Soul, When They Ring Those Golden Bells. Heaven Came Down. What A Day That Will Be, Redeemed. It's an altogether different sound than Celtic music. It simply works well for playing moving bass line and melody at the same time. I admit that it is not as easy to play in as many different keys. Also, it doesn't work as well for playing single not leads as standard tuning does. However, a lot of the limitations with a tuning is with the player, not with the tuning itself. Think of what Pierre Bensusan can do in DADGAD. He seems to deftly defy limitations. I think the same could apply to many alternate tunings. There are some hymns that I can play in four different tunings. Of course, some tunings work better than others.

[ljguitar]

Originally Posted by Ken Carr

…Do any of you use an alternative tuning more than you do standard tuning? If so, what tuning is it that you prefer?

Hi Ken…
Dropped D more than 75% of the time (for Keys of D, G, Am, Em, Bm)

I don't stray much further than that for live ensemble play (Worship Team for instance), because it takes time to do more than drop/raise the 6th string a step.

I agree people are unnecessarily in awe of players who use alternate tunings. The one thing stringed instruments can do that Pianos rarely encounter are altered tunings. It's just an additional way to build variety into our playing.

Like languages, learning the scales & styles so one is not 'thinking' about them, becomes like talking. I can spell perfectly well, but I'm not spelling out the words in my head as I speak.

When you know a tuning as well as you know words, you're freed up to be creative.

[catdaddy]

I'm very fond of alternate tunings, and use Open-D, Drop-D, DADGAD, and DADGBD quite regularly.

[ljguitar]

Originally Posted by mr. beaumont

I think I could be, if I picked one tuning and spent 30 years on it like I have standard

I can't have my notes moving around on me.

Hi Mr. B…(Jeff)

I think in scale degree rather than specific note names. I can convert them in my head, but so few people I play with speak in notation.

Besides, the sax players think they are playing different notes than the pianist.

[buddyhu]

While standard tuning is my mainstay, i play a few songs in other tunings:

Open D - DADF#AD

OPEN C - CGCGCE

Open G - DGDGBD

Drop D

EGBEBE


And I capo to get to Drop E (leave low E uncapo’d), Open E, Drop E, Open F, and Drop F#.

[Rosewood99]

I don’t see the Poll or the pole.

[Russ C]

I don’t possess enough IQs for more than a dropped D. If I don’t keep track of the notes all over my fretboard bad things can happen. I know lots are smart enough to do that but not me.
I was going to say if visual was all I needed it’d be ok but then the aural connections would throw me .. nope, I can’t do alternate tunings.

[jaymarsch]

Originally Posted by Rosewood99

I don’t see the Poll or the pole.

If you are using the app, polls or poles don’t show up. :-)
Best,
Jayne

[maxed]

Originally Posted by Rosewood99

I don’t see the Poll or the pole.

I believe it's visible from the Knorth Poal.

[Andyrondack]

I tried for a while playing in G sus/4 Orkney and thought it sounded fantastic in the key of C because of the extra volume from the tight 2nd string but I struggled to harmonise melodies with it because so many times notes I wanted to play together were just too far appart on the fretboard to reach, I know there is something here that I am missing and would like to attend a workshop on it just to understand how afficianados of this tuning approach arranging.Early on I got on well enough with open G for playing in G & D major but now find CGDGAD more versatile for traditional modal type stuff and I really can't cope with more than one alt tuning so I'll stick with that and standard.

[PeterTaylor]

Originally Posted by Ken Carr

Over the past several years, after discovering Stephen Wake on YouTube, I have been playing in CGDGCD tuning. I've been playing guitar for 34 years now and have been through my bluegrass stage and out of it now. I have always loved to play fingerstyle. I started using some different tunings when I started listening to Doyle Dykes. CGDGBE is one that he uses a lot. But no tuning has captivated me as much as CGDGCD. Now, most of my guitars stay in this tuning as I use it most of the time. I am so comfortable with it, that it has become standard for me. I arrange a lot of Christian hymns and gospel songs using this tuning. It was difficult at first, but it's like learning a foreign language. Now that I am comfortable with it, I can lead congregational singing using this tuning almost as well as using EADGBE, which I have been doing for years. It is becoming easier for me to learn fingerstyle arrangements playing melody, harmony, and bass parts in CGDGCD than in EADGBE. It freaks some people out, because most guitar players have never heard of this tuning. Do any of you use an alternative tuning more than you do standard tuning? If so, what tuning is it that you prefer?

