Alternate Tunings – Quick Practice Tip

Description

[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!