Here's food for thought for all lovers of open tunings:
Standard tuning is in fact many open tunings all rolled into one. It's major, major7, minor, minor7, sus4, 9th, 11th ... you can't get all 6 strings ringing out, but chords aren't six strings wide anyway. You can also get very strong tastes of dom7, diminished and augmented in standard, so really, all flavors are covered.
The best thing is that you don't need to re-map your fretboard if you want to play anything other than the I-IV-V chords. I really do need to know what I'm playing at all times, as in 1 or b3 or #5 or 7 ... I know standard inside and out.
I've been accused by purists over the years of not really playing slide because I play in standard ... that's OK by me -- I've actually earned my living doing it since about 1969, so they can say what they want. I personally find open tunings a little restricting and they force you to play cliche lines and inversions, which of course make you sound like every other slider.
The best of all, to me, is to drop the bass string down to D. So the top 5 strings are standard, the bottom 3 are (sort of) open.
Anyone care to debate the subject?
Kirk
I personally find open tunings a little restricting and they force you to play cliche lines and inversions, which of course make you sound like every other slider.
Back in my electric bottleneck slide days - before I switched to lap steel - I prefered playing in standard tuning, unless I was deliberately looking to get the "cliches" right. I found it much easier to stay melodic and free of cliches when playing in standard tuning.
Never mind what "they" say,- when I started playing lap steel in major tunings I was accused of not playing "real" lap steel, but bottleneck slide...... :lol:
Steinar
I kind of tend to agree but in some ways (slide for example) standard tuning is inconvenient (of course if you are playing slide you would probably have a guitar with high action permanently set up)
I have been wanting to learn "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes" for some time. It can be played in standard tuning but would be much more difficult. The original open E5 tuning makes the somg extremely easy to play. The drawback, setting up open E5. I don't have extra guitars laying around to leave one set up that way(yet) and in the course of a day I will practice several songs. So I have stayed away from that song for now.
No, I certainly don't want to debate it. You can play rings around me anytime. :lol:
I don't think it should be cast in terms of an "open tunings vs. standard tuning" contest, anyway. They're different. Standard tuning is far more versatile, especially in terms of being able to play in all keys without moving up and down the fretboard a bunch. And yes, it does consist of fragments of a bunch of open tunings. Open tunings, however, are far easier to learn the basic chords and standard licks in, are undemanding of highly skilled muting techniques for slide as any string you happen to hit on a given fret will be harmonious, are easier to play in their root keys with a thumbpicking bass accompaniment, and if one wishes to play in older blues styles and sound authentic, one should use the tunings they were played in.
I've long thought that beginning guitarists would be best served to be taught in open tunings and transition to standard tuning as an advanced technique. The learning curve to get anything musical sounding out of standard tuning is steep. A lot of new players quit in frustration. But I can have a brand new player who's never touched a guitar playing a decent 12-bar in a few minutes in an open tuning.
Standard tuning is arcane and mysterious. It's hard to look at it and grasp the relationships between the notes on the strings. The chord shapes seem as random as the patterns of stars in the sky. Techniques like Plane Talk to help in their recognition remind me of books that explain how to recognize constellations by finding geometric shapes in the star patterns and relating them to familiar objects. Very helpful, but it still takes a lot of thought and work. Open tunings are far more intuitive.
That's why I've pretty much avoided standard tuning. Never could make heads or tails out of it. Although now I can make some headway by relating parts of it to the open tunings I'm familiar with. Strings 2-4 are the same as Open G. Strings 1&2 are the same as Open E. Strings 2-4 at any fret make a major triad, starting with G open. Strings 1-3 at any fret make a minor triad, beginning with E minor open. Strings 1, 5 & 6 have everything 2 frets lower on them than in Open G. (That is, they're tuned a step higher.) But that stuff takes a lot of thought. Maybe if I worked hard at it for 30 years I'd start to "get it." (If I live that long.)
:lol:
"A cheerful heart is good medicine."
Nah, I don't care to debate it :) But I do think open tunings can give you a different sound....true, it is possible to sound cliche and do the standard licks in open E (or any open tuning), though I doubt Derek Trucks would think open E was so limiting...:) and that's not say there aren't cliche slide licks in standard :)
One thing standard doesn't provide is a minor third interval, at least not without slanting your slide, which is nice for playing the third and fifth together (in E, G# and B) or the fifth and dominant seventh (in E, B and D).
I guess for me, I've been using open tunings for over 20 years, and I love the sound you can get...
Also, once you become familiar with a tuning, it is possible to stretch beyond the cliches - say, what Pierre Bensusan with DADGAD.
My 2 cents, and probably not worth much more than that :)
One thing standard doesn't provide is a minor third interval, at least not without slanting your slide, which is nice for playing the third and fifth together (in E, G# and B) or the fifth and dominant seventh (in E, B and D).Mmmm, mmm, that does make a sweet sounding slide double stop combination!
"A cheerful heart is good medicine."
