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Topic: The Tennessee Waltz played two ways |
Mike Neer
From:
NJ
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Posted 25 Jan 2024 7:04 am |
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I’ve been playing around with Tennessee Waltz for a long time and just wanted to record a fairly simple reading of it. The first chorus is played on my Electar Model M which was retrofitted with a Rick Aiello pickup years ago and rewound by Nick Fryer after it developed a short. For that guitar, I tune to what I call Carnatic tuning: E B E B E (the 6th string is reentrant and I vary the tuning of it as needed). The Hindustani tuning I use for lessons is Ds and As, but this guitar sounds good tuned up to E.
The second chorus is my usual slant stuff, maybe a little more Bakersfield than it is Byrd. Played in C6 on my walnut Clinesmith. Every guitar has its own unique qualities and this Clinesmith has a little tighter string spacing than my other guitars, which can be beneficial for some things.
Don’t mind the video; some of it doesn’t match what was played but I was making changes to the arrangement as it was developing and I’m not always rolling. In fact, the last frames have me wearing glasses!
https://youtu.be/xgPcAgdYBek?si=LQptAgKifm1wKoQn
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Links to streaming music, websites, YouTube: Links |
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Chuck S. Lettes
From:
Denver, Colorado
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Posted 25 Jan 2024 7:34 am
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Nice arrangement, Mike. Nothing beats playing the melodies on the steel.
Chuck |
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Mike Neer
From:
NJ
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Posted 25 Jan 2024 7:40 am
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| Chuck S. Lettes wrote: |
Nice arrangement, Mike. Nothing beats playing the melodies on the steel.
Chuck |
I agree, Chuck. And the whole process of striving to articulate a melody as perfectly as you are hearing it in your head is truly one of the most challenging, rewarding and informative things you can do. I feel like these days I am giving it the importance it deserves and I am enjoying playing more than ever before.
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Mike Neer
From:
NJ
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Posted 28 Jan 2024 8:44 am
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Been studying Hindustani Slide guitar with Rhitom Sarkar in an effort to improve my expressiveness and technique. It has had a great effect on me and giving me confidence in some techniques that are new to me. I'm gaining the ability to really play on pitch with more precision and learning things that were previously a mystery. It’s difficult to say how all the techniques I've worked on over the years will play together, but I'm trying to let them all co-exist.
It's been about 3 months of lessons and honestly, it's been a whole process of discovery and adjustment. It’s like I’m a beginner all over again in some ways and the joy factor is very high.
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Links to streaming music, websites, YouTube: Links |
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Rick Aiello
From:
Berryville, VA USA
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Posted 28 Jan 2024 10:25 am
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I really enjoyed that ...  |
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Jerome Hawkes
From:
Fayetteville, North Carolina, USA
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Posted 28 Jan 2024 11:17 am
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Be nice to just have a like button or something like I’ve seen on other forums
Thanks for all you do for us Mike👍
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'65 Sho-Bud D-10 Permanent • '54 Fender Dual-8 • Clinesmith T-8 • '38 Ric Bakelite • '92 Emmons D-10 Legrande II |
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Nelson Checkoway
From:
Massachusetts, USA
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Posted 29 Jan 2024 10:28 am
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| Simply beautiful! Thanks, Mike.. |
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Jerome Hawkes
From:
Fayetteville, North Carolina, USA
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Posted 30 Jan 2024 5:55 pm
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I’ve sang this tune hundreds and hundreds of times over the years, going back to when my grandmother used to request it when I was a teen, but I had never really tried to do anything other than a basic Don Helms type attempt on steel.
So I sat down with it tonight and it kicked my butt to the point of having to get up from the steel - it’s such a strong and identifiable melody and feel that no foolery or trickery will work, you have to nail it and keep the lower harmony line interesting…which brings up one of our big frustrations with the static interval stack tunings…you hear a harmony line moving and then you just bam - seem to hit a dead end or clang it and instead of continuing a line down you have to jump back or up to get the line going again- It takes a strong understanding of the 6th tuning to pull off on the fly
This is one of those cases when I wish I could use a volume pedal, it would help
When it works though it’s pretty powerful
I’m thinking this song really fits E13…when you go to the chorus and hit that high shimmery part nothing beats that Don Helms E13 for that hair standing up on your neck vibe - C6 just can’t duplicate that
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'65 Sho-Bud D-10 Permanent • '54 Fender Dual-8 • Clinesmith T-8 • '38 Ric Bakelite • '92 Emmons D-10 Legrande II |
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Mike Neer
From:
NJ
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Posted 31 Jan 2024 7:54 am
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| Jerome Hawkes wrote: |
I’m thinking this song really fits E13…when you go to the chorus and hit that high shimmery part nothing beats that Don Helms E13 for that hair standing up on your neck vibe - C6 just can’t duplicate that |
Personally cannot get with the high G#, and while the timbre of the E is darker, I think in the right hands that can still be achieved to some degree. I am not really one to get too much into the crying effects and things like that--even vibrato, while I use it way too much, I like to keep it on the tame side. Currently I'm working on trying to eliminate most of it.
Here's a nice little approach to the first 4 measures of the chorus:
Key of E, C6 tuning, top 4 strings only (E C A G)
| Tab: |
--12---14--|-16--19---16--|--14-----14-|-11--12--------9--|--7-----
--13---15--|-16--20---16--|--15-----15-|-12--13--------9--|--8-----
-----------|--------------|------------|------------------|--------
--14---16--|-16--21---16--|--17-----17-|-13--14---14---9--|--9-----
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If you're looking at this thinking there is some kind of voodoo involved, no--it's pretty easy once you have the hang of the slanting.
Look at the consistency of the strings being played. That supports smoothness in the playing, which is crucial.
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Links to streaming music, websites, YouTube: Links |
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