Non-standard zouk tuning

[paulspafford]

My brother has wanted an Irish tenor banjo for years, but hasn’t wanted to shell out the cash. A few months ago he bought a Hora Irish bouzouki instead, and he absolutely hated it, so now it’s mine. I have - among other instruments, of course - a tenor banjo and a tenor guitar (both tuned Irish), so I didn’t really need a third.

My GF said, "The Paul thing to do would be to would be to choose some weird tuning and then spend months obsessing over it."

It’s like she knows me! Just got it today.

So I’ve got it tuned G-C-G-C, and I’m LOVING it. I mostly use all my instruments to accompany myself as I sing the blues, and this tuning is amazing for that (especially for playing in C):

1. The low G string is good for pickup notes leading up to the root.
2. Hitting the third fret on any string gives you the flatted third or dominant 7, which makes for some good slide-style licks.
3. The F chord is played 2-0-2-0.
4. The G chord is played 0-2-0-2.
5. It’s easy to turn any of those chords into a 7.
6. It’s very easy to find harmony double-stops when improvising. They’re often open strings or the same fret.
7. And it sounds cool!

Imagine what I’ll find once I start obsessing? (Note: It’s 3am here)

[Martin Beer]

I've seen people using ADAD on Irish bouzouki where they're playing primarily in D, so essentially you've hit upon that, just a whole tone lower.

[paulspafford]

Nice. I’ve never heard of this type of tuning before. The melody notes seem to be right under my fingers at all times!