Tuning for Americana/Singer song writer/Praise and worship?

Wes Hall · From: Alabama, USA

I'm a rookie at lap steel(non pedal) and have played mostly in E and G major tunings for a couple years. I've been dabbling with C6 LATELY. I play in an Americana/Singer song writer/Praise and worship setting. Sometimes with a full band(acoustic guitar, lead guitar,bass, drums and keyboard) and sometimes just me and the singer with an acoustic. I'm actually the lead guitar player and double on steel. What tuning would be the most versatile for these styles on 6 string lap steel?

Mike Neer · From: NJ

In my opinion, E tuning fits naturally into those styles and requires less time to get intimately acquainted with than C6. If you were to really put in time learning C6, and then put in significant time adapting your style to C6, then I think it would be the most versatile. However, for creating vibe and even playing simple accompaniment, it's hard to beat E or D, once you get accustomed to the idea of how to approach minor chords and realizing that often you only need one or two notes.
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Jerome Hawkes · From: Fayetteville, North Carolina, USA

depends on the music - some americana/P&W is pretty harmonically advanced from the old 3 chord stuff/hymns. i like the old E7 tuning more and more as a basic tuning, yeah, its simple but gets the job done.
i agree with mike, if you aren't going to dedicate a lot of time to C6, and just want to play a little steel here and there, stick to E or D based tunings. it took me a good 2 years to get my head around the C6 - really just now getting along with it to a point where i can get whatever i need...and its in there, you just gotta spend A LOT of time with it.
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Wes Hall · From: Alabama, USA

Thanks for the input.We play several songs with 6m,2m7 stuff. I would like to really broaden my playing and chord options. I notice there are more guitar players and not enough steel players out there. I would also like to progress to 8 string eventually. So would you guys say if I really dug into C6 it would be say a more versatile tuning? And as a side bar, What is a suggested scale length?

Mike Neer · From: NJ

Jerome Hawkes · From: Fayetteville, North Carolina, USA

the first thing i would add to your decision (and this has been debated hotly) is the steel guitar, in general, is not a chordal instrument like a standard guitar. you are going to beat your head against a wall if you "think guitaristly" on a steel regardless of the tuning you choose. this is the major downfall of many beginners to the instrument, imo and why "how many straight bar chords can i get out of a tuning" is amount to searching for unicorns. freeing yourself from this kind of thinking and developing your ear to hear rootless/partial voicings and "hearing the bass line in your head" is the better solution. then you begin to see which tunings offer you the most options along this line of thinking and its hard to beat C6 (or A6 / E13 (which is 6th based) if you have 8 strings) or C6/A7 especially.
good luck -
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Edward Meisse · From: Santa Rosa, California, USA

Wes, Mike and Jerome are giving you good cautionary advice. But it sounds to me like you are going to want to play C6 eventually. So my advice is to get going on it.
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Peter Jacobs · From: Northern Virginia

I play Americana music and have be using strictly Low-bass G on Dobro and Gadd4 on steel (open G with a C added as the high string, to make suspended chords). I went with G because I played banjo first, so it's familiar. It works for what I want to play.

On the other hand, David Lindley uses D tuning (or at least, the same intervals as D tuning, even when tuned to other open chords) and he certainly can make some great things happen

I've never used C6, so I can't say one way or the other, but as so many players hear have shown, it's pretty versatile. It sounds like you're at an early enough point, though, where C6 could work for you. There are certainly enough resources to help you. Take a listen to Mike's playing -- C6 fits a lot of styles, and does it convincingly.
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Chris Walke · From: St Charles, IL

I'll second low bass open G. I do play C6 on occasion, when the song seems to call for it. Most of what I do is back up singer/songwriters playing Americana/folk-pop, etc. I also play in a worship band, and if I'm not playing pedal steel at church, it's the lap steel in G.

Personally, I feel open G is more akin to standard guitar tuning and presents a smaller learning curve.

