The Steel Guitar Forum

Im getting a little frustraited with my limmited ability for playing minors with an open tunning..Is there other tunings that might work,a little more versatile..And what gauge strings would i need.

Try D tuning D A D F# A D. With the 1 5 1 on the bottom you can fake minor chords. Learn which intervals make up a minor chord so you can play the 3rds and 6ths that make the chords up. Make a map of your tuning and find where all the straight bars are for your minor and then slide from one to the other. For instance, Em: at the 2nd fret play strings 6 5 4; then audibly slide on 4 up to the 5th fret then play the third string; then slide to the 10th fret then play the 2nd; then slide up to the 14th fret then play the first string. If you block your strings well, you get a great Em arpeggio. Repeat the whole thing descending.

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Pete
www.petegrant.com

I know one guy who uses a G6th: it is, from the top -- d-b-g-d-b-e. The "e" string is guaged, and tuned, between the 3d & 4th strings. This keeps most of the standard moves as expected; except for some of the "Josh" Graves moves. Good Luck!

Minors are real easy in G tuning...forward slant...ie..strings 1st-3rd, frets 5-5-4 is an Em etc...
Mike<FONT SIZE=1 COLOR="#8e236b"><p align=CENTER>[This message was edited by mikey on 03 March 2000 at 09:06 AM.]</p></FONT>

Thanks everyone that will give me alot to play with.

Hey Jerry,
I used to have a 7 string ShoBro which had a G6 tuning G B D E G B D low to high. I don't have that anymore but on a lap steel I have it's tuned B D E G B D. Just take your low G off the regular Dobro G tuning and move strings 4 & 5 to 5 & 6 and put an E string in position 4. You'll lose the bottom root note but you can now play a lot of Hawaiian and Western Swing stuff a lot easier. Also with this tuning, by changing 2 strings the first string D to E and the third string G to G# you have an E7 tuning for stuff like Steel Guitar Rag.

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Have a good one! JH U-12

When I played a six-string dobro, I tuned it to E and was quite happy with it.(I had learned with an A and a G tuning and played both for several years)
E tunng is:
1st E, 2nd B, 3rd G#, 4th E, 5th B, 6th E.
That's the same tuning Shot Jackson used.
With my 7-string nowadays it's E,B,G#,E,B,G#,E.

I have also seen others play with a C6th tuning. Interesting.

Hi Jerry,
you don’t say what style of music you play on the dobro,regardless a very good compromise is E6,especially if you also play guitar. From the first string , E, C#, B, G#, E, C#, (or D,= E13)
Gauges should be chosen to maintain an even tension on all strings and are very much dependant on the string length.
Using this tuning Minors, Sevenths, and even 9ths, Major sevenths and Major 9ths are fairly straightforward.
ie. Strings 1,2,4, at the third fret = G, 2,4,5, up 3 frets = Gminor. et al.
BTW A lot of slants can also be avoided in this tuning, Just try:- on strings 1 and 4, 3rd fret, then strings 2 and 5, 8th fret, then same strings up two (the 10th fret) Sound familiar ?
Try Downloading the MP3 clips found at :- http://homepage.tinet.ie/~basilh/ on the page called links.
for a more detailed demonstration of this tuning.The tunes featuring dobro are “The Third Man Theme” and “Hula Blues”
Regards, Baz.

BAZ THAT WAS SOME GOOD SOUNDING STUFF.WHAT KIND OF GUITAR WAS THAT ON ROSES LOVE..IT HAD A REEALY SWEET TONE..AND THAT STANDUP BASS SOUNDS LIKE THE TICKET TOO..SHE GOT A VERY UNIQUE VOICE ,,COOL LINK