I tune down a half step because it is easier on my partner in crime/ vocalist.
Byron Dickens
BIAB. CbB. Mixbus 32C 8 HP Envy. Intel core i7. 16GB RAM W10. Focusrite Scarlett 18i 20. Various instruments played with varying degrees of proficiency.
I do dig the sound textures of alternate tunings....D - G6 - C, etc.
I've threatened to try an alternate tuning a few times over many years. I never took that plunge because I'm just a rhythm axe player/song writer.
My 'bread & butter' rock/roll song writing doesn't require digging into alternate tunings anyway. I wasn't enamored with learning all new chord positions either. That would just be a distraction from my song writing focus.
DADGAD Celtic, UK folk-type and "moody" fingerstyle type and what I can only call quasi-classical guitar music for lack of any label I'm aware of.
Open G (D-G-D-G-B-D) My most often used open tuning by a long shot... basic go-to tuning for all slide styles... covers most all genres This is also known as Hawaiian slack key and is the most commonly used tuning for that genre
Open D (D-A-D-F#-A-D) Very little slide, mostly fingerstyle Celtic, UK-folk style
Others, rarely used:
Drop D (D-A-D-G-B-E) Just sets up a low D drone string. Use sometimes in Celtic and UK folk-type.
C6 (C-G-C-G-A-E) slide only - use this to imitate a pedal steel (without pedals) or lap guitar limited genre for me... western swing. I don't play country music, but one could use it for that genre too I suspect.
I play the open tunings only on acoustic guitar, with two exceptions... an electric in Open G for slide blues and an electric in C6 for western swing.
I played a mandocello for awhile. My stroke came before I recorded it, however. Too bad. It was an 18" jumbo flat top and could blow down walls. It was the only stringed instrument that I could hear clearly while singing.
BIAB 2023 Audiophile, 24/60 Core M2 Mac Studio Ultra/8TB/192GB Sonoma, M1 MBAir, 2012 MBP Digital Performer 11, LogicPro Finale27.4, Dorico5, Encore5, SmartScorePro64, Notion6, Overture5
I have never tried to play in drop D. It does make the D chord sound very good, but that is about as far as I got.
I assume part of the reason is being unfamiliar with huge hits like Radioactive by Imagine Dragons, which I guess I did not like that much.
I like What I've Done by Linkin Park but I never tried to play it.
So...drop D may be very popular with metal and other styles but there are just not enough hours in my life left to learn everything...lol
Altered tunings are something I will incorporate as time goes by. They are just more colors to paint with and make certain finger positions much less trouble to play.
Cool stuff.
Billy
New location, new environment, new music coming soon
Seize the moo-ment If you feel like you’ve herd all these cow puns before, you probably have deja-moo
David, did you not understand that you have to put the capo on the neck so that it presses down on the strings? Placing the capo on the strap only changes the vocals.
Billy
New location, new environment, new music coming soon
Seize the moo-ment If you feel like you’ve herd all these cow puns before, you probably have deja-moo
I've written in DADGAD, open Am and open Em. The open tunings are OK for easy barre chords, but what I like to do is cowboy-chord shapes and then take them further up the neck. Haven't a clue what chords I'm playing, but they can really be interesting.
The issue is remembering what tuning for what song, being so disorganized. I'm my own guitar-tech and only have one guitar.
I use Drop D and DadGad and open D major tuning a lot.
I really recommend open major and open minor chord tunings, and creating your own versions of these.
The thing to do with open tunings, in my view is to find patterns that are moveable that sound interesting to you and are different than the usual cowboy chords and cowboy licks. For example, the use of open strings which are allowed to resonate while you form a three fret chord on three of the six strings, leaving up to three of the other strings to be played open, in any order you like, is incredibly fun and can yield some really interesting textures.
There are many stringed instruments in the world that have drone strings, so why shouldn't some guitar styles involve drone strings. For any piece where the home 1 chord is your six open strings, you can spice up the 1 chord with any number of voicings of chords that are not available to any human guitarist in ordinary tunings.
This guy is doing some pretty basic stuff and I like this type of lick, but I feel like something is off in the audio recording of his guitar. Maybe it's just that it's a tiny parlour guitar and I'm playing a dreadnought sigma .... But these are the same licks I'm playing and they are positively thunderous here with my big dread.
Start with Droup D which is only one string out of standard tuning and enjoy that big fat 1 chord in your blues in D. Then go all the way to drop D and try some fingerstyle and maybe some day, some slide guitar in open D.
User Video: Next-Level AI Music Editing with ACE Studio and Band-in-a-Box®
The Bob Doyle Media YouTube channel is known for demonstrating how you can creatively incorporate AI into your projects - from your song projects to avatar building to face swapping, and more!
His latest video, Next-Level AI Music Editing with ACE Studio and Band-in-a-Box, he explains in detail how you can use the Melodist feature in Band-in-a-Box with ACE Studio. Follow along as he goes from "nothing" to "something" with his Band-in-a-Box MIDI Melodist track, using ACE Studio to turn it into a vocal track (or tracks, you'll see) by adding lyrics for those notes that will trigger some amazing AI vocals!
Wir waren fleißig und haben über 50 neue Funktionen und eine erstaunliche Sammlung neuer Inhalte hinzugefügt, darunter 222 RealTracks, neue RealStyles, MIDI SuperTracks, Instrumental Studies, "Songs with Vocals" Artist Performance Sets, abspielbare RealTracks Set 3, abspielbare RealDrums Set 2, zwei neue Sets von "RealDrums Stems", XPro Styles PAK 6, Xtra Styles PAK 17 und mehr!
Add updated printing options, enhanced tracks settings, smoother use of MGU and SGU (BB files) within PowerTracks, and more with the latest PowerTracks Pro Audio 2024 update!
Download and install this to your RealBand 2024 for updated print options, streamlined loading and saving of .SGU & MGU (BB) files, and to add a number of program adjustments that address user-reported bugs and concerns.
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Handy flash drive tip: Always try plugging in a USB device the wrong way first? If your flash drive (or other USB plug) doesn't have a symbol to indicate which way is up, look for the side with a seam on the metal connector (it only has a line across one side) - that's the side that either faces down or to the left, depending on your port placement.
Update your Band-in-a-Box® 2024 for Windows® Today!
Update your Band-in-a-Box® 2024 for Windows for free with build 1111!
With this update, there's more control when saving images from the Print Preview window, we've added defaults to the MultiPicker for sorting and font size, updated printing options, updated RealTracks and other content, and addressed user-reported issues with the StylePicker, MIDI Soloists, key signature changes, and more!
A few excerpts:
"The Tracks view is possibly the single most powerful addition in 2024 and opens up a new way to edit and generate accompaniments. Combined with the new MultiPicker Library Window, it makes BIAB nearly perfect as an 'intelligent' composer/arranger program."
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