From: owner-good-noise-digest@smoe.org (good-noise-digest) To: good-noise-digest@smoe.org Subject: good-noise-digest V2 #51 Reply-To: good-noise@smoe.org Sender: owner-good-noise-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-good-noise-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk good-noise-digest Saturday, April 24 1999 Volume 02 : Number 051 Today's Subjects: ----------------- Re: legends ["Kevin Rent" ] Re: legends ["John W. Richard, Jr." ] Re: legends: guitar tunings [SAbrams613@aol.com] Re: legends [SAbrams613@aol.com] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 23 Apr 1999 04:59:34 PDT From: "Kevin Rent" Subject: Re: legends Forgive me for my ignorance but... Seeing as I don't play any instruments, I was wondering if the way in which a guitar is tuned, does that change the sound of the song itself? If yes, how is "That's how legends are made" different? Thanks, Kevin in sunny Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada ______________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 23 Apr 1999 11:40:06 -0500 From: "John W. Richard, Jr." Subject: Re: legends Well, without getting into too much music theory: Yes, the tuning of the guitar can change how a songs sounds, especially with "That's How Legends are Made". A lot of the time, alternate tunings are used to make it easier to play certain songs. Some of the more popular alternate tunings are "open G" and "open D". This means that, when the guitar is strummed without pressing any strings down, a G major or D major chord is heard. This means that you can create a whole range of majors chords on the instrument by barring an index finger up the guitar neck (one half-step per fret). In fingerstyle guitar, open tunings can be used to create musical ideas that would be very difficult to play in standard tuning (e.g. Dan Fogelberg's "Longer" is played in open G). In "That's How Legends are Made", JG uses open Dsus4. This means that when you strum the guitar with no fingers pressed, you hear a D suspsended 4 chord, which is a D major chord with a G instead of an F#. The tuning includes 2 D's and 2 A's. This creates large open fourth intervals and open fifth intervals, which makes for a rich, open sound that's not possible with standard tuning. It also allows JG to use really complicated chords like Em11 and A7sus4 without breaking off his fingers. :-) I hope that makes some sense. Sorry to ramble on, but I love playing the guitar. "Legends" is a great song (complicated, but great), and so much fun to play. :-) Cheers, - --JWR - -----Original Message----- From: Kevin Rent To: good-noise@smoe.org Date: Friday, April 23, 1999 7:00 AM Subject: Re: legends >Forgive me for my ignorance but... > >Seeing as I don't play any instruments, I was wondering if the way in >which a guitar is tuned, does that change the sound of the song >itself? If yes, how is "That's how legends are made" different? > >Thanks, > >Kevin in sunny Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada > > >______________________________________________________ >Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 23 Apr 1999 16:15:37 EDT From: SAbrams613@aol.com Subject: Re: legends: guitar tunings Kevin: The combination of notes the guitar's strings are tuned to does give a different 'feel' to a song. So, if the tuning is different from standard tuning (EADGBE, lowest string to highest string) usually there is a particular musical texture to the sound. It will also change the player's fingering, as the notes of the scale are in different places on the neck of the guitar. My husband and I are partial to DADGAD (otherwise known tongue-in-cheek as "Windham Hill standard tuning"), as we play a lot of Celtic pieces and that's a very 'friendly' tuning for that genre of music. If you look in the John Gorka Guitar Collection (21 songs, published by Hal Leonard), 'Good Noise' and 'When She Kisses Me' are tuned EBEG#BE, 'Heart Upon Demand' is tuned DADGBE, 'I Don't Feel Like a Train' is tuned DGDGBD and 'That's How Legends Are Made' is tuned DADGAD. Have I confused you and the rest of the list enough (grin)? Barbara ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 23 Apr 1999 16:21:02 EDT From: SAbrams613@aol.com Subject: Re: legends JWR- Oh goody! Another fingerstyle guitarist on this list! Glad to meet you in cyberspace. Barbara ------------------------------ End of good-noise-digest V2 #51 *******************************