What did you learn today?

[charlie monroe]

Led Zeppelin Ocean

What happened? Had you forgotten it since Saturday?

 

[gigetto]

What happened? Had you forgotten it since Saturday?

Sorry after Ocean I've learned Ramble On....but often I forgot and loose many songs...ah oldity....

 

[charlie monroe]

Sorry after Ocean I've learned Ramble On....but often I forgot and loose many songs...ah oldity....

No worries. Most of us have contracted O.L.D.

I can safely say I have forgotten how to play more songs than I remember

 

[FilterFunk]

Peter Ostrum, who played Charlie Bucket in the 1971 movie "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory," is now a 63-year-old veterinarian.

"Charlie Bucket" was his only film role.

 

[the harp unstrung]

snuck up on me!
I had no idea!

 

[Dean N]

Ilan Ramon, one of the truly badass Israeli pilots that participated in the bombing of Iraq's Osirak nuclear reactor (Operation Opera), later became an astronaut, and perished in the space shuttle Columbia re-entry accident.

Man, fighter pilots. Nerves of frickin' steel.

 

[Joedog]

I learned Turbo tax (Intuit) is totally FUBAR.

 

[the harp unstrung]

Lawt!
My old drummer-friend, Donnie...38 yrs spent Teaching HS Science... keeps my synapses firing.

 

[tubedude]

snuck up on me!
I had no idea!

View attachment 4193412

I'm in esst GA. How far north do I go?

 

[PWRL]

View attachment 4193589

Lawt!
My old drummer-friend, Donnie...38 yrs spent Teaching HS Science... keeps my synapses firing.

Well now I learned something today, too. I did not know there were so many different species. Insects are fascinating.

 

[osv]

I learned Turbo tax (Intuit) is totally FUBAR.

They screwed up my taxes last year and I didn’t get my refund until September. I took everything to an accountant this year he’s amending last years return to get me an extra $1500. Never using Intuit again. Quickbooks also sucks.

 

[Tom Bomb]

^^^^ I do love those lady beetles, mortal enemy of the dreaded, piddling aphid, ungodly pest, destroyer of our beloved Mr Lincoln roses. They like it here, thank goodness.

Today, finally, lap slide is on the agenda — among other more ethereal things. I may have to give this game away, clear out the cobwebs. Stay tuned
​

 

[the harp unstrung]

I'm in esst GA. How far north do I go?

I drove to the Meadery in Dahlonega to get a trio...one each for our son, and son-in-law, and one for the old guy.

They’re not a ‘pint’...more like 13, 14? ounces.
I really like the graphic.

The brown thrasher is the state bird of GA. The NHL team that used to play in Atlanta was The Thrashers.
A mean, bully of a bird.
Great name for a hockey team!

 

[farshore]

View attachment 4193589

Lawt!
My old drummer-friend, Donnie...38 yrs spent Teaching HS Science... keeps my synapses firing.

Is there a chart for SleezyTrampBugs as well?

 

[Tom Bomb]

There's been a pre-WWII steel (tone bar) in the wings here, my entire life. I believe it was once case-candy, when the then fledgling Dobros first saw the light of day, and it came into our possession because of a brief stint in the Upper Hunter, where these things apparently found a home, and my old man was a young, lonesome teacher in a one-room school.

It's been a fascination, and little more than a paperweight, all this time. I've carried it, from place to place, after the old boy gave it to me, without ever having the means to use it, for its intended purpose.

Very soon, things are gonna be different 'round here
​

 

[the harp unstrung]

 

[Tom Bomb]

They're excited. That's cool. So's this.

This mega Antarctic iceberg just snapped off from the continental mainland.​

"
… Just last week, a huge 1,200-square-kilometre iceberg broke away from the Brunt Ice Shelf near the Weddell Sea. It's the first large iceberg to break off from this shelf in 50 years.

"A lot of these big ice shelves, we'll normally get, like, one iceberg produced from the shelf during our careers," said Dr Sue Cook, a glaciologist with the Australian Antarctic Program Partnership.

"… it's a unique chance for us to study something in that system that really doesn't happen very often. … it is exciting."

"​

 

[Jeff Scott]

That was a really fascinating presentation of the event.

