slide tunings

One I've used a lot that's fairly uncommon is Open G minor, DGDGBbD.

One I've used a lot that's fairly uncommon is Open G minor, DGDGBbD.
Hmm... I'll try that...

I mainly use Open G and Open E, but I'm not much of a slide player anyway... :(

I've liked a number of different tunings for fretted fingerstyle, but generally prefer Open-D and standard for slide.

One great thing about Open-D is that you can raise the 3rd-string a half-step to G for "DADGAD", or lower it a half-step to F for Dm.

I know, not all that exotic, right? Throw in some picking-hand artificial harmonics on slide-notes, some behind-the-slide-fretting, and a little slanted-slide and you'll get more miles outta them ol' dogs...

What the heck were you doing up at 4:54am, K? :D

I have to pull the slides out and try mastering 'em again. :?

One I've used a lot that's fairly uncommon is Open G minor, DGDGBbD.
I've always wondered why minor open tunings seem to be so rare. You get a major chord with one finger at the first fret of the appropriate string. With a major chord open tuning, you have to stretch a bit and mute to get a minor, if I understand correctly. I think baroque lutes were tuned to Gm. I wonder if that's why.

If you're playing bottleneck slide in a major open tuning, it's no problem to get the minor by fretting the string tuned to the third one fret behind the slide. In my Star Spangled Banner that I put up on Soundclick a few days ago, that's how I did the E minor second verse in Open E. (Did a few Bsus4s by fretting that string ahead of the slide, too.)

Makes sense. I guess the only time you have to shift position is if you want to try to play the minor of the tuned chord in open position, which probably isn't often.

Right. Then it's easy to play it with the minor third on a string tuned to the root, on the third fret, and skip the string tuned to the major third. Did that, too, in that SSB. (Which can be found here: http://www.soundclick.com/johnculp ) I haven't put much up there yet, and if you listen you'll find I'm pretty much a noob to this stuff, too. I'm having loads of fun with it, though!
:P

Here's Some Open Tunings: (Low to High) that I have tried and like!!!
I'll probably do some recodrings this coming winter w/a few of them?

Jimmy Page-Bronyraur Stomp C F C F A f
C#: C# G# C# G# C# f
Jazzy C#: C# G# C# G# B e
Other C#- C# F# C# F# A# C# (Nice- Fngpkg/slide)
Dave Wilcox Eb tuning: Eb A C# E A B [Nice!]
Tropical: D A D F# B d
Otis Taylor- D G D G G d (Lo-Hi Moody/Dark)
KJ Phelps- D A D G C e

Another nice one is the Dmaj7 tuning - DADF#AC#. First time I sat down with it I ended up writing a complete tune ("Northern Lights" on my website)...

Steinar

I'll have to check that out. I've just played around a little and sounded like some of that "New Age" stuff. D7 is a cool tuning, just tuning the first string in Open D down to C. I was taught to play Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Mr. Banker" in that when I was starting out.

"What the heck were you doing up at 4:54am, K?" :D
I had been asleep, with some of Bro' Diamond Dust's recommended listening downloading in slow-mo' over my 56k dial-up, and just got up to check it and musta sleep-walked on over here... y'know how it is. No, wait, it's sound-man, not sand-man, right? >yawn<

"I have to pull the slides out and try mastering 'em again." :?
Yeah, you'd BETTER! BEST get to STEPPIN' on that Mr. Sound-Man! :wink:

I tend to be very lazy about changing tunings. I will go through spells playing only in open G, then D, then maybe a D minor. I'm not playing out, so it doesn't matter. Mainly I stay in D or G, sometimes using a capo for E or A.

But, I've recently gotten a couple of Cigar Box Guitars, one a three string, the other three "guitar" strings and one bass string on a separate neck placed close enough to reach all four strings with a slide.

On these things I find that I'm always fiddling with the tunings, just twisting the machine heads looking for something that sounds cool. Sometimes I then use a tuner to see what I've found. Its pretty fun and every new tuning opens up new possibilities.

Someday I may get adventuresome, and confident, enough to try that with my six stringers.

Hey David, I'll bet there are folks on here who don't know about CBGs. You might want to start a thread on that and enlighten them.
:D