Richard Thompson and Alternate Tunings

[Fusioninspace]

I saw Richard Thompson play a few weeks ago here in St. Louis. Aside from being overall very entertaining, I was impressed with the variety of alternate tunings he did.

He got to a point that was about 6 alternations deep - how does one keep track of where you're at at that point? Does anyone know if he's just going back and forth between a couple of tunings? But there were several that really slacked some strings and stretched others to the limit.

He he extreme in this regard, or is this something you alternate tuner people are used to????

If you get a chance to see this guy, it's a good show. He's folk based, and every song tells a story - but he definately knows his way around the fret board without getting to showy. I normally would not have gone to see someone like him, but my neighbor had a free ticket

 

[TelePaul]

I saw Richard Thompson play a few weeks ago here in St. Louis. Aside from being overall very entertaining, I was impressed with the variety of alternate tunings he did.

He got to a point that was about 6 alternations deep - how does one keep track of where you're at at that point? Does anyone know if he's just going back and forth between a couple of tunings? But there were several that really slacked some strings and stretched others to the limit.

He he extreme in this regard, or is this something you alternate tuner people are used to????

If you get a chance to see this guy, it's a good show. He's folk based, and every song tells a story - but he definately knows his way around the fret board without getting to showy. I normally would not have gone to see someone like him, but my neighbor had a free ticket

My favourites:

Vincent Black Lightning 1952: drop the E to C and the A to G and Capo 3.
King of Bohemia: Drop D, Capo 3.

Why's he so good? Becaus ehe's been doing it a very long time! He was the guitarist for a British folk group called Fairport Convention. I wouldn't say he's unique in what he does, for some reason the United Kingdom has produced a great many alternate tuners (Nick Drake and John Martyn - try if you like Richard Thompson) but you're right, he does seem to avoid standard tuning. The only other guitarist i know of that uses alternate tunings to the same extent is John Rzeznik of the Goo Goo Dolls. He's a great player too, different style, but great all the same.

 

[thewanderer24]

if you're into alternate tunings, try and find some solo work from Bass player Michael Manring. He uses a whole lot of different tunings, and takes it beyond the level I've seen anyone else do.

He actually has an array of detuners (more than one detuning setting on each string), and will change tunings mid song to play different parts. He's a really creative, different kind of player. Really nice guy, too.

 

[ggunn]

My favourites:

Vincent Black Lightning 1952: drop the E to C and the A to G and Capo 3.
King of Bohemia: Drop D, Capo 3.

Why's he so good? Becaus ehe's been doing it a very long time! He was the guitarist for a British folk group called Fairport Convention. I wouldn't say he's unique in what he does, for some reason the United Kingdom has produced a great many alternate tuners (Nick Drake and John Martyn - try if you like Richard Thompson) but you're right, he does seem to avoid standard tuning. The only other guitarist i know of that uses alternate tunings to the same extent is John Rzeznik of the Goo Goo Dolls. He's a great player too, different style, but great all the same.

Sonny Landreth does that, too. He used to travel with about 8 guitars for the different tunings, but now he's got one of those programmable motorized gizmos mounted in a Les Paul that changes the tunings for him between songs.

 

[32-20-Blues]

He he extreme in this regard, or is this something you alternate tuner people are used to????

The music I listen to tends to be based on alternate tunings. Then again, most of what I listen to is Richard Thompson. He rocks my world.

For what it's worth, I play mostly in open D, (DADF#AD), and sometimes EADF#AD (this makes low G notes on the E string easier to reach). DADGAD too, but it makes things too easy - anything sounds nice in it if you stick to open strings, and the 2nd and 4th frets.

To reiterate: Richard Thompson = King Among Mere Men.

 

[pohaku]

I saw Richard Thompson play a few weeks ago here in St. Louis. Aside from being overall very entertaining, I was impressed with the variety of alternate tunings he did.

He got to a point that was about 6 alternations deep - how does one keep track of where you're at at that point? Does anyone know if he's just going back and forth between a couple of tunings? But there were several that really slacked some strings and stretched others to the limit.

He he extreme in this regard, or is this something you alternate tuner people are used to????

If you get a chance to see this guy, it's a good show. He's folk based, and every song tells a story - but he definately knows his way around the fret board without getting to showy. I normally would not have gone to see someone like him, but my neighbor had a free ticket

Was he with his band? Or just doing the solo busking thing? He's good either way, but when he plugs in, you really got to hold on. What's interesting is that he's not really playing out of the typical rock blues idiom -- it's more out of folk and traditional irish and scottish music. Tunings and progressions are quite different. He can do the rock blues based thing (witness Cooksferry Queen) superbly, but he really doesn't do much of it. Oh, and he has like seven fingers on each hand

 

[gordone]

Yeah, Richard Thompson rocks! Somewhere on YouTube there's a video of him sitting in a hotel room playing 1952 Black Vincent Lightning solo on his Lowden. Most of the work is in his picking hand, and he makes it look so easy!

I play in DADGAD quite a bit, and I have no problems bouncing back and forth between the two. Takes less then a minute to tune the guitar back and forth from standard. Drop the low E down to D (so it matches the 4th string), same thing for the first string. Then drop the 2nd string B down to A so it matches the open fifth string. That's it!

Richard Shindell does alot of nice DADGAD stuff.

 

[cmhansen]

I'll have to look that guy up. Heard his name a couple of times but know nothing of his work. My assumption is he uses just a few alternate tunings and just tunes back and forth.

I know when I went to see Michael Hedges play, he would change tunings after almost every tune he played. Got rather frustrating just watching him tune his guitar all the time. Good show though. Especially when Leo Kottke came on right after.

As for DADGAD making everything to easy, I don't think I would subscribe to that notion. That's all I ever use any more. And I find it just as difficult at times as using regular tuning.

 

[pohaku]

I'll have to look that guy up. Heard his name a couple of times but know nothing of his work. My assumption is he uses just a few alternate tunings and just tunes back and forth.

I know when I went to see Michael Hedges play, he would change tunings after almost every tune he played. Got rather frustrating just watching him tune his guitar all the time. Good show though. Especially when Leo Kottke came on right after.

As for DADGAD making everything to easy, I don't think I would subscribe to that notion. That's all I ever use any more. And I find it just as difficult at times as using regular tuning.

You might check out Action Packed (an abbreviated studio "best of"), Rumour and Sigh (arguably his best studio album) and/or Mock Tudor (one of his very good more recent studio albums). He has a huge discography, including lots of live albums, that is well worth checking out. He doesn't do the guitar workout thing as much on his studio albums, but on live cuts, he really cranks it. You might like the Live in Providence DVD for that. He's in that elite group of guitarists where, after you see him, you are either incredibly inspired or you want to go burn all your instruments in despair.

 

[mrface2112]

The only other guitarist i know of that uses alternate tunings to the same extent is........

two words: Jackson Browne

i saw him on his "solo acoustic" tour a few years back at Lisner Auditorium (scored 7th row center day of show!), and he must've had a dozen guitars in a semi-circle around him. a couple were in standard, but the rest were open e, g, a, dadgad, drop d, double drop d, and more, i'm sure--those were just the ones i recognised. it was insane, really.

but he played them all and played them all very well, even giving us an impromptu "Lawyers, Guns and Money" in memory of his recently late friend, Warren Zevon.

i love playing (and especially writing) in alternate tunings. but being practical, it's a pain to retune from open E to dadgad to standard in the middle of a gig (or even practice) without boring everyone to tears. well, that and the guys won't give me space on stage for more than a couple guitars/mandolins.


cheers,
wade