Things I find Difficult - Alternate tunings - The Practice Group Group Blog

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88 Members, Created 11/6/2017 -

Administrators: AndyW (owner) , Boadicea , WayneConrad

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Things I find Difficult - Alternate tunings

From Judith511 on 11/11/2017 5:28:17 AM

Also alternate tunings are hard. Ideas for that? I thought having two banjos would help but that is not helping me learn. I keep them in G tuning but want to do alternate tunings. Any suggestions. I have a tuner.

6 Comments
	AndyW says: 11/11/2017 7:54:19 AM What style of banjo play are you learning?
	WayneConrad says: 11/11/2017 10:25:44 AM What is making alternative tunings difficult for you?
	Judith511 says: 11/11/2017 7:59:00 PM I am trying to learn bluegrass. I never seem to get the alternate tunings right...they sound strange...
	AndyW says: 11/12/2017 12:27:26 AM They sound strange because they are new. Perserverence will therefore work. Learning clawhammer I found it quite odd at first to start learning in double c, but you just get used to it. I thought bluegrass banjo was pretty much played out of G tuning and capoed G though?
	WayneConrad says: 11/12/2017 6:17:29 AM I wonder if alternate tunings sound strange to you because you are used to open G. In an open tuning, every string is part of a chord tone and will sound good. Many alternate tunings are not "open", meaning that some strings are not chord tunes unless fretted. When you tune to such an alternate tuning and then strum all the open strings, it'll sound bad because one or more strings will be dissonant. What you have to do is fret some strings and then strum. For example, try tuning to drop-C (gCGBD) and then strum. It won't sound quite right. Now fret the 4th string, second fret and strum across all the strings. That's a G chord in this tuning and it should sound just like the G chord you usually hear in open G. I don't know much about bluegrass, but I think it doesn't use alternate tunings much. Bluegrass bands move along pretty quickly and don't want to wait for the banjo player to retune. You'll have to ask those who really know, though.
	Judith511 says: 11/12/2017 7:31:20 PM Yes Wayne I think you are right. I change the tuning and it sounds wrong...I will try and see if I Can record the correct tuning and then I can compare, that might help me. Andy, I have a few tunes in my lessons that are alternate tuning.
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