[John]

What's Your Favorite tuning for slide, and why? Is everyone here a dropped-D slider, or do you favor another one? Or more than one? How about this--do you limit your ability to play one song or style over another if you stick with just one tuning? :?

John

[1four5]

I started slide only a month and a half ago or so. I tried standard tuning at first and got nowhere. I then tuned down to open G, and then fell in love with open D. However....much of my playing is with friends, and I quickly found out that transpoding all our jam tunes, or retuning etc...etc...is a total pain in the ass...so in the last few weeks I've made a devoted effort to slide in standard tuning, so that I can throw slide in a jam session whenever I want, yet keep doing the stuff I know with my buds. It's slowly paying off...and I would say that I'm at a 50-50 point between standard and open D...leaning towards standard. I'm starting to combine some of my favorite standard fretted riffs with side stuff and developing a style I really like. I'm still real green (playing for a year and a half) so my playing is still heavily in the developing stages.

[John]

Yup--I lean toward Open D myself. Makes fretting behind the slide real easy, because the F# that the third string is tuned to is also the III of what ever chord you happen to be playing, so a minor chord is real easy to voice (and, frankly, Open D just plain sounds good to me).

Or how about this--I've been playing around with this thing, as well:

From dropped D tuning, tune the A-string to G. You then get what's known as G6 tuning, and the cool part is that you are basically in Open G, only with the high E left as an E.

Like this:
Standard is--E,A,D,G,B,e--right?
And Open G is--D,G,D,G,B,d--right?

Try tuning:
Dropped D--D,A,D,G,B,e

to:
G6--D,G,D,G,B,e

I've sort of found you can add more stomp to your swamp just by tweaking one more string than in dropped D. You get to keep your licks from both Open G sliding, and standard tuning, and if you insist upon playing full six strings chords while sliding, just reach 2 frets behind the slide on that high E to make it an additional V of the chord.

Just some thoughts...I've yet to settle on a tuning, and maybe I never will, because so many of them sound so cool in different settings.

[allthumbs]

Originally Posted by Cheap Jazz Box

---tuning for slide, and why? Is everyone here a dropped-D slider, or do you favor another one? Or more than one? How about this--do you limit your ability to play one song or style over another if you stick with just one tuning? :?

John

thats why I play dropped d. I can play in any key without a capo or retuning. The DAD in the bass give me a great chug slide sound too.

[Frankenstrat2]

I use several tunings, depending on the song. I taught myself slide after many years of failed attempts. Fortunately, I did it in natural tuning, which allow me the be very comfortable playing slide anytime to mood strikes me in any song.
Even though I play a lot of electric now, when I was younger I was more of a 'folkie' so I was also pretty familiar with dropD, double dropD, and open G.
I learned open E later to do the Duane type stuff.
It was Kirby Kelly who showed me that open G was the same as open E except everything moved over one string. that was a real revelation, because it meant all the licks I had learned in those two tunings could easily be adapted to the other just by thinking 'move everything over'. Now I don't think about it - its automatic. So that gave me open G, open A (G tuned up one step) Open E and open D (E tuned down)
After seeing Sonny Landreth a few times I've been fooling around with open Em and open Am which is so easy to get into-you just tune the third down 1/2 step. On electric, with a touch of reverb and light delay you get that real moody melodic spooky kind of sound. Last night we were playing 'Love Potion #9 in minor tuning. If you know the song, try it in Am tuning. Its cool.
But my favoritte is probably open G or A depending on the range I'm singing in. I like the way the riffs fall with all those 5ths everywhere- you can go country or very bluesy depending on your choices. Thats also wehre most of my vocal range falls so I sing a lot in those keys.
b.

[John]

OK--can you explain the "move everything up" revelation that you had? It was obviously a cool trick that put you at ease in four different tunings--and I'm all about cool tricks and short cuts!

John

[Frankenstrat2]

Ill try-its not easy without a guitar.
First- its not moving 'up' its moving everything OVER one string.
Heres why
Open G is, from low to high strings:
DGDGBD
which is in the G chord, or G scale
515135
Open E is
EBEG#BE
or
151351

If you think of all the licks you play in open E across the fingerboard in terms of intervals, we could name the tuning as
151351
If you mentally move all licks and chord positions back one string toward the low strings for G tuning, the intervals and positions are the same from the lowest string up to the 5th string
15135- you lose the top root(1) on the highest string, and gain a 5 on the lowest

In reverse, if you move over one string position toward the high strings when thinking from G tuning to E tuning, its the same thing. In this case you lose the root (1) on the lowest string, and gain a 5 on the highest.
The middle 5 strings stay the same in intervalic relationship. All the same licks and chord patterns still apply.

Of course the same rules apply for open A and D as well since they are in essence G and E tuned up or down one step.

How'd I do? Make sense?

I still thank Kirby every day for that one lesson.

[John]

Oddly enough, I think I understand. I'd noticed those interval differences before, but it never clicked. It was always just this side of voodoo--another mystery of the guitar. It makes sense if you think of it the way you explained it. Thanks!

[LightninBoy]

I use mostly Vestapol (E, Eb or D)and Spanish(G or A).
I like Vestapol the most.
Open C is cool too, (deep n nasty) and I like to mess with C6 a bit.
So long as you are aware of where the 3rd's, 5th's, roots's etc are, (and how they relate) all open tunings are pretty much the same kind of thing.
Sol Hoopii invented a really cool C minor tuning which is a lot of fun to mess with.

[Kirk Lorange]

Could you please define Vestapol for me LightinBoy? Believe it or not, I've never heard of it before. It sounds more like a floor varnish to me.

Kirk

[LightninBoy]

Wax and polish as you dust with "Vestapol".
"Tastes great too!".
Yep, does kinda sound like floor polish.

In the 19th century, a guy called Henry Worrell wrote a song called "Sebastapol", which used open D tuning. The song became very popular and the open D tuning became known as "Sebastapol", or more simply, "Vestapol".

Similar story with Spanish tuning.
A popular song in the 1800s was called "Spanish Fandango", written in open G, and the name stuck.

The reason I use these names is not because I'm pedantic.
(Which I'm surely not)
It helps people (Students) to understand that open E and D are actually the very same, except that E is a whole tone higher. (Tighter).

And that open G and A are the same as well, but A is a tone higher.
The early blues men also used these terms.

(You might hear a John Lee Hooker song in the key of B, but its Spanish tuning. He used a capo while in open A, at the second fret, which became the key of B.
The intervals of the tuning are whats important, not the actual key.)


Actually, Spanish and Vestapol are very closely related, as explained by Barry.

Come to think of it, I've never heard either song.
Might try to track em down.

[John]

"...I've had mine today--have you had yours? Vestapol!"

"...it slices, it dices, and removes those awful shower tile stains--it's Vestapol!"

LOL! I crack myself up! I'm so easily entertained!

Lightnin': that was a very cool history lesson. Thanks!

[Kirk Lorange]

You never cease to astound me, LightninBoy.

Kirk

[kevkraft]

Indeed. What is Vestapol?

[kevkraft]

I used to play in standard tuning all the time, because I hated the thought of having to retune and I like being able to play slide and fret, even alternating between the two, on one guitar. I have just recently learned playing in Open E, which I thought at first would be limiting, because you can't easily play minor chords. But I found a way around the it by dampening the 8th note or fretting behind the slide.