While a lot of people use more common open tunings like Open D and Open G, this C6 tuning (C-A-C-G-C-E) is most often associated with Jimmy Page. Page used the tuning on the Led Zeppelin songs “Friends” (Led Zeppelin III), “Bron-Yr-Aur” (Physical Graffiti), and “Poor Tom” (Coda). It sounds great on acoustic guitar, providing you with lots of drones in the key of C. (The tuning may not easily work on electric, depending on your set-up.) I find the tuning tends to work well where you’re mostly on the I chord and vi chord, with a little IV and V chords thrown in. While I’m sure someone somewhere will figure out Giant Steps in the tuning, I try to play to the tuning’s natural strengths and focus on chords that are easy to play and make use of the open strings. I hope you enjoy using this tuning. You may also want to check out my covers of Bruce Springsteen’s “I’m on Fire” and Page / Zeppelin’s “Bron-Yr-Aur,” links below.
Bron-Yr-Aur is probably my favorite Led Zeppelin acoustic song. Written about a tranquil cottage in the Welsh countryside, the song is meditative and bucolic; it always puts me in a different place whenever I hear it or play it. This is a relatively straight forward read on the song… The original version is a bit shorter, but I usually take a few extra passes through. Hope you enjoy.
Recorded with a Taylor 412ce LTD (Rosewood/Spruce, with Elixir Nanoweb Phosphor Bronze HD gauge set) and a Neumann TLM 102 microphone.
Harvest Moon is the title track from an album Neil Young put out in the early 90’s. It was an era when some of his peers were coasting along, but Neil was doing some of his best work. (Ok, not the Ditch Trilogy, but still some good stuff.) I thought it would be a fun song to arrange; hope you enjoy.
Recorded with a Taylor 412ce LTD (Rosewood/Spruce, with Elixir Nanoweb Phosphor Bronze HD gauge set) and a Neumann TLM 102 microphone.
All rights reserved to this arrangement, however students may perform the arrangement in public.
One of the classic George Harrison songs from the Abbey Road album, Here Comes the Sun is a bright, happy tune that sounds great on acoustic guitar. This fingerstyle arrangement is my take on the song – instead of opting for the bright sounds of a capo-ed guitar, I went for the sonorous tones of an open tuning. Despite the lower voice, I think the arrangement still sounds sunny. Enjoy.
Recorded with a Taylor 412ce LTD (Rosewood/Spruce, with Elixir Nanoweb Phosphor Bronze HD gauge set) and a Neumann TLM 102 microphone.
All rights reserved to this arrangement, however students may perform the arrangement in public.
Fun fact – Harrison wrote this song while walking around Eric Clapton’s garden on a sunny day in spring 1969.
The overall theme of this video is that you should try some different strings on your electric guitar, even if (or especially if) you’ve been using the same type for a while. I focus here on two often overlooked string types: pure nickel strings and (if you have a Strat) Fender Bullets.
Electric guitar strings typically have plain steel treble strings (1st, 2nd, 3rd) and wound bass strings with a steel core (4th, 5th, 6th). The winding can be done with various alloys, including pure steel, nickel coated steel (warmer), and pure nickel (warmest). Back in the 50’s and 60’s, strings were made with pure nickel wraps, so their warm sound is often associated with classic rock, blues, and vintage tone in general. It can be a great choice for garage rock or other styles as well. Nickel strings are great for warming up bright sounding guitars like Strats and Teles, and as a side benefit they tend to last longer than other types of strings.
Fender makes a variety of strings with ball-ends (the standard for guitar), but also makes specialized bullet-end strings for Stratocaster guitars with floating tremolos. The bullet ends fit snugly into the Strat tailpiece and give you better tuning stability, more sustain, and supposedly less string breakage. While I haven’t had an issue with breaking strings, I did find that these strings gave me slightly better tuning stability and sustain, however the trade off is a stiffer feel and slightly less dynamics. If you have a Strat with a tremolo (most Strats), you might try these out to see what you think. Also note, they will not work on other types of guitars as the bullet ends are too big for Gibson style tailpieces, string-through-body Teles, etc.
