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Drop D half step down tuning
- Thread starter DLI848
- Start date
- Aug 5, 2005
- 7,243
- 92
- Disclosures
- Endorsing Artist: J.C. Basses
No, the argument was playing it in standard BEADG and not an open tuning since that would defeat the purpose of NOT changing tunings. If you guys were arguing about something else the whole time then I must have missed it. I know Sartori brought up the issue with the different open tunings which I'll have to look into further...maybe I'll have to change some things myself?
I think I've been pretty open to say that different people do different things and that's totally cool. But when someone puts a lot of thought and time and effort into creating something so that it has a specific feel and sound...you know what, since you guys are being punks about it, I'm done. You've officially ruffled my feathers over something so stupid and trivial it's ridiculous. I try to stay away from stupid debates like this but I'm no match for ignorance. You should start your own Anti-Drop Tunings club.
First of all, I had one of the first posts in this thread about drop tunings and their usefulness, both tonally and ergonomically. I use them all the time when I feel they are necessary and I have no stigma against them.
You posted a tab and challenged somebody to play it in standard BEADG tuning. I posted a tab of it in BEADG tuning to show that it could feasibly be played in that tuning, and the first response was that I was not allowed to transcribe it that way. Am I missing something here, or are you just flopping back and forth between arguments? YOU are getting bent out of shape over nothing...nobody else is doing this to you.
Actually Sartori, what you have listed as "open tuning" is actually not open tuning, they are variations on standard tuning. Open tuning (as someone posted above) refers to tuning your bass so that the open strings (when played together) form a chord of some kind...
- Aug 5, 2005
- 7,243
- 92
- Disclosures
- Endorsing Artist: J.C. Basses
You know, I did also, but it seemed as though general consensus in this thread was that an open tuning was simply a standard 4th tuning, so I just went with it.
I'm pretty sure he's referring to the fact that you may get the same notes, but you will definitely not get the same timbre when playing it as you've transcribed it. He's right, he just hasn't described it clearly enough. Of course you can play the same riff on the low B string, it just won't sound the same. At all...
- Aug 5, 2005
- 7,243
- 92
- Disclosures
- Endorsing Artist: J.C. Basses
I know this, and we've acknowledged this (hell, look at my first post), but he took the time to write out 3 posts and upload tabs of the song, only to dismiss it when I posted a transcription of it? That seems to be a bit of a flip-flop. I'm guessing it's because it looked more simple in standard tuning that he had originally thought it would, but I wont make accusations about things I don't know. I'm just very confused about what his stance really was and I think he unnecessarily "flew off the handle"...but this is the internet, I shouldn't expect anything else.
/that topic
String gauges and proper EQing could probably achieve a very convincing sound. I bet with lighter gauge strings and more prominent mids/upper mids, most people couldn't tell the difference.
Open tunings = strum the strings all open to make a chord of some kind. D-A-D-G-A-D for guitar is one, D-A-D-F#-A-D is another among countless others for examples of them in use, See: Michael Hedges.
Standard tunings = (B)-E-A-D-G-(C) where the strings are all tuned in 4ths. A tuning like D-G-C-F is known as D Standard. Eb-Ab-Db-Gb, as used by bands like Metallica, Jimi Hendrix, etc is Eb Standard.
Dropped Tunings = Lowest string is dropped down 1 whole step from where it normally should be, bringing it a 5th below the string above it, as opposed to a 4th. Drop D = D,A,D,G. Drop B = B,F#,B,E, and so on and so forth.
Re: BDL1991's post about a zero fret.
Even with a zero fret, an open string sounds different than the same note played while fretted. If i were more educated about why, I would say its because the pickups are situated for ideal harmonic sensitivity with an open string, but that's just conjecture.
Standard tunings = (B)-E-A-D-G-(C) where the strings are all tuned in 4ths. A tuning like D-G-C-F is known as D Standard. Eb-Ab-Db-Gb, as used by bands like Metallica, Jimi Hendrix, etc is Eb Standard.
Dropped Tunings = Lowest string is dropped down 1 whole step from where it normally should be, bringing it a 5th below the string above it, as opposed to a 4th. Drop D = D,A,D,G. Drop B = B,F#,B,E, and so on and so forth.
Re: BDL1991's post about a zero fret.
Even with a zero fret, an open string sounds different than the same note played while fretted. If i were more educated about why, I would say its because the pickups are situated for ideal harmonic sensitivity with an open string, but that's just conjecture.
true though i was lead to believe a zero fret would give a similar effect of fretting the open string
Yea, it does give a similar effect, but there is still something about the harmonic richness of an open string vibrating on it's fundamental that really can't be captured by fretting a note.
The difference between open and fretted is minute, and absolutely negligible in the mix, if not null.
You people are over thinking it.
In all cases, the less efforts you make playing bass, the better.
You people are over thinking it.
In all cases, the less efforts you make playing bass, the better.
In most cases, I agree with you. In my band, which sometimes tunes to drop-Db, I have used a standard tuned 5-string and it works fine. But, say you have a song where the intro requires a low Db held for 2 full measures. The 4-string tuned to drop-Db will sustain the whole time, the standard tuned 5er, where the note will be played on the 2nd fret of the B string, will probably have faded after 3, maybe 4, beats. I have played basses where this wasn't the case, but most of the time, it is true.
Its all about the tuning that most suits the music and makes it sound the best and/or easiest to play. Sometimes, that is a "drop" tuning of some sort, othertimes its a lower standard tuning, and yet other times, a regularly-tuned 5er will do the trick just fine.
Well, sorry, but that's how I'm used to hearing tunings in all 4ths described. My apologies if I was being inaccurate. This is one of the reasons I posted that, so that it would be more clear what I was talking about, and put an end to any confusion about my posts.
That's not easier for me, it's actually pretty awkward. When playing a minor, or major arpeggio, I usually play the root with my pinky (combined with my ring finger, using the two as one finger). I use the intervals of perfect 4ths, minor and major 3rds a ton of the time in my playing.
YOU might not, but I certainly use parts of scales in runs during songs.
Wait what?
Tab that out, how do you play a major or minor arp with your pinky on the root?
I admit that I only read the first 20 posts.
But OMG, this is a simple question and it spawned a whole debate.
I play a 4 string with the Hipshot bass extender key, tuned 1/2 step flat. When I go to "drop-d" with the extender key, I'm tuned C#G#C#F# like you.
I also play a 5 string bass, and I keep it tuned standard, 1/2 step flat.
For songs that truly require "drop-d" for a riff, whether tuned A=440 or not, I would 1) play a 4 string tuned in "drop-d", or 2) retune the 5 string to BDADG, whether A=440 or not.
I admit that I only read the first 20 posts. If I'm repeating someone, so what.
It's only the internet.
exactly, Parts of scales not just a straight 1st - 2nd - 3rd - 4th etc etc, with drop tunings when i used them in a band situation i used the scales starting from the A string more often than D, so there is 5 Scales in that octave I can't get, but i wouldn't think you'd just play a straight scale from root to octave and then back again during a song, sorry if i didn't make that clear in the post i mentioned that in.
Pinky on the root, middle finger on the third, and then sometimes index finger on the fifth. Unless of course I go to the low octave of the fifth which is a 4th below the root, as I often do.
