Easter Bunnys Get Drunk At Easter

[02R96]

I've only used standard tuning EBGDAE. Lets say I use DADGAD, what happens to the locations of the basic chords?

 

This might sound like a dumb question to some, but if you never ask...

 

[picker]

You end up revoicing the chords, playing different shapes in different places on the neck. That's pretty general, but short of providing chord charts, I think it covers it.

 

By the way, I don't know if you meant to list the notes of the standard tuning from highest pitch to lowest and the notes of DADGAD from the lowest to the highest, but you did. I'm not sure what you'd get if you tuned the guitar DAGDAD, lowest to highest. Might be interesting...

[02R96]

I actually looked for the "correct" way to list the tunings and found them listed both ways, so not knowing any better I just picked one.

[Caevan O’Shite]

Yhup, picker's right- DADGAD tuning is tuned D A D G A D low-to-high. You can think of it as an Open-Dsus4 tuning, which is why it lends itself so well to "modal" sounding music.

 

And, yhep, for "normal" chords, you have to find where to finger the notes, and pay attention to what open strings can or cannot be played along with 'em.

 

But here's the thing- the real beauty of DADGAD, and many other alternate and open tunings, lies in playing lush and exotic chords that would be difficult or even impossible to sound in Standard-Tuning, especially with ringing open strings above, below and throughout.

 

And some of the chord fingerings- the shapes, the grips- will work in DADGAD, though they will have become different chords.

 

For one introductory example, take a standard "D" chord fingering-

 

- x o o 2 3 2 -

 

- and "Dsus4"-

 

- x o o 2 3 3 -

 

- and play them in DADGAD, sliding the grip up and down the fretboard, finding what positions work with the open strings, and what ones do and don't sound good with the note on the 1st-string raised a half-step (like the "Dsus4" fingering).

 

Figure out what chords you're actually sounding that way, and find other grips on the 2nd/3rd/4th, 3rd/4th/5th string groupings, etc. etc. etc....

 

Note that fingerings for Open-D tuning (and its relative up a whole-step, Open-E, as favored by Duane Allman and Derek Trucks) will work for DADGAD, as long as you adjust the fingering for the 3rd-string up a half-step throughout.

[02R96]

Thanks for the help. It looks like I'm going to have some time to experiment over Christmas as we're getting freezing rain and my wife is freaking out about driving 45 minutes to my in-laws house where the big gathering is this year. Anyway...

 

While on the subject of alternate tunings, What does a capo do to the tuning? Of course I realize it shifts it up, but again what happens to chording?

[Larryz]

What happended to the Easter Bunnys getting drunk at Easter?

[Caevan O’Shite]

Everything's the same as without the capo, except shifted up to whatever "base" pitch you set it to. It can sound really good, really pretty and unusual!

 

If you put it at, say, the 2nd-fret, it becomes an Open-Esus4 tuning; at the 5th-fret, Open-Gsus4; at the 7th-fret, Open-Asus4; at the 9th, Bsus4; 10th, Csus4; 11th, C#sus4, 12th, "DADGAD" (Open-Dsus4) again up an octave, etc....

 

For "open" chords, treating the capo as a virtual nut and capoed-strings as "open" strings, you've got the same relative fingerings, just with different note names and keys relative to the capo. Of course, beyond the capo-placement and the relationship between fretted and "open" (capoed) strings, the fretted notes and chords will remain the same as before the capo was put in place.

 

Search for music notation and/or tabs for Pierre Bensusan, Bert Jansch, and Micheal Hedges for some great DADGAD material. Also the occasional Jimmy Page/Led Zeppelin tune; "Kashmir", "White Summer", and "Black Mountain Side" are in DADGAD, for example.

[02R96]

Much to learn, you still have...

Yoda - Star Wars II: Attack of the Clones