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Topic: How about Major 3rd and Minor 3rd in a Tuning |
Allan Revich
From:
Victoria, BC
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Posted 15 Dec 2021 11:53 am |
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Today on my 7-String I've been playing around with a combination tuning. D major over D minor, or:
D F A D F# A D. It seems pretty good, especially for the blues that I mostly play.
Considering also that the blues scale uses both 3rds anyway, it makes sense to me.
I know that using consecutive "out of key" notes is not common, but its also not unheard of, since Jerry Bird, Joaquin Murphy, and other "big names" have all used tunings like this.
Several variants are present on John Ely's master list of tunings; https://www.hawaiiansteel.com/tunings/master.php in the Combination Tunings section part way down the page.
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Current Tunings:
6 String | G6 – e G D G B D
7 String | G6 – e G B D G B D
https://papadafoe.com/lap-steel-tuning-database
Last edited by Allan Revich on 15 Dec 2021 3:11 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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Joe A. Roberts
From:
Seoul, South Korea
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Posted 15 Dec 2021 3:09 pm
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One of my main tunings, and the tuning on my closest neck on my Fender, is a tuning like that of Mr. John Ely’s invention.
On the bottom of his tuning page, he calls it A diatonic.
High to low: E C# B A G# F# F D.
It is not true diatonic tuning because F is not in the A scale…
However it does have all the notes of an F# harmonic minor scale, so I call it F# Harmonic Minor atuning, or just Ely Tuning!(Pronounced E-lee I believe, not E-lye).
The tuning can be looked at in many ways, and I imagine that it’s got to be one of the most advanced 8 string tunings possible.
It has the top 6 strings of the Leon E13.
The top 4 of A6th.
With 4 picks and a good right hand, you can somewhat convincingly “neck hop” between A6th and E13th without moving necks. If you miss a string though you’re in deep water!
This is in addition to viewing it from D as the root, which gives you 4 note D major 7, 6, 6/8, and major 9th.
BUT you can also grab the minor third, F instead of the F# for another world of color with 4 note minor chords and some altered dominants/diminished sounds.
There also are some ethereal harp like sounds by virtue of the notes being so close
to each other…
It is similar to the 10 string Alkire tuning which I believe is E C# B A G# G F# F E C#. Without having tried it, I imagine I would still prefer the Ely tuning because it is less clunky without that G, and the low D helps get some more idiomatic sounds from the traditional tunings. If I had 10 Strings I would add a C# and a C below the low D. |
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Allan Revich
From:
Victoria, BC
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Posted 15 Dec 2021 3:26 pm
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| Joe A. Roberts wrote: |
One of my main tunings, and the tuning on my closest neck on my Fender, is a tuning like that of Mr. John Ely’s invention.
On the bottom of his tuning page, he calls it A diatonic.
High to low: E C# B A G# F# F D.
It is not true diatonic tuning because F is not in the A scale…
[…]
It is similar to the 10 string Alkire tuning which I believe is E C# B A G# G F# F E C#. Without having tried it, I imagine I would still prefer the Ely tuning because it is less clunky without that G, and the low D helps get some more idiomatic sounds from the traditional tunings. If I had 10 Strings I would add a C# and a C below the low D. |
Sounds awesome. If only my poor old brain was capable of sending the appropriate signals to my slow little fingers 
My tuning is more along the lines of “Lap Steel for Dummies”.  |
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