Travis Brown
From:
Florida, USA
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Posted 31 Dec 2020 5:24 pm |
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I know Bill McCloskey has been singing the praises of the Alkire system for a few years, and being new to lap steel I figured I'd try it out.
A little about myself - I've been playing lap steel for a few months now, but I've been playing fretted guitar for over 30 years. I have experimented extensively with blues slide guitar and alternate tunings, so I thought lap steep would be more of the same, just sideways. I was wrong! It has been mind expanding trying to figure out how to use the slant to play chords other than the "prime" chord.
I've been working a lot with C6 and B11, and while I can get around pretty well in B11, C6 has been pretty hard for me to wrap my head around.
Surfing this forum I saw some of Mr McCloskey's posts about the Alkire system and watched his vids as well, but this post in particular caught my eye:
| Bill McCloskey wrote: |
Much has been made about the difficulty of the eharp tuning, but it really isn't all that hard. The trick is to think of it as 6 melody strings and 4 bass strings. And the strategy is to focus on learning the top 6 strings first. Once you get used to the top 6 string grips, it isn't much harder to add the lower strings.
That makes it possible to start learning the Eharp tuning with just a 6 string. Top 6 strings from bottom to top are G, G#, A, B, C#, E. I find it easier to think in terms of C and G so, placing the bar at the 3rd fret, the top 6 strings are Bb, B, C, D, E, G.
Grips 4, 2, 1 give us a C Chord: C, E, G.
Grips 5, 3, 1 give us a G chord, first inversion: B, D, G.
Grips 6, 3, 1 give us a Gm chord, first inversion: Bb, D, G
Grips 6, 4, 2, 1 give us a C7th chord: Bb, C, E, G |
As I considered what Bill had posted, what appealed to me is the ease with which you can play a major chord, add9, Maj7, and a Min7, all in the same position.
This is based off what Bill described as:
3rd fret - Grips 4, 2, 1 give us a C Chord: C, E, G.
I extrapolated:
3rd fret - Grips 4, 3, 2, 1 give us a Cadd9 Chord: C, D, E, G.
3rd fret - Grips 5, 2, 1 give us a Cmaj7 Chord: B, E, G.
3rd fret - Grips 6, 4, 2, 1 give us a C7 Chord: Bb, E, G.
And of course you could combine these to get C9, Cmaj9 also.
Then I realized the 5,3,1 grip also has great flexibility and is really the foundation to how I approach the tuning.
3rd fret - Grips 5, 3, 1 give us a G chord: B, D, G.
3rd fret - Grips 6, 3, 1 give us a Gm chord: Bb, D, G
3rd fret - Grips 5, 3, 2, 1 give us a G6 chord: B, D, E, G.
3rd fret - Grips 6, 3, 2, 1 give us a Gm6 chord: Bb, D, E, G.
It was a bit of a breakthrough when I realized that with the 5,3,1 grip, the chord's fundamental is on the high E string, which, as a long time guitar player, makes it very easy for me to know what chord I'm playing. As you know, guitarists move barre chords around the neck, and arguably the most commonly used barre is the E chord shape. So if some one says a song is in the key A major, I play a E barre chord in the fifth fret to get that A major chord.
A major in Alkire? 5,3,1 in the fifth fret - a different shape, but the same fret as guitar. Not only that, to move up to the IV chord, you just switch to the 4,2,1 grip in the same fret. Having the I and IV in the same fret just like guitar makes it much easier for me to get my head around.
Also just like a guitar, the ii chord and V7 are two frets higher than the I, you just have to drop your thumb and play 6,3,1, and then the V7 is 6, 4, 2, 1. These positions are so similar to guitar I find it much easier to visualize the slide positions than I do with other tunings.
So, the 6 string Alkire tuning gives you easy access to three or four note Maj, Min, Add9, Maj6, Min6, Maj7, Dom7, Maj9, and Dom9 chords. The tuning also sits on the neck in a somewhat similar manner to fretted guitar, which makes it easier for an experienced guitar player to adapt to lap steel. That is pretty dang powerful IMO.
What you could lose or fail to learn if you get too devoted to the Alkire system is the quirky coolness of slants, which to me are a very distinctive aspect of lap steel. But I suspect the player just has to try a little to keep them in his vocabulary, and I know I will.
To be clear, I'm not trying to convince anyone that the Alkire tuning is the best and what everyone should use. I do think it has some advantages, especially for someone very familiar with fretted guitar or someone who wants to play lots of three and four note 6th, 7th, and 9th chords. |
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