My last days on earth

[Jonathan Reinhardt]

a few posts in the last few weeks have spoken of this tune. I have been listening carefully to it for the past year and am starting to play it. it is in the key of C#m, yes? or is that some studio trickery. my question refers to the intro and outro which sound very much like harmonics, but in C#m how did Mr. Monroe accomplish that?
any of you who play it, or know firsthand how it was accomplished, could you enlighten me, please?

rasa
Jonathan Reinhardt

[earthsave]

It is an alternate tuning of which I do not know. Story behind it is that on a very cold night Mr. Monroe couldnt sleep so he picked up his mandolin, which was outta tune and this tune came out. I imagine he back figured what the tuning was. Lemme search and see what I can find on the actual tuning used. Looks like it was...

AA DD AC DF

[don richards]

Yeah!! - THAT'S it!! - by Jove!! - his mandolin was "...outta tune..." http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/mandosmiley.gif

[Peter Hackman]

It is an alternate tuning of which I do not know. #Story behind it is that on a very cold night Mr. Monroe couldnt sleep so he picked up his mandolin, which was outta tune and this tune came out. #I imagine he back figured what the tuning was. #Lemme search and see what I can find on the actual tuning used. #Looks like it was...

AA DD AC DF
Playing in c#m out of that tuning would be quite a feat.

[Jim Broyles]

It was C#m tuning. (http://www.mandolincafe.net/cgi-bin/ikonboard.cgi?act=ST;f=24;t=38339)

[Jonathan Reinhardt]

thank you so much jbmando and Evan. I have been avoiding playing the cross tuned songs, due to the extra time it takes to adjust between songs, but they are one of my favorite mandolin (and fiddle) sounds. Skip G. showed me Get Up John a couple of years ago, and encouraged me to use cross tunings. he frequently uses them.

rasa
Jonathan Reinhardt

[PaulD]

thank you so much jbmando and Evan. I have been avoiding playing the cross tuned songs, due to the extra time it takes to adjust between songs, but they are one of my favorite mandolin (and fiddle) sounds. Skip G. showed me Get Up John a couple of years ago, and encouraged me to use cross tunings. he frequently uses them.
All the more reason to have multiple manolins! http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif I'm only half joking. I want to get a second fiddle so I can readily switch between GDAE and ADAE or DDAE, or some other tuning that I haven't learned the tune for. Having several mandos inspired me to put octave strings on the lower two courses on my Flatiron just to play with a different sound.

pd