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Topic: 6 string tuning |
Roy Fouts
From:
Alberta, Canada
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Posted 22 Oct 2020 9:19 am |
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Many years ago as a young man I took lessons on an acoustic lap steel. At that time the tuning was High Bass AC#EAC#E. But some of the sheet music that I also played was marked
Amajor and I know was played without retuning. Could someone tell me the tuning for Amajor. I recall that towards the end of my lessons we retuned our guitars to E7 BDEG#BE. I have again tried to learn the lap steel and have 4 of them tuned to E7, C6, and High Bass. So I'm wondering about Open A. Would this be the tuning for Amajor? I am very definitely a beginner at this and would appreciate some help. |
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Brad Bechtel
From:
San Francisco, CA
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Posted 22 Oct 2020 11:52 am
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Your High Bass A is two A major chords (A C# E). I would call that open A tuning, or A major tuning. Any of those names refer to the same set of notes you're using.
I've also seen open A tuning with the bass note being E, listed bass to treble as E A E A C# E.
_________________
Brad’s Page of Steel
A web site devoted to acoustic & electric lap steel guitars |
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Allan Revich
From:
Victoria, BC
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Posted 22 Oct 2020 12:26 pm Re: 6 string tuning
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| Roy Fouts wrote: |
Many years ago as a young man I took lessons on an acoustic lap steel. At that time the tuning was High Bass AC#EAC#E. But some of the sheet music that I also played was marked
Amajor and I know was played without retuning. Could someone tell me the tuning for Amajor. I recall that towards the end of my lessons we retuned our guitars to E7 BDEG#BE. I have again tried to learn the lap steel and have 4 of them tuned to E7, C6, and High Bass. So I'm wondering about Open A. Would this be the tuning for Amajor? I am very definitely a beginner at this and would appreciate some help. |
The three notes in an A major chord are:
A = root
C# = 3rd
E = 5th
Any tuning that consists of only these 3 notes would be an A major tuning. Most likely the High Bass A tuning (AC#EAC#E) is the tuning being referred to as A major tuning. Which could also be called Open A tuning.
The possibility exists though that a non-specific reference to “A major†refers to the other A tuning that Brad mentioned, EAEC#AE, a tuning derived from “standard†guitar tuning. This is also an Open A tuning, and might be referred to as A, low bass.
Finally, on a chart not specifically written for lap steel, “A major†might refer only to the song key that the chart is written for.
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Current Tunings:
6 String | G – G B D G B D
7 String | G6 – e G B D G B D (re-entrant)
https://papadafoe.com/lap-steel-tuning-database |
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Roy Fouts
From:
Alberta, Canada
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Posted 22 Oct 2020 12:52 pm 6 string tuning
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| Wow! I had heard good things about the Steel Guitar forum and this proves it. Thanks for the timely good answers. |
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Andy Volk
From:
Boston, MA
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Roy Fouts
From:
Alberta, Canada
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Posted 23 Oct 2020 8:31 am 6 string tuning
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| Thanks Andy. Will do some checking. |
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