[huizzy]

Hi all I play a lot of acoustic songs usually
in standard tuneing and was wondering how
do I tune to Db and other altenate tuneings.
I would like to go the cheap way and not buy
anything if possible. Can someone help me out.
Thank. Much Obliged
- Huizzy -
(a.k.a the wheezel)

[HighInfidel]

It helps if ya have a tuner, so that ya get it right. But to tune to anything else, ya basically just lower the pitch of the strings.

For Db you would lower the the strings as follows:

E - Db
A - Gb
D - B
G - E
B - Ab
E - Db

There are other alt tunings like Drop D in which you lower the Low E string to a D, but leave all the others. There are Open D tunings, Open G and Open E and so on.

Open D is tuned like this:

E - D
A - A
D - D
G - F
B - A
E - D

You can basically tune yer geetar however you wish, as long as you use the correct pitch. Just be careful as to loose will cause strings to buzz, and too tight will break a string

Hope this helps

[dadfad]

It helps if ya have a tuner, so that ya get it right.  But to tune to anything else, ya basically just lower the pitch of the strings.

For Db you would lower the the strings as follows:

E - Db
A - Gb
D - B
G - E
B - Ab
E - Db

There are other alt tunings like Drop D in which you lower the Low E string to a D, but leave all the others.  There are Open D tunings, Open G and Open E and so on.

Open D is tuned  like this:

E - D
A - A
D - D
G - F
B - A
E - D

You can basically tune yer geetar however you wish, as long as you use the correct pitch.  Just be careful as to loose will cause strings to buzz, and too tight will break a string

Hope this helps

That's open D-minor DADFAD (low to high), which is also a great tuning (Skip James type blues, like "Hard Time Killing Floor: etc.) For open-D you need to sharpen the F-note, to DADF#AD. Good for slide and other traditional (and some contemporary) finger-style. If you want it to be open-Db for some reason just lower those all a half step.

Dropped-D, as Infidel mentioned, is another good tuning (although lately it's been used a lot by crap-players to make one-finger barre-chords and has been getting a "bad rap" sort of), but can be great for traditional and fingerstyle. I have a tune I did in Dropped-D (Dropped-Db actually). I'll find it and post a link........

A Study In Dropped-Db

Learning to use alternate tunings opens up a lot of new styles of music you otherwise couldn't play. I don't mean just tuning standard down a half-step or two where you play everything the same way, just a little lower-sounding in pitch, but the actual open and altered tunings. There's lots of good stuff in them that would be impossible to play any other way.

[goldrush]

Open D is tuned  like this:

E - D
A - A
D - D
G - F
B - A
E - D

With one correction: it's a F# not an F for the 3rd string.

[evileye]

Check out my lesson in the lessons forum of GTU, entitled Alternate Tunings, to be found here. It's for DADGAD, my favourite alt. tuning.

[jalfordvidman]

I really like that tune in Db, Dadfad. I just wish I knew how to play like that.

[dadfad]

I really like that tune in Db, Dadfad. I just wish I knew how to play like that.

Thanks, I appreciate it. You'll be playing like that before you know it. Probably better!

[jalfordvidman]

I'm just curious, was that improvisation? Actually, what goes through your mind when you improvise? Scales, arpeggios, nothing? I wanna know so I can learn to improvise better.

[dadfad]

I'm just curious, was that improvisation? Actually, what goes through your mind when you improvise? Scales, arpeggios, nothing? I wanna know so I can learn to improvise better.

Yes, it was completely improv'ed. Of course it was based on styles I was familiar with. My intent sort of when I sat down was to use dropped-D in various styles, starting with the earliest (sort of Celtic/Old-English) and go through early-1800s Appalachian and through several progressively newer fingerstylists from the 1920s through the 50s (Tommy Johnson, Blind Willie McTell, Lonnie Johnson,) the 60s (Robert Pete Williams and Dave Van Ronk) the 70s (Bowling Green John Cephas) and then ending in a more "contemporary" style (Jorma Kaukonan of Hot Tuna, formerly with Jefferson Airplane). So although it was improvised on the spot, I consciously stole (borrowed) from them stylistically as I played it. I chose Dropped-D because lately it's been so maligned as a tuning (because of the punk one-finger barre-chords it's been used for recently) and I wanted to show it was originally used for fairly complex fingerstyles. I chose Db (a half step down) for sort of the same reason. Which was a mistake on my part, because the low Db 6-string notes are barely audible most of the time, being too low for the recording-parameters, and so most of the time only half of the alternating bass-line can be heard.

So really I just sort of chose the key of D (Db) and its simplest progression chords G and A, and then just sort of elaborated on that using various forms of those chords, or chords that can be sustituted for them, with a few runs loosely scale-based on the major scale and minor-pent scale. Seems like I did a plain old short chromatic run in there too somewhere. So it isn't really as complicated or hard as all that. Three chords....D, G and A. With a little familiarity as to how to make a few changes in their voicings and their locations on the fretboard. That other tune that's also on the Sound-Click page (the old hymn, which I did as an explanation or example of something I'd posted to someone at GTU) was EXTREMELY simple. Again...just D, G and A with only a couple of voicings for the D and the use of a Bm as a substitution chord once or twice in the progression. Then just played with a fingerstyle.