When I want to add a piece to my collection because I like it, it comes with a certain tuning.
This is what came up so far:

CGCGCE CGDGAD EAC#EBD DGDGA#C
DADF#AD CGDGBE CGCFCD C#AC#G#AE
DADGAD CGDGCD CACGCE CGCGAE
DADGBD DADEAD CADGAC D#A#CGG#C
DADGBE EGDGBE CADGBE DADDAD
DGDGBD DAAEAE CGCGAD DGCFA#D#
EADGBE DADEAE CGCGCE DGDFAA#
DGDGBE DADFAD CGDGAC EGBGAD
DGDGCD EADEAE CGDGBD FACDAC
CGCGCD

[JonPR]

CGDGCD is known as "Orkney" tuning, or "C modal" sometimes. It's used by Steve Baughman:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W8UA8EaOcOM

Personally, my favourite tuning is EADGBE! I mean, I love most alternate tunings (most of them sound a lot nicer than EADGBE), but I only use them for pieces designed for them. I wouldn't think of adopting just one alternative tuning and then adapting pieces designed for EADGBE.

I guess I might sometimes arrange a piece in an alternative tuning that wasn't written for guitar in the first place, if that alternative tuning made it easier.

But this is mainly because I work in bands with musicians in standard tuning, playing mostly covers, and often have to play in many different keys. An alternative tuning would mean using capos all the time, or working out awkward chord shapes, or both.

However there are many great musicians who adopt one favourite tuning and stick with it. Naturally they tend to be solo performers. E.g. Martin Carthy (DADEAE) Then there are those like Joni Mitchell and Nick Drake, who use(d) countless alternative tunings, writing songs around each one.

[Andyrondack]

Originally Posted by Ken Carr

Over the past several years, after discovering Stephen Wake on YouTube, I have been playing in CGDGCD tuning. I've been playing guitar for 34 years now and have been through my bluegrass stage and out of it now. I have always loved to play fingerstyle. I started using some different tunings when I started listening to Doyle Dykes. CGDGBE is one that he uses a lot. But no tuning has captivated me as much as CGDGCD. Now, most of my guitars stay in this tuning as I use it most of the time. I am so comfortable with it, that it has become standard for me. I arrange a lot of Christian hymns and gospel songs using this tuning. It was difficult at first, but it's like learning a foreign language. Now that I am comfortable with it, I can lead congregational singing using this tuning almost as well as using EADGBE, which I have been doing for years. It is becoming easier for me to learn fingerstyle arrangements playing melody, harmony, and bass parts in CGDGCD than in EADGBE. It freaks some people out, because most guitar players have never heard of this tuning. Do any of you use an alternative tuning more than you do standard tuning? If so, what tuning is it that you prefer?

Do you favour one or two keys above others in this tuning?

[mr. beaumont]

Originally Posted by ljguitar

Hi Mr. B…(Jeff)

I think in scale degree rather than specific note names. I can convert them in my head, but so few people I play with speak in notation.

Besides, the sax players think they are playing different notes than the pianist.

More power to ya--I don't think like that!

I need those relationships to be the same between the strings... a major 7 arpeggio, for example has a shape...I can't have that shape change on me.

I could adjust, I suppose, given time. But to be able to improvise comfortably over non-diatonic chord changes, I need the neck laid out like I'm familiar with.

[TBman]

I like DADGAD, CGDGAD, CGDGCD and CGCGCD. I had to start playing in standard also a couple times a week because in the alternate tunings I generally use only intervals and not full chords. My fretting hand was losing a bit of strength.

Also, DADGBD and DADF#AD are nice to tinker around in.

Stephen Wake is one of my favorites also.