The Steel Guitar Forum

Here is a standard that I like a lot. "Fly Me To The Moon". The melody is so nice and arpegiated that it works nicely on the non pedal steel. I did a couple of improv sections one being more single notes and the other more chordal. Tried to capture a tiny bit of Emmons style. That is about all I can get of his!!

12 string extended Leavitt Tuning.

Hope you like it.

http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?intt2olmyzj

Bill just a supurb job on that thousand legged guitar. WOW. I've kicked my butt so many times for leaving non pedal guitar it is unimaginable. Just a great job of playing this type of music. Love it. Care to post your tuning??


Phred

Fred Shannon wrote: Care to post your tuning??


Phred

Sure Phred.

Low to high F Bb C# E G A B C D E F F#.

The two low strings are not fixed. I retune them according to what I need in the key of the song I am doing. Thanks for your encouragement.

Fabulous! really nice, Bill. There's so much chord motion going on there, most listeners would assume that you are playing C6 Pedal steel. Great job!

Interesting tuning. It looks and sounds diatonic to me (based on a scale rather than a chord). Strings 8,7,6,5,4,3,1 spell out a G major scale. I'm not sure if this would be considered an extended Leavitt tuning since the original six string Leavitt configuration has been broken up... original Bb tuned up to B, and A added to the middle. Whatever we call, it sounds terrific, and you play it beautifully.

Thank you so much Doug.

Actually the Leavitt is still in there, just tuned down a step and a half. Strings 11 10 9 8 7 6 should be Leavitt. When I started adding strings to the original Leavitt my idea was to expand the chord potential, but I found that I needed to be able to play more melody. The chords were already there in the original Leavitt, so I looked at the Byrd C diatonic and the Alkire tunings and borrowed from them. I sure would like to have one or two more strings. I could put the G on top and another low note.

In regards to your C6 reference, I learned while experimenting with tunings that so much of the musical history of non pedal has the 6th tonality in it that unless you are trying to purposefully avoid that sound that it is best to have that potential. The nice thing about extended Leavitt is you can use just a bit of the 6th sound and then use so many other chords that you don't really have an overbearance of that 6th tonality. A good balance of classic and modern seems to work out well for me.

I appreciate so much your listening and your thoughts.

Sounds great Bill - your sense of harmony is astounding on any instrument! BTW, I think I've recorded with that drummer before.

Ah, I see it now... Leavitt tuned down a step and a half.

Fantastic and thanks again!

I am still waiting for the CD Release Party.

Bill - Great music, great tuning! Thanks so much. Really swinging. - Bob