[rayvon87]

Hey all,

I recently decided to venture out and put my mums guitar into open C tuning (i kept mine in standard tuning, for everything else) so I could play 'Bron-Yr-Aur' by Led Zep'. What a fun (and fairly easy) song to play! I enjoyed it so much that it's all I played for 3 days straight.

I was just wondering if anyone knows of anymore songs like this and which song, of any style, you enjoy playing the most? BTW, I can play 'Bron-Yr-Aur' all the way through (as some gauge of my skill level).

Thanks.

P.S. - Also, could someone could tell me what kind of picking it is, 'cos I'm curious?

This post has been edited by rayvon87: 07 September 2005 - 03:29 AM

[dadfad]

The tune is done in a style that has been used in open-tuned old-time country blues by old bluesmen like Rev. Robert Wilkins, Furry Lewis and others. The blues-folkie/historian/guitarist John Fahey wrote a very similar instrumental tune around 1961 he originally called "Yazoo River Blues" but re-named "Sunflower River Blues." It is also done in open-C tuning. It's slightly more complex but not much, and can easily be adapted to open-D tuning as well. His tune "Poor Boy Long Way From Home" is also similar but done in open-D (which is an instrumental cover of the Rev. Robert Wilkins' tune by the same name, similar to the Stones' cover which they re-named "Prodigal Son." The Stones' "Prodigal Son" is played a bit faster than either Fahey's or Wilkins' versions of "Poor Boy.")

If you're talking about open-tuned pieces done with a straight alternating-thumb style (similar to what's often called Travis-picking, after Merle Travis) (who actually didn't "Travis-pick" himself! He used a similar style a little more complex often called syncopated alternating-bass.) there are quite a few tunes like that. Open-C isn't used as often as some others, like open-D or open-E (which finger identically), etc. They all play very similarly and are also related as to note location, merely shifted across the fret-board. If you can picture an imaginary 8-string open-tuned guitar (using a major chord's Tonic, III and V notes tuned to T V T V T III V T), you would find the common opens (C, G & A, and D & E) structurally all on that same board. The top 6-strings fitting open-C, the mid-6 fitting open-G & A and the bottom-6 fitting open-D & E. (In a relative structural sense based on T-III-V note locations).

[rayvon87]

Thanks man, I'll have to have a look around.

Just outta curiosity, Dadfad, how long have you been playing the guitar and at what age did you start?

[dadfad]

Thanks man, I'll have to have a look around.

Just outta curiosity, Dadfad, how long have you been playing the guitar and at what age did you start?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I've been playing for forty years (come November 11). I got my first guitar with money I'd earned and saved and that I got for my fifteenth birthday. (Fifteen dollars was a lot of money to a kid back then!)

[henrike45]

Hey all,

I recently decided to venture out and put my mums guitar into open C tuning (i kept mine in standard tuning, for everything else) so I could play 'Bron-Yr-Aur' by Led Zep'. What a fun (and fairly easy) song to play! I enjoyed it so much that it's all I played for 3 days straight.

I was just wondering if anyone knows of anymore songs like this and which song, of any style, you enjoy playing the most? BTW, I can play 'Bron-Yr-Aur' all the way through (as some gauge of my skill level).

Thanks.

P.S. - Also, could someone could tell me what kind of picking it is, 'cos I'm curious?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Man, i find about that song last week and I couldn't stop listening to it. It's great! It must be really satisfying to be able to play it

[henrike45]

Thanks man, I'll have to have a look around.

Just outta curiosity, Dadfad, how long have you been playing the guitar and at what age did you start?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I've been playing for forty years (come November). I got my first guitar with money I'd earned and saved and that I got for my fifteenth birthday. (Fifteen dollars was a lot of money to a kid back then!)

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Wow! I'm just starting to actually play the guitar, and I feel a growing addiction every day. 40 years playing guitar is a long time. Congrats!

[dadfad]

Thanks! I have to admit it sort of grew on me too! And welcome to GTU.

[henrike45]

Thanks! I have to admit it sort of grew on me too! And welcome to GTU.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Thanks!

[dadfad]

By the way, worth mentioning...

There's been a little debate over the tuning Page used for the tune. I've seen it tabbed (and played) in:

Open-C CGCGCE
Open-F CFCFAF
Open-C6 CACGCE

An "authorized" Zep-book says open-F but it can sound virtually identical played in any of those tunings. The term "authorized" really doesn't mean very much except the artist has given permission for someone to tab it. I've done "authorized" tabs myself for tab books before. No input from the artist, I just listened to the recordings and tabbed what I thought I heard. So it doesn't really matter. What it all comes down to is how it sounds when you play it.

