The Steel Guitar Forum

I just put on the strings that Mr. Neer recommended and tuned to C6. I'm ready to do this!

I'm going to use http://www.looknohands.com/chordhouse/g ... ex_rb.html as a guide to try to figure out where I am. If anyone wants to post some of the more often used chord shapes on here I would love to see it! I'm sure I'll be able to find some stuff just with my knowledge of theory but I'm sure there are some tried and true chord shapes. Right away I see that the lower three strings are a major triad and the upper a minor triad. Good to know!! Also, a major triad on strings 4, 2 and 1 which is a 2nd inversion major triad. I'm going to look up more right now but feel free to chime in and offer some advice on this tuning.

Thanks!

The REALLY cool thing about a 6th tuning is that the 6 (A) and 1 (C) string are the 3 and 5 notes (F A C) of the IV chord, and up 2 frets is the V (G) chord (B D). So there is a "pocket" at the root position that you can play around. I LOVE it!

Gabriel, here's one way to summarize the most common chords for 6 string C6 tuning. The chart below doesn't represent frets 1 through 12, but rather the 6 frets above and below a "home" position: fret 5 for all the F chords, fret 7 for the G chords, fret 12 (or fret 0) for the C chords, etc. You can see the notes within each chord in that key.

It does a good job of showing the patterns that exist for these chords, independent of key.

When I am lost or just lazy when trying to figure something out, I use John Ely's site: http://www.hawaiiansteel.com/index.php
The Chord and Scale locators are very helpful although you have to make a player's choice occasionally.

\ paul

I can't stress enough how helpful this forum has been! I finally had an hour to sit and play this tuning and I'm grabbing chords and playing along to chord charts. Good stuff! This instrument has been, and continues to be a challenge for me and I love it! As a guitarist of 25+ years it's good to be pleasantly humbled!

Thanks again for the tips guys!!
-Gabe

Here's a very basic layout of major and minor chord grips on C6 tuning. Skip the 3rd string to play major chords. Skip the 4th string to play minor chords.


[tab]

C Major C Minor

E---0-----------|---3-----------|
C---0---0-------|---3---3-------|
A---------------|---3---3---3---|
G---0---0---0---|---------------|
E-------0---0---|-------3---3---|
C-----------0---|-----------3---|



If you Include those strings you get this:

C6 Cm7

E---0-----------|---3-----------|
C---0---0-------|---3---3-------|
A---0---0---0---|---3---3---3---|
G---0---0---0---|---3---3---3---|
E-------0---0---|-------3---3---|
C-----------0---|-----------3---|
[/tab]