The altered tuning quandry

[LiveMusic]

Is there any song that you tried and tried to figure out how to play but you just couldn't get it right and later, you found out it was recorded in an altered tuning? I just wrote a song in Gsus4, the tuning used in Led Zepp's "The Rain Song." There is no way it would sound as good in standard tuning.

 

"Melissa" by the Allman Brothers comes to mind. I forget what tuning it is but it's not standard. Might be open E.

[garthman]

Long, long ago - I was trying to learn "Oxford Town" by Dylan.

[Freeman Keller]

The real quandry of altered tuning is there are so many great songs in so many different tunings and unless you are Leo Kottke you'll spend more timing tuning than playing. Right now I have a 12 and reso in open G, another reso in dobro G (I'm trying to learn lap style), one 12 and one 6 in standard (the 12 is down two), one six in open D and one in open C.

 

But to the original question - learning open C opened (no pun) several great songs that I never would have figured out - Kottke's "Busted Bicycle" and "Tennessee Toad" are both (relatively) easy in that tuning, plus a number of Fahey songs. Both the "Vincents" that I'm struggling to learn (RT's '52 Vincent Black Lighting" and Chet's "Starry Starry Night") would be very difficult in standard, and, of course, most slide would be almost impossible.

 

But I've also learned a trick from Leo - I watched him in one concert changing from standard to dropped D to open D to open G by altering one or two strings at a time - but then he said "this song starts like all my songs - with lots of tuning..."

[Stackabones]

Altered tunings are a great way to generate GAS!

[Terry Allan Hall]

Altered tunings are a great way to justify GAS!

 

Fixed that for ya!

 

And it's really true...I don't know if my lovely wife would be as cool about how many acoustic guitars I own if she didn't understand that I tune several to alternate tunings...

[Stackabones]

Fixed that for ya!

 

[eddieboston2]

How about Hard Time Killing Floor Blues, by Skip James. It features in the movie O Brother Where Art Thou, and Chris Thomas King makes it look so easy. Turns out it's in open Em!

[stype]

I listen to a lot of Bruce Cockburn and some of his songs are very difficult to play. But at the same time, he's very very talented so its always possible that he plays them in standard tuning. That said, I've spent a lot of time over the past year in open E and I've managed to stumble on ways to play a lot of his songs in open E that might be how he really plays them. Its hard to tell, theres so little documentation for some of his songs.

[DonK]

 

Is there any song that you tried and tried to figure out how to play but you just couldn't get it right and later, you found out it was recorded in an altered tuning? I just wrote a song in Gsus4, the tuning used in Led Zepp's "The Rain Song." There is no way it would sound as good in standard tuning. "Melissa" by the Allman Brothers comes to mind. I forget what tuning it is but it's not standard. Might be open E.

 

 

I play Melissa in standard tuning (which is the way I learned it when it first came out), and AG magazine recently printed its transcription, which was the exact same as the way I play, i.e., in standard. Are you sure you weren't thinking of Little Martha?

 

OTOH, I take your point: lot of the Stephen Stills stuff I like to play is in altered tunings and just doesn't sound the same (and/or is a bear to play) in standard tuning. Treetop Flyer and 4+20 are two that come to mind.