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You are here: Home / Lessons / Alternate Tunings – Quick Practice Tip

Alternate Tunings – Quick Practice Tip

Teacher: Vi Wickam

About Alternate Tunings – Quick Practice Tip:

[The tune I play at the beginning of this Quick Tip is called Bonaparte’s Retreat. I recorded it on my album Long Time Comin’ as a medley with Midnight on the Water.]

Hi I’m Vi Wickam and this is another myTalentForge.com Quick Tip of the Week!

In your playing, there is nothing more liberating than changing your tuning to one of the alternate tunings.

It really gives your fingers a fresh set of geometry to play with, a fresh set of fingerings for the same notes.

And it really messes with your head for a little bit!

I highly recommend trying out some cross-tunings and play songs that you know and see how they fall out.

I like D-D-A-D for tunes like Midnight On The Water where I tune my G string down to a D, and I tune my E string down to a D. And it gives a nice ring to it.

There’s other tunings as well. There’s G-D-G-D, G-D-G-B, A-E-A-E, A-E-A-C#, and any other tuning you want to make up!

You can tune your G down to an E, and have E-D-A-E for a tune that’s in the key of E.

But play around with alternate tunings. Tune to that tuning and then play around with it. Spend an hour, spend 2 hours, spend a week just playing in that tuning and see what patterns your fingers find, because it will be different, it will surprise you, and it will be fun.

Cross-tune your fiddle. That’s your Quick Tip this week!

About Vi Wickam

Vi Wickam of Loveland, CO has been performing fiddle and writing music since before he could read. Along with his brothers and dad, The Wickam Family Band performed regularly on Blinky’s Fun Club, a nationally syndicated TV program.

Vi’s fiddling can be heard on numerous CD recordings, including two of his own. He’s played with many different bands throughout the United States, and even briefly in England.

Among his fiddling honors, Vi has won the Colorado State Championship twice, and been a finalist four times at the Grand Masters’ Fiddler Championship. He has judged fiddle contests throughout the US, and directed regional and state level fiddle contests.

Join Talent Forge to learn tunes from Vi.

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