John Leventhal

[Rudy4]

For anyone not familiar...

[Howard Emerson]

Originally Posted by Rudy4

For anyone not familiar...

I've loved his playing since first hearing it in the early 1990's. We saw him & Rosanne Cash perform The River & The Thread in its entirety at Carnegie Hall.

He's really one of the finest guitar arrangers on the planet. I'll be purchasing his new release when I finish typing this.......

Thanks for posting that video, Rudy!

H

[Doug Young]

Very interesting interview with him on this week's Fretboard Journal podcast as well.

[Dogma]

Originally Posted by Doug Young

Very interesting interview with him on this week's Fretboard Journal podcast as well.

Downloaded! Thanks!!

[Rudy4]

Loved Jason Fretboard Journal podcast. I listen to virtually every interview Jason does, as well as all the other podcasts on FJ's podcast page.

There's another really nice long form video interview of John Leventhal done on the Truetone Lounge Youtube channel:



I, too, have been a huge JL fan for a long while. John is equally adept and slinging a mean Telecaster, and there's ample evidence of that two minutes into this Sarah Jarosz video, done in support of her album that John recorded and produced:

[Doug Young]

And there's a transcription of this tune in this month's Acoustic Guitar.

[MaurysMusic]

Soundhole mag > tremelo PLUS stereo mic'd??? Oh MY that sounds lovely.

[Howard Emerson]

Originally Posted by Doug Young

And there's a transcription of this tune in this month's Acoustic Guitar.

Thanks Doug,
It's basically in a hybrid tuning, sort of.

Watching the video it was quickly apparent that he had most of open G w/low C, but he's left his first string at pitch (E).

He obviously uses it A LOT, and it really is a big part of his voice, along with a flattop with a sound-hole magnetic pickup, dead strings, and ambient acoustic mic sound.

I "happened" into open G w/low C when I was writing 'If You Must Go' (from CCL). I started writing in open G, but when I got to the melody part that went to the IV chord, I decided to lower the D to C, to get a bigger bottom end.

It opened up a whole new world for me.

It never occurred to me to leave the 1st string at pitch, but now my curiosity
it piqued!

Thanks again, Doug!

Howard

[Rudy4]

Originally Posted by Howard Emerson

Thanks Doug,
It's basically in a hybrid tuning, sort of.

Watching the video it was quickly apparent that he had most of open G w/low C, but he's left his first string at pitch (E).

He obviously uses it A LOT, and it really is a big part of his voice, along with a flattop with a sound-hole magnetic pickup, dead strings, and ambient acoustic mic sound.

I "happened" into open G w/low C when I was writing 'If You Must Go' (from CCL). I started writing in open G, but when I got to the melody part that went to the IV chord, I decided to lower the D to C, to get a bigger bottom end.

It opened up a whole new world for me.

It never occurred to me to leave the 1st string at pitch, but now my curiosity
it piqued!

Thanks again, Doug!

Howard

That Acoustic Guitar issue that Doug cited would be a great way to unlock the tuning's usefulness. I posted a topic (Adventures in CGDGBE!) a while back that explains a bit about it's early use in Hawaiian music.

[Howard Emerson]

Originally Posted by Rudy4

That Acoustic Guitar issue that Doug cited would be a great way to unlock the tuning's usefulness. I posted a topic (Adventures in CGDGBE!) a while back that explains a bit about it's early use in Hawaiian music.

Hi Rudy,
I don't read or write tab, but have been teaching open tunings & bottleneck since 1970. I do, however, understand quite a bit of theory, whatever that's worth.

Nonetheless I'll check out the AG piece, and your link because there's always something to glean from another perspective.

The practical-application 'usefulness' revealed itself immediately upon watching the recent Tru-Tone interview with John Leventhal, and watching/hearing the piece again, but with the confirmation of the 5th & 6th strings being where I thought they were.

The top end is where he was doing unexpected things that then made total sense.

His choice of voicings are swoon-inducing, really!

HE

[Doug Young]

Yeah, the Slack Key guys call this tuning "C Wahine" (a C Maj9 tuning), or "Keola's C" because Keloa Beamer uses it a lot. You can think of it as standard with 2 lowered basses, but it's also a lot like Open G, but with with a 4 in the bass and the 6th on the top. I have a number of tunes in the tuning, and I usually use it as a G tuning, which is also what Leventhall is doing.