Open tunings on tenor guitar

[Martin Jonas]

I've just been playing around a bit with a Scottish pibroch, which is a type of slow bagpipe tune. Like all such tunes, it needs drones and harmonies to fill it out, and I've been experimenting with playing this in an open A tuning on my resonator tenor guitar. This is normally tuned GDAE, but it's quite straightforward to get to open A by raising the bottom string to A and dropping the second string to C#, making a AC#AE.

My first go at this tuning sounds like this (the tune is "Dargai" by James Scott Skinner, fairly widely known from the tenor banjo recording by Richard Thompson on the album "Pour Down Like Silver" by Richard & Linda Thompson, where it is the long instrumental coda to one of their best-known songs, Dimming Of The Day):

T5-5r41TPRE

Has anybody else experimented with open tunings on a tenor? What works well?

Martin

[hokelore]

I don't play a lot of tenor, but when I do, I nearly always use an open tuning. I mostly use AEAE, sometimes ADAD.

Tim

[JeffD]

My tenor guitar, and the tenor banjo I recently purchased, have been beating me up recently. I find that I have been way over thinking things. (Duh!)

So I tried AEAE on the tenor, and pretended it was a brand new instruemnt, and ya know what, its fun again.

I haven't tried any Scottish tunes as yet on the tenor.

In general, when I play Scottish music, I put in a lot of harmonies and drones on adjacent strings.

These double stop patterns are some of the ones I grab if available. (All first position fingerings.) The patterns will work for anything tuned in fifths, and as written is for tuning in GDAE. Tenor tuned to CGDA will sound the notes as written in the keys of D and G.

Note I wrote in the chord being hinted at by the double stop. These are not always the right chord for the tune, but they sure work a lot of the time, and work well enough most of the time.

Enjoy.

[Martin Jonas]

Thanks, Jeff and Tim. I was torn between AC#AE and AEAE for the Skinner tune, but went with the first one to have the full major chord covered. For that tune that was fine, I think -- I'm happy with the drones and harmonies, although I clearly need to work on my hammer-ons in the second half which sound pretty choked.

I think I'll try out AEAE as well. I've been meaning to use the resonator with a slide for a while, and that only really works with an open tuning.

Martin

[Big Rig]

Just starting picking up the ole tenor again and I'm really digging AEAC# right now.

[Eddie Sheehy]

I use GDAD to play wayfaring stranger in G- and it works quite well...

[GD Armstrong]

I use GDGD for slide and AEAE for pipe tunes on the tenor usually tuned GDAE and DGDB on the one usually tuned CGDA

[MirekPatekdotcom]

I use DGdg tuning (adapted from CGda). Low "Irish" equivalent would be ADad (adapted from GDae).

http://www.mirekpatek.com

Mirek

[mkwarford]

Is that with normal gauge strings?

[zoukboy]

Open G: G2D3G3D4 !!! :-))))

[wistah]

I use CGcg and CGce fairly often.

[Irénée]

I suggest also this one: BGDg (low 2 high), it is an perfect open G :mandosmiley:

I use it 4 delta blues... :whistling: and the normal DGDA for Django Reinhardt gypsy jazz & classic mandolin chord with one 5th lowered...

My instrument has a special copper rust cover plate
145859, 145860,
and has this shape...
145861