My last days on earth.

[F5G WIZ]

Can someone tell me the tuning for "My last days on earth"?

[WJF]

Here Ya go ... AA DD AC DF

http://www.mandolincafe.net/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif

[Amandalyn]

That's the correct tuning ( the way Bill did it), It also can be played in standard tuning in the key of Dm, that's how we do it around here, beats re- tuning.

[testore]

The box set says EC#, G#B, lower d strings to C# and raise the G strings to G#. I've done it this way for a long time and it sounds pretty good to me. I'm interested in anyone elses ideas and comparisons.
Gary

[Jim Broyles]

ibluegrass.com has this quote:
"Bill Monroe is unique in a way that no other artist can claim. This was a man who was the actual seed from which an entire genre of music blossomed. The arguments persist that bluegrass was born when Earl Scruggs joined the Blue Grass Boys. And, while I personally don't subscribe to that theory, it took membership in Monroe's ensemble to bring out the magic in Earl's 5-string. Ewing extensively covers the music of Bill Monroe. Perhaps the most interesting segment came from the discussions of 'My Last Days On Earth,' which is, possibly, the most unorthodox composition to be penned by Bill Monroe. 'On 'My Last Days On Earth,' I couldn't sleep, I got up' he recalled. 'It was way on down below zero, and I thought, 'I'm going to just take my mandolin and see what I come up with, just start tuning a different style of tuning.' Then Monroe commented that 'I came up with this tuning, C-sharp minor, and went to trying to put some notes into it and this number about wrote itself.' True artistry is such a simple process for an artist."

This would be testore's tuning, except for the B note, which would make it a C#m7 tuning.

[Jim Broyles]

I guess nobody imagined that it would really be C#minor tuning, because the AA DD AC DF tuning is the same tonal relationship as the C#m tuning the box set said Bill used. Whatever works.

[F5G WIZ]

Thanks guys. Besides Get Up John, was there any other Monroe songs with alternate tuning?

[evanreilly]

Blue Grass Ramble is cross-tuned; as is Stone Coal.
Bill also uses a cross-tuning on his song Memories of You