[henrike45]

OK Thanks

[rayvon87]

Yeah, I thought it sounded weird playing it on Open C, and I remember that playing a little arpeggio in a C chord and hammering on the bottom C sounded like it, so I use the Open-C6 tuning, and when I play against it, it sounds right.

Wow, that's so cool, I started on my mums guitar and I'm 15. I've heard that Eric Clapton started at age 14 with a guitar he got for his birthday. And 40 years..wow...no wonder you're such a master on the guitar. And with music, and especially an instrument like the guitar, you never stop learning, do you...

And yes, Bron-Yr-Aur is an extremely satisfying song to play, I highly recommend it to all of you out there who haven't played (or heard) it.

This post has been edited by rayvon87: 09 September 2005 - 12:52 AM

[dadfad]

Yeah, I thought it sounded weird playing it on Open C, and I remember that playing a little arpeggio in a C chord and hammering on the bottom C sounded like it, so I use the Open-C6 tuning, and when I play against it, it sounds right.

Wow, that's so cool, I started on my mums guitar and I'm 15. I've heard that Eric Clapton started at age 14 with a guitar he got for his birthday. And 40 years..wow...no wonder you're such a master on the guitar. And with music, and especially an instrument like the guitar, you never stop learning, do you...

And yes, Bron-Yr-Aur is an extremely satisfying song to play, I highly recommend it to all of you out there who haven't played (or heard) it.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

No, you really don't. The person in my sig-picture below, John Jackson, was kind of like my mentor for many years. He was acknowledged by most who knew the style as the finest fingerstyle acoustic bluesman alive with a repertoire of over two thousand tunes. As he was nearing Death he told me once that one of his biggest regrets was that there was so much more to learn that he would never have the chance. There really is no end to it.

[henrike45]

Yeah, I thought it sounded weird playing it on Open C, and I remember that playing a little arpeggio in a C chord and hammering on the bottom C sounded like it, so I use the Open-C6 tuning, and when I play against it, it sounds right.

Wow, that's so cool, I started on my mums guitar and I'm 15. I've heard that Eric Clapton started at age 14 with a guitar he got for his birthday. And 40 years..wow...no wonder you're such a master on the guitar. And with music, and especially an instrument like the guitar, you never stop learning, do you...

And yes, Bron-Yr-Aur is an extremely satisfying song to play, I highly recommend it to all of you out there who haven't played (or heard) it.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

No, you really don't. The person in my sig-picture below, John Jackson, was kind of like my mentor for many years. He was acknowledged by most who knew the style as the finest fingerstyle acoustic bluesman alive with a repertoire of over two thousand tunes. As he was nearing Death he told me once that one of his biggest regrets was that there was so much more to learn that he would never have the chance. There really is no end to it.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

music is great

[raewyn]

That's what I find, the more I learn the more I find out that I don't know!

[rayvon87]

That's like me, but the more I learn, the more I want to know.

I think I was unfortunate, though... I was in my school band for 3 years (last year being the last) playing the saxophone, and after those 3 years, playing the saxophone was no longer something I wanted to do. For two of those years, the band went into "training" for an interschool contest, and the conductor and the other teachers would put heaps much pressure on the band. I didn't want to do that again, so I ended up giving up music and leaving the band. It wasn't until I started playing guitar that I wanted to get back into music. But I haven't even touched my saxophone since last year. I'm still not in the band and I generally avoid the whole music department...

All I can say is, thank god for the guitar.

[narad1986]

John Jackson..............repertoire of over two thousand tunes

Think about that ... no really...... 2000 ..wow !!!

[dadfad]

Yes, he was pretty amazing. He knew and could play (and sing) anything, from the older styles of music and guitar. Not just acoustic blues in any genre, but every Hank Williams or Jimmy Rogers tune, any Woodie Guthrie or folk tune, Brenda Lee, Patsy Cline, Buck Owens, old standards, square dance tunes, country reels, nonsense tunes like "Little Brown Jug" or "Turkey In The Straw," patriotic tunes, kids tunes, hymns and spirituals... you name it. From many years of playing in front of all kinds of audiences and playing the kind of tunes they wanted. More than just a country-bluesman, he was a true minstrel.

[rayvon87]

That's amazing! I hope one day that I can have a repetoire(sp?) of even half that!