Some good practice

[Mark Gunter]

I recently hit upon a fun practice regimen, entirely by chance. It involves nothing more than playing with my son.

He's long been in this phase where he wants to keep his guitar tuned down a half step, Stevie Ray style, and recently (holidays) I've had opportunity to accompany him on mandolin. This has been great fun and more challenging than other stuff I've been involved with lately, because to accommodate his voice, he's moving the capo around -- forcing me to transpose keys, but due to his tuning the key is a half step off from normal expectations. And to top it off, his voice range is such that I find myself playing in keys like Gb or B. Great fun, but at this point, I'm lucky just to hang on and noodle around the pentatonic scales while he plays. Most of the music is so-called "red dirt" country stuff, again out of my comfort zone especially in Gb.

Challenging, but a welcome change of fretboard real estate for me to wander around in.

[Simon DS]

Two Red Dirts, is this it Mark? Sounds cool.
Would sound great on a curved fretboard slide mando.

[Mark Gunter]

That’s good stuff, but no, it’s a sort of contemporary country music style of Oklahoma and North Texas. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_dirt_(music)

[Mark Gunter]

I don’t mean to strictly categorize it though. I remember one of the tunes he sings in Gb is by Chris Knight, from Kentucky. This song: https://youtu.be/0U2Px5OR0eA

[Michael H Geimer]

Just did this challenge at a Black Friday gig. Sat in with a talented Singer/Songwriter who informed me on arrival that he tunes down a half-step. Played four hours of originals and covers, all transposed on the fly. My head still hurts but I'm a better player for the experience. 10/10 will do it again!