E-flat tuning?

[Brucebubs]

Originally Posted by robj144

Oh... you guys are talking about Eb standard tuning. I thought it was open Eb tuning. I do it time to time.

Come on down, you'll be at home with all my guitars tuned open Eb.

[Silly Moustache]

Well this IS interesting!

Back in 2013 when this thread was last active, I would have given a stern "stuff and nonsense" response as was my initial thoughts today.

However, in 2017, I had life changing treatment for throat cancer (similar to John Prine's) and my "new" voice is at least one tone down.
So, maybe, I should consider it, however, when circumstances permit, I play with Mado Bob, and Ian the bass and I bet they'd have issues with the idea!

[Wade Hampton]

Instead of tuning a half step lower, I can put a capo on my baritone guitar at whatever fret I want. Since I keep my baritone tuned B to B with the same intervals as standard tuning, putting the capo at the fifth fret gives me E to E, and capoing at the fourth fret puts it a half step lower, and capoing at the third fret puts it one whole step lower.

That third fret capo position is what I use most frequently. The Praise band I lead has a lot of music in the key of F, so I capo 3 and play in G formation. If the music is in Bb, I capo 3 and play in C formation.

And so forth.

Having that “reverse capo” effect with the baritone is really handy.

Hope that makes sense.


Wade Hampton Miller

[aeisen93]

I play a lot of Green Day which is in E-flat. as someone else said, if I want to go back to standard I can just use a capo. The Beatles songs would sound fine in Eb and I think the audience probably wouldn't even notice the tuning difference.

[LakewoodM32Fan]

Originally Posted by aeisen93

I play a lot of Green Day which is in E-flat. as someone else said, if I want to go back to standard I can just use a capo. The Beatles songs would sound fine in Eb and I think the audience probably wouldn't even notice the tuning difference.

I tune down specifically for any audience members that may be listening to me (read: family and friends). They may or may not (most are not musically inclined, so likely the latter) recognize that my guitar is a half step down from the original artist's version.

But they will *all* hear how out of tune I am vocally with my guitar if I play it in standard tuning, true to the original recording.

[Mike McLenison]

When I did a Beatles acoustic solo act I tuned down a whole step to hit Macca's high harmonies. I used a vocal harmonizer to handle the lower notes. I still tune down a whole step with 13's. They feel like 11's in standard tuning.

[Wade Hampton]

Right: putting songs in keys where they match your vocal range is really important, yet so many players will play a song in the same key as the recording, whether it fits their vocal range or not.

One song in particular, “The Tennessee Stud,” is one that everybody and his brother played when I was a young bluegrass guy, and it’s a great song. But so many of those guys put it in the same key as Doc Watson did, but without having the same lower vocal register as Doc had.

So they’d get Doc’s guitar licks down, but sounded lame on the vocals.

Rather than singing “The Tennessee Stud” in D, as Doc did, I put it in G where I could sing it properly. I didn’t use Doc’s guitar licks, either, but came up with my own arrangement, loosely inspired by Mike Auldridge’s version that he put on one of his solo albums.

If you’re not familiar with Mike Auldridge, he was a genius Dobro player. He wasn’t a singer, and his version of the song was done as an instrumental. Anyway, he was a supremely musical guy, and so there was definitely some of his musical DNA in my vocal and guitar arrangement of the song.

I did get a chance to meet and jam with Mike, which was very cool. It’s nice when you finally get to meet one of your musical heroes, and even nicer when they turn out to be kind, friendly people as well as terrific players.

Short version: it’s a hundred times more important to put a song in a key where you can sing it and do it justice than it is to play it exactly the way it was on the recording.


whm

[Earl49]

Originally Posted by Wade Hampton

Right: putting songs in keys where they match your vocal range is really important, yet so many players will play a song in the same key as the recording, whether it fits their vocal range or not......Short version: it’s a hundred times more important to put a song in a key where you can sing it and do it justice than it is to play it exactly the way it was on the recording.
whm

I used to think that keeping a song in the original recording key was important and perhaps even a tribute?? My younger voice could (mostly) handle that. But I have lost a half-step or maybe a whole step from my upper register these days. I am not afraid to use a D-d tuning to make things more comfortable -- one guitar stays there wearing medium gauge strings. Or I grab my B-b tuned baritone and a capo as Wade said, if the original guitar licks must be preserved. Songs that I play solo will be transcribed into a voice-friendly key for me. The onus is on those jamming with me to follow along.

My jam buddies and I were recently discussing that many Neal Young songs are great tunes, but not necessarily in the key where he put them. They don't work for my voice, and being a bit unkind.... they don't really work for his voice either.

[donlyn]

E-flat tuning?


Hopefully not totally off-topic, but I keep my 12 string guitars tuned to D# (or Eb if you prefer). While I have a great capo to use at capo 1 to bring them to standard without re-tuning (G7th compensated Newport), mostly I play them in D#.

Not happening during covid-19 season, but previously I would tune a 6 string guitar down to D# to be ready to go for a expected guest to use as a quick option for one of us to play alongside a 12. (That compensated capo only came out a couple of years ago.) Tuning a 12 up a tone or two can take two or three passes to get it right.

I do like the tone of the 12 tuned down to D#, but I remember when players kept their 12 stringers tuned down to D all the time. Old habits die hard.

Don
.

[AJRed]

Originally Posted by robj144

Oh... you guys are talking about Eb standard tuning. I thought it was open Eb tuning. I do it time to time.

I do this for She Talks To Angels.

[Lkristians]

Originally Posted by Wade Hampton

Short version: it’s a hundred times more important to put a song in a key where you can sing it and do it justice than it is to play it exactly the way it was on the recording.


whm

Bingo. "It's the singer, not the song." (Remember that tune?)

[Sgt Barry]

I just went from tuning a 1/2 step down to a full step. A) It does lessen the strain on vocals a bit and B) definitely adds a richness to the resonance. It’s easy enough to capo the 1st if I feel the need to jump back to a familiar key.

I’ll comment again when (or if) I drop a full step and half.

[repotrawler]

Love it on my 2010 Taylor 314 with 12-52 GHS. Mean and growly blues and jazz shred… thinking of sticking 13s on the 414 and going down to D Standard…

[dnf777]

I find it interesting as well. Very common and accepted to capo up,so isnt this just like capo ing down a fret?

I do it for the vocal matching already mentioned, and also I figure every pound of tension off my old neck joints may put off resets for some amount of time. Plus, its easy to capo up to standard.

[Song]

Originally Posted by sweiss

It would be interesting to know how much the string tension is reduced by downtuning a half step. Does anyone know how to calculate that?

https://www.liutaiomottola.com/formulae/tension.htm