Big List of Eighty 8-String Tunings with Degrees

Kyle Jester · From: Martinez, California

I spend more time building learning tools than practicing slant bar so this is a compilation of data and tools.
This forum seems to be more populated by older pros, but just in case someone finds any of this useful......

tl;dr update: All of the tools and ideas in this thread are freely available at this website I compiled them all into: SlantFinder.Pro

Kyle Jester · From: Martinez, California

Kyle Jester · From: Martinez, California

I wanted to make a Fretboard that showed the degrees of other chords that I might be sliding by, so I have a spreadsheet too that I will probably share at some point.
This is a screenshot of 8-string A6 tuning F♯AC♯EF♯AC♯E showing the degrees of all the progression chords and highlighting the one chord.
All of this info is based on the KEY OF A. If you have a request of a tuning and key just holler and I'll grab a screenshot for you, it's all auto-generated in a spreadsheet.

This first one assumes the 2, 3, & 6 chords are minor and shows maj7 rather than dom7....

This one assumes all chords in the song are major and includes the dom7 rather than the maj7....

Kyle Jester · From: Martinez, California

Sticking with the key of A for continuity.

Kyle Jester · From: Martinez, California

Turns out that MXR 10-band EQ only has 6 useful faders for guitar/steel (approx 62.5 to 2k).
The highest 2 faders on that pedal (8k & 16k) don't even show up when mapped over a piano keyboard.

Bill McCloskey · Posted 4 Nov 2023 5:34 pm

Wow, tremendous amount of work and a great resource. I love my spreadsheets.

Landon Jarrel · From: Space

Fantastic! Thanks a bunch!

Tim Whitlock · From: Colorado, USA

Terrific resource! Thanks for sharing!!

Kyle Jester · From: Martinez, California

Thanks for chiming in guys, much appreciated. Everyone's so nice here and it's just a goldmine of stories and info, I'm happy to donate the time/tools.

This weekend's tool is a very minimal and quick-loading webpage that will auto-generate a copedent based on your choosing of any of the 80 tunings above.
It also displays the scale degrees based on whatever key you choose.
More options/features coming to that soon.
And just below that is the big list of tunings, sortable and filterable.

HERE'S THE LINK: https://kylejester.nfshost.com/steel

Joe A. Roberts · From: Seoul, South Korea

Good work! Some things I noticed:

This is listed twice:
F♯13 F♯ D♯ F♯ A♯ E G♯ C♯ E (1 6 1 3 ♭7 2 5 ♭7) (1 3 5 2 4 ♭7) Herb Remington
E13 f♯ d♯ F♯ A♯ E G♯ C♯ E (2 7 2 ♭5 1 3 6 1) (1 3 5 2 ♭5 6 ♭7) Herb Remington
and should be:
F#13 f♯ d♯ F♯ A♯ E G♯ C♯ E (1 6 1 3 ♭7 2 5 ♭7) (1 3 5 2 4 ♭7) Herb Remington

Also I continue to question the existence of this tuning as written. Are the string 8 and 7, G# and C#, respectively, low bass strings or re-entrant?
F♯9 G♯ C♯ F♯ A♯ E G♯ C♯ E (2 5 1 3 ♭7 2 5 ♭7) (1 3 5 2 ♭7) Jerry Byrd

A copedent is a diagram that shows what the pedals and knee levers do on a pedal steel. What you are calling copedents are more of a fretboard diagram.

How are the "Unique Degrees" ordered? Some seem to be ordered in line with their appearance from lowest string to highest string, then others are not.

Finally, while often disregarded by guitar players who come to the instrument, steel guitar tunings are traditionally written from the highest string to the lowest string.
This is undoubtedly the logical way to write tunings as why should one count DOWN from string 8? Why not call it string 1 then?
John Ely recognized this, and being sympathetic to both sides has a toggle has a button to toggle the string order displayed, to the users preference.

Kyle Jester · From: Martinez, California

Hey thanks for the feedback.
Most of this data was sorted out with algorithms so I'm still cleaning it up by hand.
F#13 is fixed, the other deleted.
There may be another duplicate if it's a tuning know by 2 different names.
And thanks for the copedent definition, I'm so new to all this.

Looks like that F#9 tuning came from this page (not that it's correct): https://www.hawaiiansteel.com/tunings/master.php

Unique degrees are shown with 1 3 5 first, then any additions/extensions since nearly all have 1 3 5.

Interesting idea to switch the order of tunings. I went with lo to hi as that's how I've seen 90% of tunings. might add that today if it's easy enough.

EDIT/P.S.: I was able to add a checkbox to switch the order of the tuning and degrees for the tuning list, now to apply it to the dropdown fretboard part :]

Mike Harris · From: Texas, USA

FWIW keyboard instruments and bowed strings instruments have gone low-to-high for centuries. Violin, viola, etc. list 4th string to 1st string.

Kyle Jester · From: Martinez, California

Yeah just like guitar. I've been hearing "DADGAD" for my entire guitar playing career.
I do agree with Joe that it's confusing as hell to have strings numbered from high string to low string.
But I added an option to view the tuning list either way so all good for now.

Landon Jarrel · From: Space

Regarding Joaquin Murphey's tunings, the C6maj7/A9 tuning he used beginning in 1953 was, at first "b C# E G A C E G" (7 b2 3 5 6 1 3 5) where the "b" string is pitched between the C and A (strings 3 and 4). As of now, there's a tuning which is this one but the "b" is capitalized which gives the impression of it being pitched below the low C#; I have never heard of him using it from recordings or otherwise.

Murphey used this re-entrant tuning too: "f# d# A# C# E G# C# E" which he called C#min and is technically either C#min11 or F#9. Strings 7 and 8 are the same pitches as what Remington used in the F#13 tuning discussed above.

Once Again, fantastic job on the site!

Tony Oresteen · From: Georgia, USA

Fantastic! This qualifies you for a PhD in Steel Tunings for sure!

Thank you for your research Doctor!
_________________
Tony
Newnan, GA

Too many guitars, not enough time to play
'72 Sho-Bud 6139, '71 Marlen 210
'78 Fender Stringmaster Quad black
PedalMaster D8

Kyle Jester · From: Martinez, California

Over the last week I managed to get the most useful tools from above into a simple website using PHP.
It's got:

- The fretboard visualizer tool with customizable key/degrees and highlighting, and 80 tunings to choose from.
- The chord builder grid which displays degrees and notes based on chosen key mentioned above.
- The sortable/filterable list of tunings.
- All degree colors/highlights are consistent.
- There is an option to reverse how tunings are displayed (low to high-->high to low)
- hand-coded 1-page site, no database connections, no cookies, no newsletter signup requirement.

Probably going to add:

- Second fretboard under the first one where each string is customizable to create a tuning for comparisons against known tunings in the fretboard above.
- A tool that is like: The "♭3" of the "Ⅵ" chord is the ?? of the "Ⅱ" chord :: where the site calculates the ??

https://kylejester.nfshost.com/steel/

UPDATE: All of the tools and planned options mentioned
in this thread are now freely available and functional at this website: http://www.slantfinder.pro/
(hey, the URL was $3 so what the hell)
I still plan on leaving it completely FREE into the future for learners like myself,
if it gets decent/costly traffic I'll add a donation button or something.

Cheers, k

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