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Gettin' Down With DGDGBD


Wetdog

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I think everybody who has ever even dabbled with the blues has messed around open tunings. The two kind of go hand in hand. First two tunes I ever learned to play in Open G were House's "Death Letter Blues" and Bukka's "Fixin' to Die." But I would think that Keef and Zep did more than anybody to introduce open tunings to rockers.

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Dog: the old guys called this one "Spanish" for the tune Spanish Fandango, a std played in that tuning. A staple for blues singers: Johnson (Terrepalne and Kitchen), House (County Line), Patton (Banty Rooster, Moon Going Down), Skip James (Special Rider), McTell (Blues at Midnight), Fred McDowell (Train I Ride, Kokomo). And from their to folk pop and rock. Jorma's Water Song (you wuld like that one), Jacksons Browne (Running on Empty), B Riatts version of Thing Called Love.

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I have been fiddling in Open G tuning since I got my 1976 metal Dobro used about a few years after that sometime. Slide can sound great in G tuning and horrible in standard tuning when beginning slide, so open tunings like G and also Open D are grist for the mill [mellow] .....

 

 

I have loved the tuning since hearing RJ and Fred Mc, so I won't go into all that, but will mention up a few tricks and traps.

 

It is the root of the multiple guitar syndrome, though I have seen J Hammond Jnr give everyone a lesson in fast retuning live on stage mere feet in front of me. But usually it good to have a spare guitar in Open G to save tuning and ...breaking lots of strings...especially at a gig. (But then you need a spare guitar for standard tuning, a spare guitar for open G tuning and a spare guitar for Open D and a spare guitar for DADGAD and and and and..... [biggrin]

 

 

Now some tricks...

 

The joy of Open G dulls when you play the same 2 or 3 songs over and over and get stuck. It dulls a bit more when you play with a singer or a band and you don't know the standard tuning songs they launch in to without warning you......

 

So we need a trick to play some of the standard tuning songs and chords in Open G - here is one way: 4th, 3rd, 2nd strings are tuned the same, so you can play 3 note chords bits you already know, for now leave out the 6, 5 and 1 strings.

 

The next bit is to work out the......eyes go crossed....the dreaded words....scales......arpeggios....so you can find where you really are in relation to standard tuning. Good luck and we will see you in 25 lifetimes if you are just beginning. Cheat a bit by buying some books with them already plotted out.

 

Of course, the other approach is to do songs by people that are already in Open G.....

 

(The old saying - a guitarist will always have something to do........)

 

 

 

BluesKing777.

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Playing lap steel at open sessions as I have, you end up having to negotiate keys other than those easiy reached with a capo. You can get a lot of mileage from a 2 fret range on the 5th and 7th frets, using the root G on the 1st string/5th fret, the C chord on the 5th and the D chord on 7th. Lowell Goerge would do this, on songs like Roll 'Em Easy & Dixie Chicken. Move the whole arrangement up to the 7th-9th frets and you are palying blues in E.

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