God Put A Smile Upon Your Face

Interestingly, I have just bought a second acoustic (off ebay) for the exact purpose of playing in open tunings, so this is just perfect.

I was thinking about doing that, too. What'd you buy?

I am a lefty so i always scan the ebay lefties section looking for bargains. I got a Yamaha fg411. Its 3 years old but has never been played, its absolutely mint, very nice.

£100. bargain.

Cheers

Matt

Hi Matt

Thanks for the kudos. Glad to hear I did okay with this one.

And congrats on the guitar! Take relatively decent care of that Yamaha and it might last you the rest of your life. I had a FG (355 I believe) for almost twenty-two years. When I purchased the Seagull my original plan was to use the Yamaha either as my "open tuning" guitar or to finally have a guitar dedicated to "Nashville tuning" (using all the high strings of a twelve string guitar). But in reality I ended up giving it away to a friend's nephew so that he could start learning to play. I hope he loves it as much as I did!

Now maybe I should start looking around again... :wink:

Peace

Hey David,

I love this song, frankly I thought it was the best song on the album and the main reason I actually bought the CD.

Now the arrrgghhh. Open Tuning, yikes. I just posted another message about Richards and his Open Tunings.

Unfortunately, I don't have a second guitar to try Opening Tunings and not good enough to spend time experimenting with it (just yet).

Thanks for the Lessons as always.

Kenny

hmmmmm, buying a guitar just for open tunings....

Sounds like a great excuse. I'll be back in a bit.

Unfortunately, I don't have a second guitar to try Opening Tunings and not good enough to spend time experimenting with it (just yet).

Thanks for the Lessons as always.

Kenny

Hi Kenny

I know what you feel when you talk about being "not good enough" to spend time experimenting but the truth is that if you play an Em, E, A or Am (Amaj7 is good, too) open position chord, then you can usually play around to your heart's content with open (and many alternate) tunings.

What holds a lot of people back is the actual retuning itself. I started out playing guitar on a twelve string so it became a necessity for me to get good at tuning my guitar. Nowadays with the tuners they have available, it's pretty easy to go from one tuning to another. But more important, manually tuning your guitar is a great way to start developing your ear. Listening is probably one skill that guitarists (along with most musicians) wait 'til last to develop and it's one that can probably help them more than anything else.

Be that as it may, I guess I just want to encourage you to not worry about waiting until you're "good enough." If you can pick up the guitar and strum, you're ninety-nine percent there already!

Peace

Hey Dave,

Thanks for the encouragement. Recently I just bought a chromatic tuner in order to prepare myself for Open Tuning in the future, but have not venture there yet.

As I am little cautious after breaking many G and High E strings when changing my strings.

I've read that some Open Tunings may be hard on the neck and strings.

But you're right... just gotta jump in sometime. Now I've the tab for Jumpin Jack Flash in Guitar World (Open E Tuning) and now your great lesson of Coldplay's God Put a Smile Upon Your Face.

All the best, Kenny

ps. when's the strumming CD coming out?

Kenny

Actually I think its the total opposite to your perception.....I was still total rubbish at guitar when I first used open D tuning, slapped a capo on the 2nd fret, and played Bob Dylan's Shelter From the Storm - its RIDICULOUSLY easy because of the tuning (its on the Easy Song Database somewhere, posted by me). In fact, it gave me a significant boost in my playing, just being able to play that one song all the way through and have people say "wow, I like that a lot - how long you been playing???".....

Honestly, it opens your eyes to how simple some songs really are in alternate tuning.

Give it a go, you'll surprise yourself no doubt

All the best

Matt

Thanks Matt,

I guess my only reasoning was time. I barely have time to sit down and just play (with three kids and all).

So my biggest hold back was to spend the time to tune and then retune again.

But as you and Dave both have mention, sometimes you just gotta take the plunge.

It would be great if there is a listing of songs for each type of tuning. So if I was to try Open G Tuning (or any other tuning), what type of songs are available to learn. That way it would make the effort to retune worthwile, that way I could learn more than one song, and keep in Open G for a while.

And thanks guys, this forum is so great for encouragement.

Cheers, Kenny

Open D tuning, with capo at 2nd fret (so it becomes open E)

Dylan -

Shelter from the Storm (easy)
Simple Twist of Fate (a little harder but ok)

Open G

Rolling stones!!! Keith plays a lot in this tuning.

good luck!

Matt

So I see this lesson, about a song I really dig, and decide to try it. Ofcourse I think I know better then David, so I tune to open-C# instead of open-B. Took me a few seconds before my G string snapped. That blows, since I don't have no spare strings and stores are closed tomorrow. Looks like I'll have to wait with the lesson...

But thanks a bunch anyway, next-time I'll follow the lesson a bit more closely. :lol:

ps. shouldn't that 'E#m(actuallyF)' read 'E#(aActually F)'?

ps. shouldn't that 'E#m(actuallyF)' read 'E#(aActually F)'?

Indeed it should. I'll try to correct it next time I'm in the administrative wing. And I'm sorry to hear about the G string. Seriously. I know it's not always possible, but I try to keep a full set of spares in my case because one never knows. But then again, I busted an A string on my Dobro last time out performing and had to call it a day. *Sigh*

Peace

I am a lefty too and i have a classical on which i fingerpick hotel california everyday and 'wake me when september end' and 'time of your life' and many others.Now i am really thinking of getting a Epiphone LP 100 or maybe G310 lefty sooooon........................ :oops: (i know dad would let me have one if i get good marks :lol: )

And by the way ' God put a smile ' is simply amazing.Wasn't it a wrestling theme (WWE) ? 8)

So yesterday, I went and bought some new strings (it was time for a change).

Now that I have the strings, I could try out this tuning and not feel worried about breaking the strings.

Printed out the lesson, and tuned the guitar this morning. And strummed out those chords.

One word.

AWESOME!!!!!

Thank you Dave for the lesson and to Dave and Matt for the encouragement.

No looking back now.
Kenny