I’m thinking of using my guitar as a secondary/lower volume instrument for playing tunes.
I know there are various tunings people use for flatpicking tunes, like DADGAE or CGCGCE (and of course standard), but has anyone tuned a six-string guitar in fifths, like a tenor banjo?
Is there a way of stringing the guitar so that GDAE falls further up the neck (capoed), to reduce the scale length?
A tenor guitar would make sense, but the six-stringer I have is nice, underutilized, and has a tremendous amount of sentimental value, so I’d like to put it to use.
Great timing as I’ve spent the past few months experimenting with guitar tunings, many of them based in 5ths. My situation - I’m primarily a tenor banjo player (in sessions), but like to play guitar around the house because I like the tone, and it’s quieter, or so the wife tells me.
I spent a few weeks tuned DADAE - no B string, moved the high E to where the B string usually is. Worked fairly well for tunes, as I could go on autopilot to play tunes I knew on banjo. Drones were great, but chords beyond “power” chords weren’t practical. Not a bad choice overall.
Currently, I’ve been useing DADEAE. Not exactly 5ths tuning, but I consider the DxAE interval to be critical to converting tune fingering from banjo to guitar. It’s easy on the fingers - the D to E string combo allows for really easy melodic passages. Chords are really nice, especially in the modes of D, A, and E. Capoing at the 5th fret using D shapes works great for G. I essentially use the top 3 strings for 90% of melody work, and the bottom 3 strings for drones.
If you try and like this tuning, there’s a great book based in this tuning, Traditional Irish Guitar: A Tradition-Based Approach to Accompaniment and Solo-Playing of Irish Dance Music on the Guitar by Paul De Grae.
Excellent–thanks! I think I’ll try the DADAE idea you presented. Maybe I’ll try putting on an octave G string from a 12-string set to fill the empty spot and ease access to the high A and B.
A quick question–I assume you tune a normal G string up to A for that tuning; is there a reason you find that preferential to tuning a B string down?
Yep, DAEB is correct. Even better for using standard gauge strings, except for the “E”.
Tintin - when I was experimenting with DADAE, I was more or less being lazy, and didn’t want to move an extra string. I also like the tone of the wound 3rd better than a slackened B string. If I was making a “custom” string set for that tuning, I would use a medium 2nd string (.017) for the A.
Also, not a bad idea putting a high G on top to eliminate position shifting for the high B that occurs in most tunes. Let me know how that works for you, I may give that a try! I’ll try to work out some chord voicings and see if it’s usable for accompaniment.
Ro3b - right on about Fripp. Essentially, tuning DADAEG would be an irish-friendly version of that tuning.
