songs in standard and alt...tunings

[marty bradbury]

Hello. Not well versed in theory etc....so my thoguht was, can you play any song in alternate tunings that you can in standard, fingerstyle?

[The Growler]

Originally Posted by marty bradbury

Hello. Not well versed in theory etc....so my thoguht was, can you play any song in alternate tunings that you can in standard, fingerstyle?

Hi Marty -

Yes, but the chord shapes and note patterns will be different since your strings are now tuned to different pitches.

[rick-slo]

Originally Posted by marty bradbury

Hello. Not well versed in theory etc....so my thoguht was, can you play any song in alternate tunings that you can in standard, fingerstyle?

Hi Marty - you are an old Acoustic Player Magazine Forum member if my memory serves.
You can usually rearrange the piece enough to make that possible.

[blue]

absolutely. Due to the music that really inspired me to play and practice every day (you know, not counting illness, travel, surgery, childbirth ) for the last 15 or so years, I actually can only really sight read in Open G. Not like studio musician sight read, but play my way through a piece I haven't seen before as long as I can go my own varying (slow) pace.

As to the chords, I find that I use, heck, that I know fewer voicings when jamming/comping in Open G. But they sound "fresher" to folks because they are different than they are used to hearing from the get go.

So the answer is yes. One can. I find G to be much more "musical" for me than D. In D, everything I play sounds bluesy. In G, because of my interest in Hawaiian, and ragtime and early jazz, I can play along with just about anything the folks I play with know. Luckily we don't play bluegrass. I would be lost there. Just learn your majors, minors, and 7ths, and you'll be ahead of most folks at the jam in standard tuning

[Acoustic Pain]

Originally Posted by marty bradbury

Hello. Not well versed in theory etc....so my thoguht was, can you play any song in alternate tunings that you can in standard, fingerstyle?

Do you mean the same exact? No some will get physically impossible. That is kind of why we have alternate tunings in the 1st place. They facilitate playing that would be from hard to impossible in standard. Can you play a variation even in the same correct key? Yea.

No one tuning works best for all which is why we have multiple tunings. You don't lose the 12 note diatonic scale with alternate tunings so you have all the "letters" of the alphabet so to speak.

[marty bradbury]

Originally Posted by rick-slo

Hi Marty - you are an old Acoustic Player Magazine Forum member if my memory serves.
You can usually rearrange the piece enough to make that possible.

Yes I am. Thanks!!