Re: Tuning guitar in fifths for wider orchestration options OT

[andy butler <akbutler@tiscali.co.uk>]

Travis Hartnett wrote:

>  Then ironically I 
> started playing a lot in Standard, and having tried the other tunings, 
> it struck me as the best all-round tuning, particularly if you're 
> playing with others.
> 
> TH
>

At one time I made up a couple of tunings, and worked out some stuff to 
play
(must have been late 80's).
...but with the opposite of the "find the notes" approach.
Moving the notes around made it much easier to treat guitar like
a "found sound" instrument, except that I chose a tuning that
wouldn't favour discord. ( one was EADF#AE, er...I think)
The great thing about guitar is the way the different strings at
different tensions all have different timbres, and I wanted to
explore more the sound world of the guitar rather than the note world.
Before this, I was concerned with working out harmony, and thought 
that what I played on guitar was lacking somehow.

Having learned the "sound" approach, I found it also worked for me on 
regular tuning,
with the added dimension of also knowing where to find all the notes.
So the altered tunings were abandoned. 

For looping, I use an occasional dropped D ( DADGBE ), 
for that lovely low bwaaarm.

Reading this thread, a may have another go with CGDGBE.
I've knocked around with it before, but now it occurs
that the extra low notes would be very handy for adding
basslines into the loop.

andy butler
ps. while we're in guitar mode, if anyone was ever curious
about my guitar ("that's not a real Gibson...I thought it was first")
then I recently managed to track it down
http://tinyurl.com/az3h57
and yes...wooden pickups!