New Member, C6 tuning question

Craig Pierce · From: Nevada, USA

Hey, I've been reading posts here for years, decided to join because I have more questions than answers. I'm 64,retired and just getting started on Lap Steel and appreciate all the help I can get. The question is why are there so many tunings for C6? Most of the learning material is in CEGACE, most of the songs are in ECAGEC, I know nothing about reading music and feel kinda lost. Can you learn in CEGACE and still play all of the ECAGEC songs, I've read that the chords are easier in ECAGEC to learn because they require hardly any slants. So you might say I'm really confused. Thanks for any and all help!! Craig Pierce

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Dennis Coelho · From: Wyoming, USA

Those two are the same tuning, just reversed. E on top.

Good luck!

Don McGregor · From: Memphis, Tennessee

I think there is some confusion over whether you are naming the strings from low (largest string) to high, or high (smallest string)to low. It looks like you are just writing the same notes backwards for one of those tunings.
There is more written and tab material for (L to H)
CEGACE, than for the other most common tuning, (once again, low to high) EGACEG.
These are both the same open chord, a C6. I, myself, prefer the EGACEG with the high G, but many prefer CEGACE with E as the highest note.
It's true of both variations that one can find tons of chords and partial chords without slanting.
Choosing one is up to you, according to what sound you like. Find out what tuning some of your favorite tunes are in that you've been listening to.
Also, you can always change tunings later if you decide to.
Steel can be kind of daunting at first, but, if you keep at it, and maybe find someone to help you along, things start to make sense after a while.
Good luck.

Dennis Coelho · From: Wyoming, USA

What Don said. I also like the G on top but I'm using a 12 string so I have a few more above that G.

Low to high: DFACEGACEGBD

But you can see the EGACEG in the middle of that.

All those strings means that you can play more "vertically" and less back-and-forth.

Brad Bechtel · From: San Francisco, CA

That's why I use the following when writing out tunings, from the first (or thinnest) string to the 6th (or thickest) string.

1. E
2. C
3. A
4. G
5. E
6. C

For me, it removes any doubt about whether you're talking hi to lo, or bottom to top, or whatever. I have had one person try to argue about whether the sixth string is the top or bottom, but a quick look at any set of guitar strings usually helps clarify the issue.
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Bill Brunt · From: Texas, USA

The big advantage to c6 with C,E,G on top, is that those top 3 open strings make up the C chord. As you move up the fretboard, the D chord is at fret 2, E at 4, F at 5, and so on. therefore, you have an easy harmonized 3rds scale along the neck with just a couple of slants.
Then when you get to the C chord again at 12, you can play the harmonized scale easily within two frets descending, across the neck.
I am not, by the loosest use of the word, a musician whatsoever, but I found this to be very intuitive, and I began to learn the fretboard, and the various ways to play the harmonized scales just by learning the songs on Herb Remington's Fun Tabs lessons.

They can be played in his favorite tuning, A6, or C6 with the high G. I chose A6 because the high G string just seemed too shrill for me.

After learning about half of the songs in his lessons, and getting a handle on the chord and scale positions, I bought Doug Beaumier's 25 More Songs for Lap Steel, and am learning the CEGACE version of c6.

You may notice that the top 5 strings of the High E tuning are the same as the bottom 5 strings of the High G tuning.(on a 6 string guitar) The two tunings overlap on 5 strings, so the configuration, the intervals are the same within those 5 strings.

That means if you are strung up for the high G tuning, you can also begin learning the high E tuning by just ignoring the highest string.

It didn't seem that confusing when it was just in my head:)

Bottom line, learning the tuning with the major triad on top gave me the confidence to learn the high E tuning, which will probably supplant my A6 at some point.

Craig Pierce · From: Nevada, USA

Thanks for all your help, I'm beginning to understand it a little better now. I know its silly simple for you-all,thanks for taking the time to explain it to me.
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Life is a learning process, best if not rushed.

