Weissenborn tunes in open D tuning

[Jean-Paul Bataille]

For those among you who are interested, I added a bunch of new tunes on my playlist :

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VEeTL1Z ... HtJyD_6q6i

Newest on top.

[Jean-Paul Bataille]

A new tune every 5 days or so since the last time (with some banjo tunes, sorry)
Here https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=P ... HtJyD_6q6i

[Will Houston]

Sounds good, nice playing.

[Robert Sands]

Absolutely beautiful playing. I’m also a Weissenborn player and play in open D as you do. Your timing and touch are really wonderful. Very poetic playing. You’ve spent a good deal of time on it. Great chops. May I ask you, who made your Weissenborn? I play an Iseman and a Baritone Pogreba. Yours is so deep, I think even deeper than my Pogreba.

[Jean-Paul Bataille]

Robert : this is an inexpensive weissenborn that I bought it in october 2016 from a canadian "maker/importer" (because I'm in Canada). Solid top, laminate body.
So it's made-in-China-to-specifications stuff (I guess Aiersi factory). This is my first weissenborn, I had never touched one before (my first attempt to lap playing), so I didn't know what to expect, and I choose a deep body because I was afraid of lacking bass, rightly or wrongly.
The acoustic sound is what it is, I don't have any comparison except what I hear on internet, but certainly nothing to brag about.
Now, I put magnetic PU on all my guitars, and always play with an amp, even at home, it's my way to have control on the tone I want. It's a combination that suits weissenborn specially well. Add to that a somewhat long and heavy reverb, and I got a sound I like, presently (it will probably change in the future)

Now the music itself, which is the important thing, I discover it when I do it. Not my fault, but I like what I do (if not, why do it ?). There is clearly a connection with french popular music, as what I do with guitar. And lots of waltzes this days. I have a strong relationship with waltz.
I worked the instrument last year, and it comes to something interesting at the beginning of this year. So I'm making videos (and tabs) to keep track of the growing repertoire (I didn't do that with the guitar 10 years ago, and the thing went out of control very fast)

Thank you for taking the time to listen, guys.

[Lance Clifford]

Jean-Paul,

After clicking on your first link I just enjoyed close to an hour of your lap steel playing. I'll return for more once I have time.

Are these "studies/songs" your creations or songs of others I have not heard? Either way, peaceful, moody, while being interesting. Very nice!

Thank you,

Lance

[Jean-Paul Bataille]

Lance,
I am not able (or I am not interested, or anything in between) to play anything else than my own material. Actually it is the process of creating new tunes that I find the most rewarding in practicing music.
Of course, nobody create in a vacuum, and what goes out of our minds is the result of the percolation of what gets in before. It seems like the french waltzes I was exposed to when I was a little boy made their way thru (or, for my guitar repertoire, the french swing music...)
Anyway, presently I have a lot of pleasure with that weissenborn playing, so thanks for coming in.

[Mark Evans]

Lovely playing Jean-Paul!

D has been a staple on my Weiss for years...but do Check out this recent thread regarding an

“Interesting Tuning

It’s a slight modification on open D (some call it D over G). Low strings to G and B, the rest remain in open D. Lovely and intuitive. You might have to acquire another Weiss for a second tuning ! Low string gauges would have to be slightly lighter. I’m having a blast discovering melodies and runs

Check it out!

Mark in Freezing Wisconsin

[Jean-Paul Bataille]

Mark,
thanks for the reminding, and, yes I already made a note to myself to try that tuning.

I have an inexpensive dobro (a Boxcar Gretsch that I bought used for 250 CAD!) and I use it for experiments. Although it sounds very bad, well I didn't succeed to make satisfying tone out of it yet, so not very inspiring.

Now here is a reasonable reason to buy another weiss.
As if we needed reasons...
Have to sell a few guitars before.

[Mark Evans]

Mark,
thanks for the reminding, and, yes I already made a note to myself to try that tuning.

I have an inexpensive dobro (a Boxcar Gretsch that I bought used for 250 CAD!) and I use it for experiments. Although it sounds very bad, well I didn't succeed to make satisfying tone out of it yet, so not very inspiring.

Now here is a reasonable reason to buy another weiss.
As if we needed reasons...
Have to sell a few guitars before.

(CAD? Are you in Canada?)


Music brings me pleasure and joy. Money doesn’t grow on trees in my yard, but I can find $ for guitars... my car is 17 years old... but it runs!

