The Steel Guitar Forum

I'm new to the dobro and a tinkerer. I like messing around with tunings to get a better grip on how all the notes relate. After coming across Gmaj9 and Gmaj9/#11 here on the forum and messing around with them, I wondered what it would be like to reverse those major and minor intervals.

With Gmaj9 from string to string, you've got maj3, min3, maj3, min3, 4th. With Gmaj9/#11, that last interval is another maj3. So ascending up the strings with chords, you've got maj, min, maj, maj with the 9th tuning and min on the last chord with the 9/#11.

With Gmin11, you've got min3, maj3, min3, maj3, min3. Just the reverse of the chord arrangement of the 9/#11 tuning. So ascending chords, you get min, maj, min, maj.

Just thought this was interesting and potentially useful, especially with that low minor chord. Couldn't be that much more difficult to learn beyond the maj9 tunings.

Anybody else ever experiment with this tuning???

That Bb (which would be D in the more common B11th style tunings on electric) is really cool.
I like that string up an octave between the others, it gives a really cool sound.

Check out the second tune in this Rich Sullivan video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zr0YNiiXB_I
When he strums across the top 5 strings it shows what I mean by having the Bb up an octave!
His tuning is in B but a major third lower in G it would be:
F A B D F A Bb C (No G Root)
On one of my necks I use what would be:
G B D F G A Bb C (B D# F# A B C# D E)
Really atypical, closed voicings thanks to the intervals of a second between some strings.


Anyway, on Dobro for more versatility with that tuning, you could tune up the Bb to B to get the standard 11th for some songs.
(For this, I highly recommend Andy Volks B11th book, the tab numbers would be the same in G11th, it would just sound a major third lower).

Another potentially useful tuning mod would be to tune to G Bb D F G Bb by tuning the top 2 strings down a whole step. This would give you 6 1 3 5 6 1, an unusual but probably pretty cool 6th tuning.
I am not sure if the lower tension would be flop city but its worth a try.
From there you could tune up the lowest string a half step for b7 1 3 5 6 1: G# Bb D F G Bb.

I am not sure what you are saying with the "ascending up with chords" and maj3 and min3, but I believe that it is more important to consider the available inversions of those major and minor chords.
This is the reason that C6th, for instance, is probably the most common electric tuning: because straight 6th tunings provide the best compromise for major and minor chord inversions. (Along with gorgeous 6th/m7th chords when needed!)
Your Gm11th would have some really great sounds in it, but as far as triads go it is lacking in basic triad inversions.
This may or may not matter depending on how you use it.

I haven’t tried Gm11, but I did spend some time with G11, GBDFAC

I liked it quite a bit. Open strings gives G, G7, Bdim, Dm, Dm7, F, F6. Other chords are in there too. Since I play mostly blues, I’ve gone back to a simple D major tuning for now.

It is the same intervallic structure that can be found on the middle 6 strings of a C6 pedal-steel w P7 pressed. It will be Am11 on the open strings tho.

I definitly been there on my C6 neck and I might have explored that tuning as part of the process that made me expand my guitar collection with a pedal-steel.

As of right now I dont have that particular tuning on any of my guitars. Might have to re-tune one of my guitars to see what naturally seem to suit that tuning and how it fits with the melodic movements that I might vizualize/hear in my head.

B.Erlandsen

Taking a second look at that G Bb D F A C tuning, I can see the attraction.
Besides the min, maj, min, maj triads, you get m7, M7, m7, and 6 chords. You also have your 1 and 5 chords on the same fret in major and minor keys. Quite clever, and very useful.

Interesting. Up a whole tone it would be...

D
B
G
E
C
A

Kind of like G6 over C6, in a way.

Andrew Frost wrote:Interesting. Up a whole tone it would be...

D
B
G
E
C
A

Kind of like G6 over C6, in a way.

Seems somewhat more intuitive to conceptualize this way, though it’s essentially the same tuning.

It’s another one of those tunings that makes one wonder why it isn’t more popular.

Allan and Andrew, like I said, I'm new to the instrument. And while I know 6th tunings are/can be popular among the slide players, I'm not really familiar with them. I just saw the structure of the Maj9 tunings and figured I'd see what it would be like to flip the major-minor structure of the triads across the strings minor-major.

I've definitely got a ways to go in my learning of the 6 string slide instruments/tunings, but this one will definitely be getting explored...

Ben Braidfoot wrote:Allan and Andrew, like I said, I'm new to the instrument. And while I know 6th tunings are/can be popular among the slide players, I'm not really familiar with them. I just saw the structure of the Maj9 tunings and figured I'd see what it would be like to flip the major-minor structure of the triads across the strings minor-major.

I've definitely got a ways to go in my learning of the 6 string slide instruments/tunings, but this one will definitely be getting explored...

Ben, I am a LONG way from being an old hand on lap steel. But one of the things I’ve managed to learn is that every tuning involves compromising something. Generally, the most versatile tunings are the most demanding to learn, and the most simple tunings are the least versatile. Unfortunately for me, I’ve become hooked on a quest for the “perfect tuning”, even while knowing full well that there’s no such thing.