 

[Tom Bomb]

Big ups to the one named Brad who's down at the well. (I'm goin' down. Somebody stop me )

It's very tuneful down there, I've just discovered. He's just opened up a whole new world for me, down the slippery slide into open tunings. I've almost entirely ignored open tunings — can't tell you why, exactly. Maybe I just don't like to mess with the creator's master plan. A guitar's made to play a certain way, I'd say — In deference to the wood nymphs who knock out these magic instruments, I've let sleeping dogs lie. Until now. I hope they don't mind too much.

I have half a dozen or so bottlenecks, brass and glass, and one ancient steel. That is, I did until today. One more to add to the collection now, along with a freshly minted Hawaiian guitar, still unplayed, still untested. Aloha! It's time for a tuning

I was watching Ben Harper's rig rundown earlier — he has, bless his cotton socks, one tuning to die for, for twelve-string acoustic, which he shares, on the show. Getting into the nitty gritty, what remains unsaid, is going to take some doing. But here's Brad's bounteous boot-full of alternative tunings, from down at the well, to sort through— my learning curve's just gone beyond the vertical

Today, I've learnt only of a location. Mastery may take just a little longer

…

The cool whiny sound that the steel bar makes when slid against a guitar string has one big limitation. You can't make fancy chords (minor, seventh, etc.) without tuning your guitar to a different tuning than the standard guitar tuning. (Actually, I recommend trying to play lap steel using regular guitar tuning once in a while. It may give you a different sound than you would otherwise get!)


All tunings are shown from the bass (lowest) string, which I'll call the sixth string, to the treble (highest) string, which I'll call the first string. Using this system, standard guitar tuning would be represented as:

1. E
2. B
3. G
4. D
5. A
6. E

…

Certain tunings require that you use a different set of strings than a normal electric or acoustic guitar would use. Bob Quasar has a string gauge chart on his pedal steel web page. Just Strings has a wide variety of lap steel strings available. You'll get a good overview of what is commercially available by visiting this site. GHS Strings has a list of string sets they sell for acoustic slide guitar and electric Hawaiian and pedal steel guitar. Ernie Ball's web site has a list of their pedal steel guitar string sets, both in E9th and C6th ten-string sets. Remove two (or four) strings and you have your lap steel string gauges!


Andy Volk has written an excellent guide to steel guitar tunings. Slide Rules: Tunings for Lap Steel, Bottleneck, Resophonic, and Indian Slide Guitar covers tunings for 6, 8, and 10-string guitars. Designed to fit in your guitar case, Slide Rules includes over 70 of the most popular and useful tunings for acoustic and electric lap steel guitar, bottleneck slide guitar, resophonic guitar, Weissenborn® and Hindustani slide guitar as used by the greatest players of the past and present. The book features tunings and string gauges for Rock, Blues, Country, Hawaiian, Western Swing, Folk, Celtic, Bluegrass, Jazz, Pop, Cajun, Ambient, Classical, Raga and every genre in between.


Presented in an easy-to-read, graphic manner, the strings, notes, and musical intervals for each tuning are shown along with comments about the tuning; its uses, advantages and the players who've used it. A string gauge chart helps you set-up each tuning with the proper gauge strings.

The most common tuning for acoustic steel guitar (Dobro) is open G:

1. D
2. B
3. G
4. D
5. B
6. G

One advantage to this tuning is that you have three sets of strings one octave apart for each note in a major chord. It's easy to play the same thing an octave higher or lower by just moving down (or up) three strings. It's also great for quick hammer-on type playing.


