Not quite yet…

Having suffered a loss of data while transferring a huge load to my new external hard disk, I have spent the last few days trying to recover the lost data. I should, hopefully, be back with new vidcasts next week.

Did I fall off the face of the Earth?

The question above would imply that I believe the Earth to be flat. I am pretty much open minded when such topics are raised. I do believe the earth is spherical with flatted poles, that Darwin is on the right track to explain all living processes and so on and on.

In the meanwhile, I have taken a little break but I plan to get back to work as soon as I can.

DAEF#AD

You can not write about alternate tunings and ignore Joni Mitchell for long. Here’s a tuning she uses. Never tried it myself.

Cette création par Jimmy St-Germain est mise à disposition selon les termes de la licence Creative Commons Paternité-Pas d’Utilisation Commerciale-Partage des Conditions Initiales à l’Identique 2.5 Canada.

EBDGAD

You can not write about alternate tunings and ignore David Crosby for long. This is a good theme for coming up with tunings and I’ll do that for the next few days.

Cette création par Jimmy St-Germain est mise à disposition selon les termes de la licence Creative Commons Paternité-Pas d’Utilisation Commerciale-Partage des Conditions Initiales à l’Identique 2.5 Canada.

DADGBE

I can’t get enough of my new Telecaster b-bender. Let’s try something else on the b-bender with this tuning.

What you’ll notice with this tuning is that the upper three strings are in standard tuning and the lower three strings spell out a D chord without the third. This means that it’s easy to compose stuff in D or using the D chord, which is exactly what I’m doing in this vidcast.

Cette création par Jimmy St-Germain est mise à disposition selon les termes de la licence Creative Commons Paternité-Pas d’Utilisation Commerciale-Partage des Conditions Initiales à l’Identique 2.5 Canada.

DGDGBD

This tuning is practically as familiar to me as the standard tuning, having written numerous songs in it. Today, I decided to continue my explorations in this tuning and try to come up with something that sounds unlike I’ve written using it. I think I have succeeded although you can’t know that because you’ve never heard anything else from me.

Just trust me.

Cette création par Jimmy St-Germain est mise à disposition selon les termes de la licence Creative Commons Paternité-Pas d’Utilisation Commerciale-Partage des Conditions Initiales à l’Identique 2.5 Canada.

EBEG#BE or open E

This chord sequence is proof positive that some things fun can be found using simple chords and a bit of imagination. Maybe I need to review yesterday’s tuning in light of this.

Cette création par Jimmy St-Germain est mise à disposition selon les termes de la licence Creative Commons Paternité-Pas d’Utilisation Commerciale-Partage des Conditions Initiales à l’Identique 2.5 Canada.

DEF#G#BE

This tuning is from one Mr. J. Hayes from Virginia Beach who posted it on www.tdpri.com, a Telecaster discussion forum.

WELL THANK YOU MR. HAYES!

This tuning really stumped me hard. I spent close to 90 minutes trying to find something worthwhile. I found a few chords here and there and no connections seemed to be musically interesting. I will try to come up with something else from a fresh perspective in the near future.

D#G#DFCF

After yesterday’s boating incident, we’re back with our “cross-country” variety of tunings…

This one sounds like something Pete Townsend would write. What you’ll notice, maybe, when you find a chord you like in any tuning is that, provided you have some knowledge of harmonization, it’s easy to rely on one chord shape and move up and down the neck taking care to properly harmonize the underlying scale.

Cette création par Jimmy St-Germain est mise à disposition selon les termes de la licence Creative Commons Paternité-Pas d’Utilisation Commerciale-Partage des Conditions Initiales à l’Identique 2.5 Canada.

Fishy tuning

It’s rainy outside, I’m cooking trout for dinner and this tuning sounds fishy. As it should, it’s the standard tuning: EADGBE. Nothing else sounds more fishy on an alternate tuning blog than the standard tuning.

For my defense, I’m mixing standard chords with alternate tuning writing techniques here

• using known chord shapes up the neck, in this case, the D major chord shape
• C sus 4 chord shape arrived to by moving the fingers around. Although it’s beginner’s chord, I didn’t blindly stuff a C sus 4 chord there, I just fiddled around until I found something good (I’m not sure which one is the more intellectual task)
• E 7 chord shape derived from moving my fingers around the previous C sus 4 chord until I found something that sounds good.

Forget red wine with this one, it goes better with white wine because it’s a lighter mood…

Cette création par Jimmy St-Germain est mise à disposition selon les termes de la licence Creative Commons Paternité-Pas d’Utilisation Commerciale-Partage des Conditions Initiales à l’Identique 2.5 Canada.