Are there bouzouki players here? I have some questions for you.
What tuning do you use for Irish bouzouki?
What is the best tuning, in your opinion, to play chords for irish music?
Do you think it’s best to use chord charts or make up your own chords?
I use GDAD or ADAD but some chords are hard to find to get good sound. Many requires very much stretching of the hand and fingers. Not sure what to do. My hands are small and quite well-trained after 10 years of mandolin so it shouldn’t be a matter of practice and training.
I don’t usually play chords but something more like a countermelody and think GDAD is the best for that. I think/use GDAE is better for tunes and chords and because of its versitilaty I like to keep my OM tuned that way most of the time. I sometimes wish I had two so I could tune one to GDAD and one in GDAE.
I play chords on the bouzouki and use the GDAD tunning. This seems to be the best for chords, and is similar to DADGAD guitar in ways. GDAD is not good for tunes though, and I find GDAE hard for chords, but good for tunes. If you know a little bit of music theory and chord construction, finding chords isn’t too hard. It just takes practice. You could also do it by ear…
The best tuning for both accompaniment and melody is GDAda, preferably on a short-scale 10-string instrument. I’ll have one built for me one day. On my 8-string long-scale zouk, I used GDAd – lovely for accompaniment, lousy for playing tunes. GDAe is great for tune playing, but you lose the big ringing open-string droniness that (imho) is the whole raison d’etre of the bouzouki.
Has anyone ever tried Scruggs tuners on a bouzouki? It would be so cool to be able to switch from GDAd to GDAe and back on the fly. If I still had a zouk I think I’d try that.
Which is precisely why I had Phil Crump make my B-III as a 10-string instrument.
I tune: DGdae
I think around and use the entire fretboard, playing more chord shapes than memorized actual chords.
That low D course just blows folks away during performaces. It’s always there, and I can either use it or not, depending on the effect desired.
And on a body as large as Phil’s B-III, it just booms a droney bass boom.
You didn’t ask, but I wouldn’t use any strings other than the Thomastik-Infeld Flatwounds I’ve come to love (on my bouzouki, on my banjo-mandolin, and for the lowest three out of six strings on my hurdy gurdy).
I think the best tuning for all around purposes is a 6 string tuned to DGDAda.
Yeah, I use a varient of that on guitar.
I was also going to say, re chords, that I almost never use full chords on the zouk. More often I’ll play one or two notes that imply a chord and that contrast with droning open strings. E.g.:
I play an Octave Mandolin that I keep pretty much in GDAE. I started playing in GDAD but I like to play the melodies as much as back up so in the end standard mandolin tuning worked out best. It is possible to still get that open drone sound in the gdae tuning, (though its a bit trickier sometimes) if you just mute the right strings, In terms of full chording in GDAE, run a chord scale up like this:
G Maj 7, Am7, Bm7, C Maj 7, D7, Em7, (F#m7b5–G/11th fret D/10thfret A/12th fret E/12th fret… is my favorite inversion) and back around to G maj 7. Nice jazzy sound but doesn’t take away from most melodies Hope this helps..
I prefer GDAD…I can easily play in D,G,A modes as well as Bm, Em…sans capo. Capoing for E, G and A is also good if the tune works better with the D shapes or if busier counter melody is desired. F, C, and Bb are easy w/ a capo at the 3rd fret. In fact I’ve been playing 'Zouk a lot more just because I find it more flexible than DADGAD guitar, although I still stick to the guitar for a lot of D Mix/Dor fiddle tunes, it seems to compliment those well…I also have played flute with backers playing GDAD, ADAD and GDAE. From a melody player’s standpoint, I prefer the sound of GDAD or ADAD.
In terms of full chording in GDAE, run a chord scale up like this:
Hope this helps..