There are a lot of things....little "tricks" almost...that can make a relatively simple chord change sound deceptively complex. Not that it doesn't take a little skill and practice, but not as hard as it might sound. For example, instead of just playing an open D-chord (000232) it can be arpeggiated (playing the individual notes within the held chord in whatever order you might choose). You can add the notes leading into that chord (like from the open 1 and 3 strings) as you start to hold it many times (putting more notes into that seemingly-complex mix) and you can hammer (even double-hammer) them or pull off. So now a simple D-chord (starting with the six notes across the board) might have eight or ten possible notes to be played in basically the same position. Play that D-chord in another common location as well (say 000775) and the same things can be done there. So in the time-space of that single D-chord you can find maybe twenty notes or so available....all simply within (or moving into) that chord (or chords). Take the next chord in the progression...a G-chord. The simplest way to hold it in Dropped-D is 550003 or 550033. If you use your THUMB to hold down the 55----- part of it, you now have four free fingers available to put anywhere on the 1,2,3 (and 4) strings spanning probably six or seven frets. That's a LOT of notes to be able to choose from available to you, without even really changing position.....your thumb stays "anchored" on the 5th-fret 6 and 5 strings, giving you a good G-chord base from which you can do any of treble notes with your other fingers. Same with the A.... A simple example, bar the second fret with your index on the 1,2,3,4-strings. Now you have this A X0222X. Add your pinkie on the 5th-fret/1st-string and you have another "voice" of A X02225. Lift your pinky only and put your middle finger on the 3rd-fret/1st-string (while holding that same barred-2nd-fret) and now you have an A7 X02223. Use your pinkie on the 5th-fret again and you can play a little "run" on the 1,2,3 strings, simply by adding/removing the pinkie as you play each string. Etc, etc, etc. As you get more and more familiar with different chord shapes and locations and ways to change its "voicing" (like from major to minor or 7th or diminished, etc) in those locations, the note-playing possibilities become pretty great. Just limited by your speed and how quickly you can assimilate those changes in your mind and have it translate down to your fingers. So while it takes some practice and experience, it isn't as hard as all that. And it becomes purely second nature. You asked what goes through my mind as I played it....scales or arpeggios or nothing. Probably "nothing" is closest. Or simply "D....G.....A". And let the fingers and "the force" take it from there sort of. Anyway, I hope that helps a little.

[jalfordvidman]

That seems so deceptively simple, yet when I try to put it in practice, I am dumbfounded. I understand what you're saying, though.

[jalfordvidman]

That is a neat trick with the A chord, I just tried it out, and it sounds really cool. Now I just have to learn where chords are formed on the fretboard, and some scales.

[HighInfidel]

My bad. Thankx for the correction Dadfad, I got ahead of my self and forgot to add the # to the F.

Are ya still interested in the online collaboration? We are getting started on SoundClick and MSN and would really like to have such a great talent on board.

Steve

[huizzy]

Thanks guys for the responses and I have yet
another question for you. I play in Db tuning
but when i strum a regular chord it sounds WAY
off. So are there different fingerings for this tuning?
If there is can someone put a link or let me know
where I can find these chords for Db tuning.
Thanks all.
- huizzyi -
(a.k.a the wheezel)

[goldrush]

Yes, as soon as you change the pitch of any string a standard chord will also sound different (so, a "C major" chord fingering in standard tuning likely won't be a "C major" anymore in, say, open G or D, or Db, or any other tuning). You may get lucky and find one that sounds nice, but you're better off learning how to play specific to the tuning you choose (just a guess here, but I bet DADFAD has some links to hook you up to alternate tunings chords and fingerings.) Unless I'm way off, Db tuning is just open D tuning tuned down a half step (and I'm rarely WAY off--except my golf swing.....but that's another topic altogether).

This post has been edited by goldrush: 12 June 2004 - 11:09 PM

[evileye]

Yes, as soon as you change the pitch of any string a standard chord will also sound different (so, a "C major" chord fingering in standard tuning likely won't be a "C major" anymore in, say, open G or D, or Db, or any other tuning). You may get lucky and find one that sounds nice, but you're better off learning how to play specific to the tuning you choose (just a guess here, but I bet DADFAD has some links to hook you up to alternate tunings chords and fingerings.) Unless I'm way off, Db tuning is just open D tuning tuned down a half step (and I'm rarely WAY off--except my golf swing.....but that's another topic altogether).

Eat your heart out.

[dadfad]

Are ya still interested in the online collaboration?  We are getting started on SoundClick and MSN and would really like to have such a great talent on board.

Steve

I don't know about the "great talent" part! But yes.

(Your link to Soundclick in your sig doesn't work. For me, anyway)

[HighInfidel]

Try these links:

This one for my account, Soundclick - HighInfidel

And this one for the GTU Club,
GTU Collaboration