RE: OT: Tuning guitar in fifths for wider orchestration options

["William Walker" <billwalker@baymoon.com>]

"Honestly, I don't see a world of possibilities in switching tunings. 
Sure, there's a big ringing resonance that one can get with unisons or 
open octaves, but that already sounds played out to my ears unless the 
composition is a good one. If you go on YouTube and watch the scores of 
open-tuned solo guitar players, you'll see the easy temptations they 
fall into - basing everything on a pedal note on the lowest open string, 
sliding around the same chord position on the low strings with the high 
ones ringing out, hitting the 12th and 5th fret harmonics compulsively 
in every damn tune - because those tricks sound good, at an average and 
tired level of good."


 First of all, watching Youtube too much will rot your brain  (unless of
course you are watching my stuff :). Secondly, exploring open tunings is
like anything else, ruts can develop, writers block can ensue. Like you I
find most fingerstlye music a bit boring and same sounding, and yet I don't
feel like that about Michael Hedge's Music, or John Fahey, or early Will
Ackerman. I don't find Joni Mitchell boring and she uses more open tunings
than all of us combined :) good writing is good writing, bad writing is bad
writing regardless of the tuning, instrument or style. I just read an
interview with Joe Bonamassa where he quoted Tom Dowd as saying playing
slide in open tunings is cheating. Cheating what? Is Sonny Landreth 
cheating
because he uses open tunings, or Duane Allman for that matter when he wrote
"little Martha"? I play slide in standard tuning and in alternate tunings. 
I
can get around pretty good both ways but I prefer using alternate tunings
for slide because they simply give me a bigger fuller voice and some drone
options, not to mention the ability to play 6 note chords with the bar. 
Give
me a break Tom Dowd, or better yet come over to my house and show me how
much better you can play it. Fucking producer, Lee Sklar has a switch on 
his
bass made for guys like you :)  I have a tune I wrote with a chord I call E
Major Tendonitis in it, because in standard tuning, it requires holding a 5
fret reach through the entire verse section. The intervals in standard
tuning are stacked as follows R534R2, that would be open E, B on the 5th
string (2nd fret), G# on the 4th string (6th fret), A on the 3rd string 
(2nd
fret), E on the 2nd string (5th fret), and F# on the 1st string (2nd fret).
Ouch...Its torture to play on a strat, but I found a way to re voice it in
drop D  that makes playing the tune less painful. Now I can actually play
the tune without cramping and I like it pitched down a whole step any way,
as it brings out more low end. Now I may not impress the kinds of guitar
fanatics who are impressed by torturous fingerings and virtuoso playing but
I don't really care, if it works for the song that's the most important
thing, not how hard it is to play. And besides, I find most virtuoso guitar
music pretty boring, as its like  listening to someone who won't stop
talking, ever... Actually, using open tunings has served to influence  my
playing in standard tuning as I am more likely to use more impressionistic
minimal chord voicing's that utilize open strings as a result of my
exploration of alternate tunings. Alternate tunings are like another group
of crayons in the crayon box. I don't know about you, but I'm happy to get
my hands on as many crayons as possible.
Bill