What does a new tuning cost you.

Bill McCloskey · Posted 18 May 2010 3:13 pm

Looking at all the fun tunings in Andy Volk's Slide Rule book can get a person thinking about trying out all these cool new things. But at what cost?

Well, new strings to start. Got to get the right gauges. And then if you don't have a back up steel, then your main instrument with the tuning you know is out of commission.

Otherwise, you just NEED to get another steel so a quick trip to ebay and now you have that new steel to try.

Now you have the time spent learning the NEW tuning which means the OLD tuning is going to get neglected, or at the least, you won't be progressing on that tuning.

Pick another tuning and you are off the races again.

makes one think about settling down with one tuning, good or bad.

Robert Murphy · From: West Virginia

I am of the opinion that it depends on how your brain works. I started with A major and advanced to Dobro G. Now I can combine the two into A11 and find my way to more complex sounds by expanding on what I've learned by rote and practice. This is after years of Spanish guitar. The common thread for me is being able to read music and speak in correct terms. There are still 24 hours in the day and I'll never be as good as the guy who has 30 years of C6 under his belt but I growing and happy.

Alan Brookes · From: Brummy living in Southern California

I've always thought that steel guitars with more than two necks were a little preposterous, but after reading the above I'm starting to think that we should all start out with six-neck guitars and have five alternative tunings available to practice with. Wink

(I say five alternative tunings, because grammatically there has to be one tuning that the other five offer alternatives to.)

Blake Hawkins · From: Florida

If you don't mind retuning, you can get many tunings on one set of strings.
On my 6 string lap steel I can get the following
without changing strings: A6, E9, C6/A7, C6, B11 and C#mi9.
Other tunings are possible as well but these are the
ones I use.

HowardR · From: N.Y.C.-Fire Island-Asheville

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What does a new tuning cost you
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A new guitar......

Bill McCloskey · Posted 19 May 2010 3:49 am

Yes it does Howard. Smile

But to Blake's response, even if you don't need to buy new strings and a new guitar, changing tunings still costs you: it costs time, progress,

Mike Neer · From: NJ

It does cost time, but most importantly, sanity. When you find yourself visualizing the fretboard and trying to work on patterns while operating heavy machinery, you're getting there. Laughing

I think of it as an investment. Do the hard work, learn 3 or 4 commonly used tunings, then manipulate them to suit your needs.
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Blake Hawkins · From: Florida

Bill, Yep, retuning does take time. Jerry Byrd would
expect you to retune by ear in 30 seconds or less.
As for progress, it depends on how you look at it.
Learning a song in a different tuning, I would count as progress.
If I'm doing a show, I'll only use one tuning per set
so I don't take time retuning on stage during the performance. (All the above is based on a 6 string lap steel.)
Usually, in jams, I use a D-8 with A6 and E13.
Still, it is nice to use the 6 string lap steel sometimes. Just depends on the music and the other instruments in the group.

Twayn Williams · From: Portland, OR

Papa Joe Pollick · From: Swanton, Ohio

I,at one time,had 5 different necks all different tunings and a stock-pile of individual strings to mess around with.I finaly wized up and sold all but one.It wasn't the cost that did it for me but rather the confusion of trying to remember how to play the different tunings.My tuning is 8 string C6th.

Bill McCloskey · Posted 19 May 2010 9:53 am

Sounds like it cost you sanity, Papa.

Papa Joe Pollick · From: Swanton, Ohio

I did somehow manage to get it in check at the point of talkin' to myself.

Bill McCloskey · Posted 19 May 2010 12:21 pm

HA!

That explains a lot Papa. Smile

ebb · From: nj

this is an interesting discussion

john ely says he can play 80% of what he does on any tuning

the reason, of course, is because each tuning is a slightly different configuration of intervals in a slightly different range

most tunings (for steel) are primarily 3rds (maj and min) with smaller intervals on the higher strings and larger intervals on the lower strings

so it really comes down to an optimization of the distribution of playing notes 1,2,3 and 4 at a time that you might do with how they fit into that range

and how they are able to cover the harmonic requirements for the distribution of what you want to hear

i think studying different tunings crystallizes this concept and forces one to think more and to rote less

rote is important in the heat of the battle but now you concentrate on the where the intervals reside

of course the more notes you play at a time the harder this exercise becomes in real time

but this is probably the reason some of the greats could strum a tuning and go to town on single string licks

Mike Neer · From: NJ

I agree with you ebb--once you solidify your recognition of the intervals and spend enough time working out an approach to playing on those strings, it is very easy to transfer it over to other tunings. The only thing you have to do is keep in mind the change in pitch and relative positions. I don't play pieces per se in different tunings, but I can play my way through gigs as a sideman playing a number of tunings. This is when the drooling usually starts...

When I look up I grin, when I look down I drool.--Leo Kottke
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ebb · From: nj

but the change in pitch is the same number of frets once you find home with the caveats of running off the ends

and of course your open string licks are prone to terror

before the drool starts revert to single lines where the audience will just think you are a guitar player

and only you will think you are knuckle dragging

in a way we have it much easier than the horn players that have to learn tunes in every key

we just have to know the edge cases and tighter frets the higher we go

ebb · From: nj

but this begs a bigger issue

tunings are just optimizations of desires to constraints

therefore one shouldnt just accept the status quo unless ones desires are unknown or yet undiscovered

one surprising discovery for me was that tone was enhanced by less strings and simpler mechanisms

Benjamin Franz · From: Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

Ryan Barwin · From: Hamilton, Ontario, Canada

You can definitely get lots of different tunings with one set of strings. On my 6-string lap steel, which has a regular set of guitar strings, I can easily use C6th, A6th, E6th, E7th, E major, and many other tunings without breaking any strings.

If you have one tuning as your main tuning, learning to play in other tunings will help you understand the main tuning better, because you'll see the relationships between the intervals in new ways and notice patterns in it that you wouldn't otherwise have seen. At least that's the way I think...
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Twayn Williams · From: Portland, OR

ebb · From: nj

i dont think the learning process ever ends even in unlimited time

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