Sometimes a different tuning will cause a bland instrument to blossom - although I had a Gretchen Reso (Alligator, round neck, biscuit type bridge) and can agree to its blahness. BUT they make good ‘woodshedding’ instruments (testing grounds).

FYI... to accommodate the retune (GBDF#AD) I lowered the gauge of my bass strings to 47/42

Cheers! Look forward to more tunes
Mark

[Jim Schofield]

Tres cool dude.

[Jean-Paul Bataille]

Mark,
I tried the D over G tuning on my dobro.
But, unfortunately, my playing implies an open tuning : I constantly use all the strings, the right hand plays the bass with the thumb, a comp/brush (also with the thumb), and the melody notes with the fingers (as I do with the guitar).
So, apart of the D tunings, it works fine also with open G tunings and with the usual dobro GBDGBD, and I suppose with any *open* tuning that I don't know yet.
But no way that could work with a tuning that gives two tonalities at the same time.
This is indeed a very fine tuning for playing singles lines, with a band, etc...
But not for me. I write and play solo music.
(I should have think a bit more before swapping my .47 string and pulling off a .42 from my box of orphan strings...)

BTW, there is a new tune on my channel, from a collection of waltzes I'm writing for a puppet show : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kLVgQjnDdtU

[Jean-Paul Bataille]

Updated playlist :
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=P ... HtJyD_6q6i

On weissenborn in open D tunings, major or minor, or even with mode change inside the tune.
Beware, this is my personal take at what to do with a weissenborn.
You may not like it.

[Mark Evans]

I understand the challenges in transition to new tuning.
For almost ten years I played nothing but open G or open D (and C on the baritone Weiss)
In the last 6 months, have taken on C6 and now D over G as a challenge.
Your solo work is wonderful. Keep it up. Explorations in other tunings will happen in a natural way
Cheers!
Mark

Mark,
I tried the D over G tuning on my dobro.
But, unfortunately, my playing implies an open tuning : I constantly use all the strings, the right hand plays the bass with the thumb, a comp/brush (also with the thumb), and the melody notes with the fingers (as I do with the guitar).
So, apart of the D tunings, it works fine also with open G tunings and with the usual dobro GBDGBD, and I suppose with any *open* tuning that I don't know yet.
But no way that could work with a tuning that gives two tonalities at the same time.
This is indeed a very fine tuning for playing singles lines, with a band, etc...
But not for me. I write and play solo music.
(I should have think a bit more before swapping my .47 string and pulling off a .42 from my box of orphan strings...)

BTW, there is a new tune on my channel, from a collection of waltzes I'm writing for a puppet show : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kLVgQjnDdtU

[Andy Volk]

Jean-Paul, you've really found a niche on the Weissenborn that is almost unique. I enjoy your playing and I can hear the Musette tradition resonate through your music.

Are you familiar with Gino Bordin? He was an Italian-born French steeler of the 20s - 50s. His repertoire included waltzes, Musette tunes and classical pieces as well as Hawaiian tunes.

http://www.grassskirt.co.uk/3.html

[Jean-Paul Bataille]

Andy,
thank you for your comment, because it explain clearly what my goal is : have a voice of my own on a new (for me) instrument.
I already reached that goal on the guitar, but after ten years, I needed a change.

So I choose two challenges at the same time, the weissenborn and the clawhammer banjo. For the banjo, I'm not there yet, but the work on the weiss begins to give some results. So thanks for your words.
I'll try to be more in control of the whole process than with the guitar, because I lost myself in a whirlwind, and after a while, the quantity of output was out of control (I wrote more that 2500 "studies" in ten years).
I'll try to keep the number of tunes in the three digits, and work to improve what I already have instead of listen too much of what is going out of my head and just outputting new things and never put them to completion.

Yes, I was made aware of Gino Bordin (I didn't know him, duh...) by Fred Kinbom some 10 years ago , and I have a few records of him. Now, it's the musical tradition I have been exposed to when I was young, and this is what I have inside me (although I didn't know that before coming back to guitar playing 12 years ago). Also, I was playing in dance bands in the 70's, and the accordion musette was a strong staple, although I was more involved in the anglo-american pop repertoire of the day, of course. Not that I didn't like musette back then, but it was much more difficult to play !

I find that the limitations of the weissenborn (in D tunings) lead me to some harmonic territories I didn't explore before. Don't know what the future will be.

Anyway, I appreciate comments, even if they are negative, because they lead to improvement. I know we live in a politically correct world where it's bad to have any other position than positive one, but then... that doesn't help much.