But I also agree that there is great value in learning C6.

Wes Hall · From: Alabama, USA

Thanks guys! This is all very helpful. Out of curiosity, what lap steels are you guys playing and what scale length?

Edward Meisse · From: Santa Rosa, California, USA

If I were you, I would choose my scale length based on my playing style. If you are going to use a great many slants, particularly if they are split slants, you will want to consider a 221/2 inch scale. When I played electric, I preferred short scale because the sustain was shorter, which made it better for the acoustic style I prefer to play. If you avoid slants and want a lot of sustain, the longer the scale the better.
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Mike Neer · From: NJ

I used to play with a phenomenal singer/songwriter years ago and would always bring a Chandler lap steel tuned to G or A. It is a much lighter sound than the more modal sounding D or E tunings. I even remember Ry Cooder saying something to that effect regarding G vs. D tuning. I think he was right about it.

Both the D and G tunings are good for doing string pulls. With the G tuning, you just grab strings 1 and 2 and pull the hell out of them. If you spend time trying to get the perfect string gauges, you can nail the pulls in tune almost every time. String 1 is raised a whole step and string 2 a 1/2 step.
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Tom Pettingill · From: California, USA (deceased)

John Bushouse · Posted 12 Apr 2014 5:26 pm

You might try either low or high bass G with the 4th string raised from D to E. Strings 1-3 equal major chord, strings 2-4 equal its relative minor.

Dom Franco · From: Beaverton, OR, 97007

I use A6th, it's just as useful as C6th but to me as a guitar player also, it seems more intuitive. I can get lots of cool "E" licks open and dobro type hammer-ons in the keys I need too play.
I play at church with the worship team all the time.
I have been leading Praise and worship for 30+years.

Dom Franco
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Joe Snow · From: Argyle,Texas, USA

I don't know if this is an option, but I play with a great songwriter who could probably be characterized as Americana, and use two instruments. I play a dobro on some songs with a D tuning; on others I play a double neck (6 string) with E on one neck and C6 on the other. Covers a lot of possibilities with the shows we do.

Jamie Mitchell · From: Nashville, TN

I don't know about the P&W stuff, but I've done a lot of Americana/singer-songwriter type gigs on steel, or between guitar and steel.

I'd say go with an E variant. For me, that's E B G# E C# A, high to low. I started with straight open E, then committed to E7 at some point. I was lowering the D to a C# for some stuff too.

With the tuning listed above, you can still get the licks involving the bottom three strings in E7, it just takes a reverse slant. And you got your minor...

I do lots of playing on single strings - I've done some formal study in north Indian classical music, which is mostly single string - and having the B and E on top is a huge safety blanket for me.

So, I'd give that tuning a shot.
Otherwise, if you do open E/D, you can bump stuff around to get to A or G pretty quickly, although I agree with Mike about the "lightness".

I'm working on C6, but to really get there, I suspect I may need a double-neck so I can bail out if needed... We'll see.

j

Paul Honeycutt · From: Colorado, USA

No clue about P&W, but I've done a bit with C6. I think there's a lot you can do with it, especially if you've already played it for a while.

Right now I'm playing a modified Harmony Sovereign with a soundhole pickup and an extension nut with a band that's all over the map musically. Beatles, Civil Wars, Courtyard Hounds, Jayhawks, Joe Walsh... I keep it in D and I can just get lost in that guitar for hours. It does country, blues, rock stuff very well.

I'm restoring a National D8 console steel that I'm going to have in E7 and C6. I'm not sure if it'll compliment or replace the Harmony yet. I also play acoustic and electric guitars and mandolin with this band, so it's a lot of stuff to haul around.

My electric lap steel is in E and it's more of a blues-rock sound. It's amazing how much lowering a tuning a whole step can make in the feel of the music.

I don't know if I've helped you or just confused you more. I guess D is my current favorite, but that may change once I have a C6 instrument up and running again. Experiment. Strings are cheap!

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