Some people use this tuning tuned up a whole step to open A:

1. E
2. C#
3. A
4. E
5. C#
6. A

There is also a tuning called low bass A or Hawaiian A:

1. E
2. C#
3. A
4. E
5. A
6. E

This is the original tuning used in many early Hawaiian guitar instruction books. If you find a very old book without any indication of which tuning is being used, it's probably this tuning. This tuning is also frequently seen tuned one whole note lower, as low bass G:

1. D
2. B
3. G
4. D
5. G
6. D

These tunings allow a nice fingerpicking rhythm to be set up, alternating the root and fifth of the chord using the bottom three strings. It's a nice tuning to use if you play solo. The low bass G tuning is used by Bob Brozman on his National steel guitars.
On electric lap steel guitar, I started out by using open E:

1. E
2. B
3. G#
4. E
5. B
6. E

although some people prefer the same tuning in open D:

1. D
2. A
3. F#
4. D
5. A
6. D

The advantage for me in using this tuning is that the tonic (the note representing the base to which all other notes relate) is represented three times, and the third (which indicated whether the chord is major or minor) is only present once. By leaving this note in or out of your playing, you can "fake" playing minor chords. This type of tuning also lets me play sixths on the top and third string up and down the neck for a Hank Williams/pedal steel effect. This tuning is also great for power chords played through a highly overdriven amp.
The C6/Am7 Tuning has been mentioned several times by different people. It's tuned as follows:

1. E
2. C
3. A
4. G
5. E
6. C

The advantage to this tuning is you have almost every type of chord interval under the bar without having to slant the bar. C E G is an C major chord, A C E G is an A minor 7th chord, C E G A is a C sixth chord, etc. You can plays sixths up and down the neck without slanting the bar as much as you would in the open E tuning due to the fact that you have two sets of strings situated a sixth apart (the second and fifth strings are a major sixth, the first and fourth strings are a minor fifth).


The disadvantage is that everything you play sounds Hawaiian until you get your act together (or until you join a Hawaiian band). Once you learn how to play the right combination of strings (and more importantly, how to stay away from certain strings), you can play many different styles. Because the bottom strings are tuned much higher than normal, many people use a combination of fifth and/or fourth strings (in other words, lighter gauge strings) in the bottom three strings. This is the tuning that DeWitt "Scotty" Scott uses in his Basic C6th Nonpedal Lap Steel Method.


Some people play this tuning with the bottom string tuned to C# rather than C. This makes it a A7 tuning and gives you additional chordal possibilities. I think this tuning works better with eight strings.

Here's a list of some other common tunings. Some of these are from Stacy Phillips' steel guitar methods; others from playing around; others are suggested by other players.
Alternative C6 Tuning:

1. E
2. C
3. G
4. E
5. C
6. A

Another C6 Alternate Tuning:

1. E
2. C
3. A
4. G
5. C
6. G

Yet Another C6 Alternate Tuning:

1. E
2. C
3. A
4. G
5. C
6. E

The three tunings above are variations of the C6 tuning I've described previously. Each one has its strengths and weaknesses. Experiment with each to see which one fits your style best. Here's another C6 Tuning:

1. G
2. E
3. C
4. A
5. G
6. E

Keith Cary says of this tuning: I was lucky enough to get a long lesson from Vance Terry about 15 years ago. His pedal steel was set up at a club somewhere so I brought one of my spare 6-strings for him to play on. (I only had 6-strings at the time) It was tuned E-G-A-C-E-G. He said that if he only had six strings that's the way he's tune it. He was amazing with those six strings, making fat jazz chords look so effortless. It has that nice 1-3-5 Dobro thing happening on top, giving just a little more space if you want to avoid the 6th. It's always felt too strange to me to not have the root or fifth as the top string.
G6 Tuning:

1. D
2. B
3. G
4. E
5. B
6. G

This tuning is great for playing the classic ballad "Sleepwalk" by Santo and Johnny. Another variation of this tuning leaves the bottom three strings in the open G tuning described above, then moves the sixth note to the third string as follows:

1. B
2. G
3. E
4. D
5. B
6. G

G9 Tuning:

1. D
2. A
3. G
4. D
5. B
6. G

C13 Tuning:

1. E
2. C
3. G
4. Bb
5. D
6. A

C# Minor Tuning:

1. E
2. C#
3. G#
4. E
5. C#
6. G#

F#9 Tuning:

1. E
2. C#
3. G#
4. E
5. A#
6. F#

B11 Tuning:

1. E
2. C#
3. A
4. F#
5. D#
6. B

Em or G6 tuning:

1. E
2. B
3. G
4. D
5. B
6. E

Lance Ashdown writes about this tuning:


This tuning has the advantage that it is only different from the standard guitar tuning on one string (hey, it makes it easier for those learning steel as a second language), yet gives easy one-fret bar positionings of all major and minor chords in the standard folk and country keys.

