[Buzzy]

Hi Folks,
This weekend I was trying to learn "Something Fine" by Jackson Browne. A great song, it's beauty haunts me.
The only tab I could find on the web states, correctly I believe, that Jackson Browne dropped all the strings by a semitone
but the A fifth string by one and a half tones. Does anyone out there know what that tuning is called. Are there any Jackson browne fans out there that know the chords and pattern?
Any more songs in that tuning? The online tab is not very accurate ( as usual) Any help would be much appreciated

[Kirk Lorange]

Originally Posted by Buzzy

Hi Folks,
This weekend I was trying to learn "Something Fine" by Jackson Browne. A great song, it's beauty haunts me.
The only tab I could find on the web states, correctly I believe, that Jackson Browne dropped all the strings by a semitone
but the A fifth string by one and a half tones. Does anyone out there know what that tuning is called. Are there any Jackson browne fans out there that know the chords and pattern?
Any more songs in that tuning? The online tab is not very accurate ( as usual) Any help would be much appreciated

Hi, Buzzy.

I've never heard of that tuning ... pretending he hasn't altered the other strings by that semitone, that would make it EGDGBE which makes it a sort of open Em7th tuning ... I'm sure there are all kinds of neat things you could do in that.

JB has always been one of my favorites ... what a great writer. I met and became friends with Dave Lindley who of course worked a lot with JB. He's a wonderful player and a very interesting guy.

Having just listened to a snippet of the tune on iTunes, I'm surprised that he's using that tuning as it's in a major key, not minor.

[Matty22]

Originally Posted by Kirk Lorange

pretending he hasn't altered the other strings by that semitone, that would make it EGDGBE which makes it a sort of open Em7th tuning

but the A fifth string by one and a half tones

Sticking my neck out here a bit, and i dont mean to show up the boss feller ... but wouldnt lowering the A string by 1 and 1/2 tones make it E F# D G B E??

Ill be hiding under a rock until the dust settles

[cshude]

nope, matty- if all the others were lowered by 1/2 as well, you would actually end up with: Eb, Gb, Db, Gb, Bb, Eb.

[Matty22]

Yeah.........

F# - Gb - i thought was the same thing(you could play either of those two notes by fretting the 2nd fret of either E string)... well up until now :s

As Kirk said... Ignore all strings excepting the A string. That would give you

E F# D G B E or E Gb D G B E...

what i was originally questioning, was that Kirk had written E G D G B E..... Which would only be lowering the A string by 2 semi's. A, G#/Ab, G.

If not its back to the drawing board for me

[Buzzy]

Hi, Sorry for the confusion Matty, my post is clear as mud ,however,Schude and Kirk are right. I am trying to figure this out and my theory knowledge is nil but I think Jackson Browne played it this way because the Lowered fifth gives the song a G drone in the bass. What do you think Kirk , anyone?
I have attempted to tab the intro as seen here:
Something Fine ( record is tuned down a semitone, note 5th string!)

intro

e|--5 slide7---------------------------------3----
B|------------------------0---------------1--------
G|----------7-----------------2-p-0---0------------
D|-------0-------X------------0-----2--------------
G|--0---------0-------0-------0---------0------0--
E|----------------------------0-------------------|

e|--------------2-----------------------------------|
B|----------------3-------3-------------------------|
G|------------2----2slide4--4-----------------------
D|-----2----0------0-------------0------------------|
G-0-----------0--------------0---------------------|
E|--------------------------------------------------|

e|-------------3------------------------------------|
B|----------1-----0--1--0---------------------------|
G|-2p0---0--------0--0--0----------------------------
D|-----2-------x-----------------------------------|
G-0-----0---------0-----0----------------------------
E|--------------------------------------------------|
Any comments?

[cshude]

Matty, you're right in that F# and Gb are the same note, it's just a matter of what key you are looking at. Being that if you lowered everything across the board by at least a semi-tone, you are dominated by flats, thus the reason why I used the Gb instead of the F#.

[Matty22]

Fair 'nuff... I had one of those "Dear god, dont tell me everything i thought i knew was wrong" moments..

Cheers

[Kirk Lorange]

Now I'm confused!

I calculated it this way: ignoring the semitone drop for the other five strings, that means that the A string drops 1.5 tones minus the 0.5 = 1 tone. One wholetone below A is G.

[Buzzy]

Sorry guys; Kirk, you were right all along, I should have quoted from the Tab page in the first place. It is much clearer . Here it is below (better late than never

"The original is fine, but to play along with the album you must tune down a 1/2 step.So, the correct tuning is D# F# C# f# a# d#
Something Fine by Jackson BrowneTuning: Drop fifth string from A to G(EGDGBE)
Finger pick throughout.
Chords Used: G G9 C/G A7/G "

[Matty22]

Ahh, I getchya Kirk, I thought you were just ignoring the other strings for convienience, but youve ignored the "drop half a step" from all strings, and flatted the A string by 2 semi's... Makes sense now....

Ill go back to that rock i was hiding under... and brush up on some attention to detail and music thoery

[Buzzy]

I was reading about guitar tuning on Wikipedia and came across this quote

""Pseudo Russian" or "g" tuning: D-G-d-g-b-e'
A versatile tuning examples of which can be heard in Choro de Saudade by Agustín Barrios and also in well known transcriptions of La Maja de Goya by Enrique Granados and Sevilla by Isaac Albéniz."
Perhaps that is the correct altered tuning? Sorry to muddy the water again