The Steel Guitar Forum

Doing a little winter woodshedding and hoping the Dobro players can help "de-fog" my pea-brain:

https://tempbeard.com/mike-auldridge/

At about 9:15 into the above video, (Scroll Down link to "Mike Auldridge Tribute") Mike Auldridge states that he discovered that if he tuned the bottom string of the traditional Dobro tuning of GBDGBD down from G to an E......"The 6th tone of the G scale".......,

that resultant tuning allowed him "to obtain a Minor chord at the same fret as a Major chord."

I don't think he meant that the bottom string substitution (from D to E) allows a Major Chord - and its corresponding Minor Chord - to be found at the Same Fret.

Do you agree?

And based on the Lower E string being incorported into Mike's revised tuning, are the following statements true?

1) In Open Position, the traditional G major chord remains available on strings 5 thru 1 ?

2) In Open Position, when integrating the Bottom E string into his grips, and omitting the 1st and 4th strings (the D strings), he obtains an E minor triad ?

2a) An E minor is the 6 minor (Relative Minor) in key of G.

3) In Open Position, when integrating the Bottom E string together with ALL other strings, he obtains an E minor 7th chord ?

3a) An E minor 7th Chord is the same as a G 6th chord

Thanks for your help - the Forum is Grrrrr8 !

Ron

You've reversed the order of the strings. From bottom to top the tuning is GBDGBD. He lowers the bottom G to E giving an Em chord.

Hey Bill - good to hear from you !

Base on your comment , I have revised the original (incorrect) listing of order of the strings from Bottom to Top...the post now reads G to D.

Thanks for pointing that out -

Ron

There are a few variations of that altered Dobro tuning that you might want to try.

The first is the one mentioned, lowering only the bottom G string to E, for EBDGBD. This is good if you plan to go back and forth between the tunings, or want to use the most common variant.

Next is dropping the bottom 3 strings for EGBGBD. This tuning gives you the E minor triad in root position. Good if you play a lot of songs in minor keys or play songs with a lot of minor chords.

Last is EGDGBD. This is a good blues and rock tuning because you get the 1-5-1 power chords on strings 5,4,3.

All of your 'statements' appear true except that in #2, you mixed up your strings. D is on strings 1 and 4, not 2 and 5. But the idea is correct - skip the D if you want a straight E minor chord.

Greg Booth has posted some sweet music with the low E.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJd4vO8jkyE

Thanks Andy

I have corrected my Original Post to confirm with your correction

Thanks to everyone for your help

Ron

Here’s an article I did in 2015 with Rob Anderlik discussing the EBDGBD tuning with examples from my YouTube channel. Read all about it!
https://squareneckjournal.com/2015/02/0 ... reg-booth/

Thanks very much Greg Booth

I think we communicated a few moons ago

I'll print off that article and try my best to absorb it.

Regards
Ron

An FYI -

If you access the great Greg Booth article above, I suggest you "Copy and Paste" it to a new Word document

and the left side then won't get truncated.

Voila!

You can also then alter the spacing of the paragraps etc to suit your own needs....and archiveal files

Thanks again Greg

Ron