1. D
2. B
3. G
4. D
5. B
6. E

This tuning was suggested by Pieter Verkuylen, who says about it:


I play an old Irish reel called 'Princess Royal' in this tuning and a chord/melody arrangement of 'Round Midnight', a slow, melancholic jazz classic. I also use this tuning for one or two songs in the band. It works well in E and Emin of course, but also in songs in Amin. The -min7 sound gives extra 'flavour' that fits well in rock and jazz tunes/songs and makes accompanying swing/bebop tunes with all those II V I- chord progressions a lot easier. Retuning is quickly done: I hate to spend much time tuning on stage.


E13 Tuning:

1. E
2. C#
3. G#
4. E
5. D
6. B

Cmaj9 Tuning:

1. D
2. B
3. G
4. E
5. C
6. G

The above tuning gives you three chords - C major (G C E G), E minor 7 ( E G B D) and G major (G G B D). Hidde Hanenburg's open Gsus2 Tuning:

1. D
2. A
3. G
4. D
5. G
6. C

Note that in this tuning, the sixth string is tuned higher than the fifth string, one whole note below the fourth string. William Leavitt's new tuning from Steel Guitar World:

1. D
2. C
3. Bb
4. G
5. E
6. C#

This tuning gives you a C# diminished chord, a G minor chord, and a C major chord, among others. It's a very interesting tuning for jazzier tunes. More information on this tuning, including tab for a series of jazz standards, can be obtained from Mike Ihde ([email protected]). David Hamburger's G11 tuning from the July 1996 Guitar Player magazine:

1. C
2. A
3. F
4. D
5. B
6. A

David Torn's lap steel tuning from September 1996 Guitar Player magazine:

1. D
2. C#
3. B
4. F#
5. B
6. E

Hidde Hanenburg says of this tuning, "I tried it a few nights ago and I thought it sounded ambient, ethereal, "pretty" -- and kinda weird. I thought it was cool, so I'm keeping one of my lap steels in this tuning for now."


Bob Brozman wrote me recently with some additional modal tunings that look like a lot of fun. If you are playing solo lap steel, you should definitely experiment with these tunings. Check out Bob's recent article in Guitar Player magazine.

1. C
2. C
3. G
4. C
5. G
6. C

The lack of a third note in the above tuning makes it easy to imply either a major or minor chord.

1. D
2. C
3. G
4. C
5. G
6. C

Bob says the above tuning gives a great modal sound.

1. Eb
2. C
3. G
4. C
5. G
6. C

1. E
2. C
3. G
4. C
5. G
6. C

Note that the four tunings above are exactly the same except for the highest string. As you change the pitch of the highest string, the entire feel of the tuning changes. Look at the same type of changes represented in the G tunings below.

1. D
2. Bb
3. G
4. D
5. G
6. D

1. D
2. B
3. F#
4. D
5. G
6. D

1. D
2. C
3. G
4. D
5. G
6. D

The following two tunings are centered around a D tonality. Compare them to the open D tuning mentioned previously.

1. D
2. A
3. F
4. D
5. A
6. D

1. D
2. A
3. G
4. D
5. A
6. D

This tuning is the one used by Ben Harper on his Weissenborn-style guitars. The lack of a third means the major/minor problem previously discussed is not present in this tuning.

1. D
2. A
3. D
4. D
5. A
6. D

Bill Reid writes, "Makuakane, Billy Reid Sr. played a D9th and I have followed suit:

1. E
2. C
3. A
4. F#
5. D
6. A

"You have your major DF#A with an optional lower bass A also the seventh with the C. The top three strings give you the minor chord like the C6th The F#AC give you the diminished chords. When slanted, the top three strings give you the 6th chords and slanted 5,4,3 give you the related major chords. In some respects it's like the B11th . He played C#mi for many years and E7th and AMaj .The D9th is a fast melodic tuning and and great for popular as well as Hawaiian."
…
​

 

[FilterFunk]

TIL about BASL (Black American Sign Language), which developed due to segregation:
Black American Sign Language