Blues tunings

James Brown · From: Mt Uniacke, Nova Scotia, Canada

With the help of Roy Thomson,I started to play a blues tuning EMajor;E,B,G#,E,B,E.
Can't seem to get enough of the tunes Roy tabbed out for me.
Is anyone else using this tuning that can recommend a few good tunes to play?

Jerry Hayes · From: Virginia Beach, Va.

Hey James, check out the old Allman Brothers things recorded when Dwayne was still alive as that's the tuning he used on his slide guitar. Also Dicky Betts uses that tuning. Statesboro Blues might be a good one to try. I have a solid body electric guitar with that tuning which also has Bigsby Palm Pedals pulling the 2nd string B to C# and the 3rd string G# to A....JH in Va.

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Livin' in the Past and Future with a 12 string Mooney Universal tuning.

Steinar Gregertsen · From: Arendal, Norway, R.I.P.

I use the '151351' tuning for most of my work, blues or other stuff, usually tuned to D.
Can't really recommend any spesific tunes, most blues stuff works fine in this tuning, and lots of other stuff as well,- if you're not dependent on playing full chords, but play in a band setting where partial harmonies will do, you can do a lot of harmonic work in this tuning once you know your slants.

Steinar

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www.gregertsen.com

David Doggett · Posted 14 Mar 2005 7:32 am

James, that is one of the two basic blues tunings used by bottleneck and slide players since the '30s. Your tonic on top and bottom, skipping the bottom 3rd was usually used in E or D. Robert Johnson used it, and the biggest electric popularizer was Elmore James. Hound-dog Taylor on Arhoolie also used it a lot. Those guys all played slide on roundnecks. But The Black Ace was a Texas lap player who used it on many recordings, and had his own radio program once. He had a collection on Arhoolie, but I don't know if it has been released on CD. Also, a guy named Good Rockin' Robinson in California, played that tuning on a Fender lap steel (also Arhoolie I think). If you are trying to sing along, and can't reach D or E, I have also used this tuning in C, with heavier guage strings.

The other popular blues tuning is (top down) DBGDBG or EC#AEC#A. Or sometimes they skip the bottom 3rd and add a fifth below the low tonic. Son House used this, and also Robert Johnson. Of course this is also the typical Dobro tuning for bluegrass and country. I don't know about tab, but you can get CDs by all the above blues players. Bob Brozeman is a modern player who offers instructional materials.

Robert Todd · From: Atlanta, Georgia USA

I use the tuning opn a regular guitar a lot but prefer making it an E6. Hi to low

E B G# E C# B

and sometimes I switch the 6th as follows

E C# B G# E B

Mike D · From: Phx, Az

Or sometimes they skip the bottom 3rd and add a fifth below the low tonic. Son House used this, and also Robert Johnson.

The open G (also sometimes A, one step higher) used by the old Blues guys was (low to high) DGDGBD. Similar top end to the 'dobro tuning' but with the botton strings lowered. Often refered to as 'Spanish tuning'. This is *the* classic Delta tuning.

The same tuning is also called Taro Patch and is found in Hawaiian music both slide and slack key.

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Half-assed bottleneck and lap slide player. Full-assed Builder of resonator instruments.

David Doggett · Posted 14 Mar 2005 8:09 pm

Yeah, the A tuning with an E on the bottom was a Delta classic. Many players who didn't use a slide also used it. Some of John Lee Hooker's classic boogie stuff was done in that tuning on the frets. Also, Honeyboy Edwards used it that way. But the E or D tuning with the tonic on top was also classic. Elmore James made a living with it, as well as Fred McDowell and Hound-dog Taylor.

[This message was edited by David Doggett on 15 March 2005 at 09:19 PM.]

James Brown · From: Mt Uniacke, Nova Scotia, Canada

Thanks for all the replies so far,this blues tuning is getting more & more interesting!!

db · From: Bethlehem, PA 18015 USA

The E (or D) and A ( or G) tuning are sometimes reffered to as
the "Downtown" and "Uptown" tunings.

Ry cooder used both: the "Downtown" for rhythm and the "Uptown" for lead.

I might have these ecaxtly backwards . . .
Can somebody correct me or corroberate this?
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Dan Balde
U-12/8&5, S-7/D 3&1, S-6/E,A & G3

[This message was edited by db on 20 March 2005 at 12:53 PM.]

Steinar Gregertsen · From: Arendal, Norway, R.I.P.

I've seen the words "Uptown" and "Downtown" used to describe these tunings, but never by Cooder (doesn't mean he hasn't said it though).
In one interview he said that he'd always perceived the open-D tuning as beeing more 'dark' and 'threatening' than the open-G tuning, which he described as 'open' and 'friendly'. Just another way of saying "downtown" and "uptown", perhaps.

Anyway, I'll have to agree with those descriptions......

Steinar

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www.gregertsen.com

db · From: Bethlehem, PA 18015 USA

I don't know that Ry ever used these names for the tunings . . .
I have just heard them used by "slide-folk" to describe them.

Ry used to have an instrument that had a "crank-handle" on the face of the guitar behind the bridge, to make a quick change between these two tunings.
He had it stolen at the "Muse" festival in the 70's.
That was one of the influences that led me to create the PS-67 "Pedal-Slide" guitar tailpiece.
I liked playing in both tunings . . .
And wanted to be able to make the quick change, as well as emulate Pedal Steel guitar, that does the same thing with the A & B pedals ( I to IV chord change ).

(Check my profile for the web address for further info.)

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Dan Balde
U-12/8&5, S-7/D 3&1, S-6/E,A & G3

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