Craig Pierce · From: Nevada, USA

I have the GeorgeBoards Lap Steel Guitar 101 C6 tuning lessons and thats all, is there more that you would suggest or will that be enough to get me started. I can't thank you enough for all your help!
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Life is a learning process, best if not rushed.

Bill Brunt · From: Texas, USA

Here is a link to a page with some really foundational stuff. He has links that take you deeper also.

Print it all out.

It's like eating an elephant. Just do it one bite at a time.

Practice the scales 'till all your neighbors file an injunction against you Very Happy

http://www.planetgaa.com/C6/C6Harm.html

Thomas Temple · From: Florida, USA

Craig,

As a new player (really can't call myself a player just someone trying to play is more accurate) the best "help" I have found is Doug Beaumier's 25 songs for C6rg Lap Steel (vol 1&2) Easy to read in note and tab form, good cross section of songs and will put a smile on your face when you hear yourself pick out Steel Guitar Rag or Sleepwalk or Ghost Riders in the Sky. Doesn't have to be perfect but just like in my case recognizable for you to get a warm fuzzy feeling. Good luck and welcome to the fold.

Tom

Jack Bowman · From: Washington, USA

Mark Eaton · Posted 1 Mar 2013 3:10 am

There's been a few threads here over the years on the "direction" of a tuning where folks can't seem to agree when writing it out on a line which way it should go, but in learning the basics of music it only makes sense for me to write it as low to high. Brad's method of writing it out in a vertical line leaves no doubt, but if you write it out in this case as CEGACE with the accompanying phrase "low to high" there really shouldn't be any cause for confusion. Yes, there are occasional tunings where a thinner gauge string can be tuned literally to a lower pitched note than strings that are of a heavier gauge on a guitar, but that's the exception to the rule and doesn't apply to the vast majority of tuning that exists. Think of the way you learn to describe the pitch of a note: some notes are higher than others, some are lower than others. I wouldn't use top vs. bottom as the terminology because of the physical direction in relation to the ceiling or the floor as when playing a standard guitar, it's always low to high.

When you're taught to read the the notes on the staff of the treble clef one of the old classic methods in the learning the names of the notes on the lines is "Every Good Boy Deserves Favor," and some learn it as "Every Good Boy Does Fine." This represents the notes low to high, EGBDF. The notes on the spaces are easier to remember because it spells out a word, FACE, low to high. I can't imagine a music teacher of any kind though perhaps they exist, teaching a person to try to remember the notes of the spaces on the staff from high to low, ECAF.

Though you have to qualify it by writing low to high, which on standard guitar is EADGBE, I think Congress should pass a law ( Wink

"it's a joke, son") that guitar tunings are always written low-to-high so that there isn't any more confusion about it than knowing that a green light means "go" and a red light means "stop."

One of the tricks to help new guitar players to memorize standard tuning is to say for low to high or EADGBE, "Eat A Darn Good Breakfast Early." If someone has ever learned a little phrase in the opposite direction from the high notes to the low notes, their guitar teacher should be arrested for "breaking the law!" The 1st string or "skinny" "e" string is pitched one octave higher than the "fat" 6th string or "E" string, which is an octave lower the the same E note on string one.

Another one I hear from guitar players be it on standard guitar or steel guitar is that in playing something at a higher fret number, say the 14th fret, they will refer to it as playing further "down" the neck. For the life of me I can't understand why anyone would refer to it in this manner. When you're playing something at the 14th fret, the number is higher than if you're playing it on the the 2nd fret, and the notes on the 14th fret are higher than on the 2nd fret. To refer to the position as being "down" the neck as opposed to "up" the neck seems to defy all logic, but I do hear that one every so often.

If someone asks me "how do you tune that dobro?" my answer is always the same: "this is known as high bass Open G, low to high, GBDGBD." Though Brad's method leaves no doubt as far writing out a tuning on a computer screen or piece of paper, I don't literally say to the person "string six is G, string 5 is B, string 4 is D," etc. "GBD, low to high" should really suffice.
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