So, go ahead and try some different strings on your electric guitar. 🙂
If you’ve never really tried one for an extended period of time, you should use a thumbpick for several months to see what it’s like. Of course you can play fingserstyle with a thumbpick, but you can also hold it like a flatpick for strumming chords and playing single note runs. Try wearing one for a couple of months, and just hold it like a flatpick most of the time. After a while, you’ll find that you are using a combination of playing with your fingers and holding it like a flatpick – the best of both worlds.
Using a thumbpick is obviously great for folk / fingerstyle on acoustic guitar, but you can also use it on electric guitar to great effect. The thumbpick lends itself to roots music of all sorts, including blues and country. Chords come alive with dynamic control in jazz, and riffs can really pop when you’re playing rock. Even bluegrass – that traditional bastion of flatpick on guitar – can benefit from a thumbpick… and as mentioned you can still flatpick with it.
For the most part, you don’t give up much when using a thumbpick as a flatpick, though certain techniques like picking/pinch harmonics won’t come off the same way. You may not be able to get quite the same dynamics, but overall what you gain will probably be more useful. (As another bonus, because a thumbpick is secured to your thumb, you won’t drop it.)
As noted in the video, I prefer Fred Kelly’s Delrin Slick Picks – generally using medium for acoustic, and heavy for electric. These picks have a snug fit which may feel too tight at first, but they do loosen up a bit after you wear them for a while. They also make a ‘large’ size version of the pick, and of course there are many other brands / styles that fit differently which you can try. (One trick – that may not work with all pick materials – is to run them under hot water for a while, and then you can loosen / tighten the fit.) Use your common sense and intution – obviously avoid thumbpicks that are outright painful, but be willing to try out ones that are merely uncomfortable for a while, potentially adjusting them, to see how you like them.
One final note – generally I do not recommend thumbpicks for beginners unless they only want to do fingerstyle guitar. I think it’s better to develop your technique with a flatpick and then add a thumbpick later on. I may change my mind on this in the future, but for now that’s how I feel.
Fred Kelly page for Delrin Slick Picks – http://fredkellypicks.com/product/delrin-slick/
Note – this page is more for reference. To order Fred Kelly picks a few at a time, try the Elderly link below. They also have other brands / styles you can try.
If you want to try out different picks and just order a few at a time, Elderly has a great selection – http://elderly.com/accessories/cats/PKTB.html It might be good to order several different sizes / shapes styles to see what you like.
Wonderful Tonight was written by Eric Clapton about his then-wife Pattie Boyd, who had already inspired great songs from Eric and previous husband George Harrison. This song has been the theme to many a high school prom, and its simple yet tasteful melody has held up over the years. In keeping with that, my arrangement here is fairly straight forward: it doesn’t move around the neck very much or have any unusual chord voicings. Hope you enjoy it.
Recorded with a Taylor 412ce LTD (Rosewood/Spruce, with Elixir Nanoweb Phosphor Bronze HD gauge set) and a Neumann TLM 102 microphone.
All rights reserved to this arrangement, however students may perform the arrangement in public.
Coincidentally, I also did a lesson on Eric’s break-up song with Pattie, here.
My mom is a big fan of Bruce Springsteen and used to play the Born In The U.S.A. album a lot. Listening to it again as an adult, it’s a sad, powerful album with some great tunes. I’m on Fire is a really cool little song – almost a sketch at under 3 minutes long, but it really creates a great atmosphere in that short amount of time. I had fun playing it fingerstyle and hope you enjoy my arrangement. Here’s to The Boss.
Recorded with a Taylor 412ce LTD (Rosewood/Spruce, with Elixir Nanoweb Phosphor Bronze HD gauge set) and a Neumann TLM 102 microphone.
All rights reserved to this arrangement, however students may perform the arrangement in public.
Today’s guitar lesson covers how to play the rhythm guitar parts for “Old Love” by Eric Clapton. Old Love was written by Clapton (co-written with Robert Cray) about his split with then-wife Pattie Boyd. The song originally appeared on Clapton’s Journeyman album, though most people are familiar with the version from the Unplugged album. “Old Love” has also been covered by John Mayer. I recently noticed that I neglected to give some examples of the strumming, but the pattern is pretty simple. Watch the live version of the song from Eric Clapton, below, to get a feel for how you might strum the chords.