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Please note this is an archived topic, so it is locked and unable to be replied to. You may, however, start a new topic and refer to this topic with a link: http://www.banjohangout.org/archive/373516
finger-picker - Posted - 03/12/2021: 12:37:38
Lets just get it out of the way since it always comes up in posts like these: I'm asking about the banjo's tuning and not a song's key.
Inspired by Josh Turknett's "5 reasons banjo players should use alternate tunings" video he recently posted, I am curious what I need to know or do if I, say, want to play a piece that's in standard G tuning in an alternate tuning like drop C (g-C-G-B-D)? If the bass note in a standard G piece only goes down to a D, then would I have to drop all notes by 2 semitones in order to play in drop C, effectively doing a negative 2 capo? Or is this just not possible without altering the intervals of the entire song since all the other strings are being kept the same?
I'm asking from a mainly classical music perspective since, besides standard G, drop C appears to be the second most common tuning for classical pieces.
kr - Posted - 03/12/2021: 13:13:55
You can transpose to any key in almost any tuning. I don’t know if you play guitar but I see gCGbd as similar to guitar drop D tuning. You maintain the same fingerings for your chords as in standard G tuning but have to adjust for the altered 4th string. As far as transposing the song the C chord is now the1 chord not G. The 5 chord in G is D and it becomes G in the key of C and the 4 in G is C It becomes F in C tuning. In other tunings you may have to learn entirely new fingerings. I don’t know if I’ve made all that clear and it certainly isn’t as hard as it sounds.
mmuussiiccaall - Posted - 03/12/2021: 13:56:40
It's all about the open string intervals of the scale matching another tuning if get your question correctly. Notice C is nothing like G & D tuning number wise so you just can't move over a string one way or the other and play the same thing going.
finger-picker - Posted - 03/12/2021: 14:52:52
OK so in order to move the bass note D down to C, I would have to move all other open strings down 2 intervals in order to keep the relative intervals the same is what I'm hearing I think, similar to my comment about a "negative 2 capo" or capo'ing 2 frets below the nut, which isn't possible.
SteveMurtha - Posted - 03/12/2021: 16:36:25
It makes more sense to think of it the opposite way: to play a chord in drop-C you must Raise the note on the 4th string 2 frets to duplicate the chord as it is in G tuning.
johnedallas - Posted - 03/14/2021: 11:32:34
@finger-picker, you state precisely, " I'm asking about the banjo's tuning and not a song's key." So basically, you've learnt a song in the key of, say, G major with your banjo in open-G tuning (gDGBD), and would like to play it - still in G major - with your banjo tuned to gCGBD.
Well, for a start, everything that happens on the 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 5th strings stays the same. Melody notes, chord shapes - all as usual! The only changes are when the 4th string is involved. This will probably not affect melody notes, but it will alter the chord shapes that include the 4th string.
That is, your G major chord will no longer be just open: 0000, but with the 4th string fretted at the second fret: 2000. Your C major chord will no longer be 2012, but the even simpler 0012. D major is now 2233, and D7 is 2210.
If you use 4-string chords up the neck, you have to realize that the 4th string always has to be fretted two frets higher in Drop-C than in G tuning. It's probably best just to learn the slightly different chord shapes. As long as you use only 3-string chords up the neck, nothing changes.
As a longtime banjo player in Standard gCGBD tuning exclusively, I started to learn the German Waldzither, which also has 5 courses, tuned to open C: C GG cc ee gg, which of course is the gDGBE of the banjo open G tuning transposed up a 5th. So for the Waldzither, I had to basically learn the banjo open-G chord shapes. My experience is that the two instruments (Drop-C banjo and Waldzither) have more in common than they have differences. Skill transfer is definitely possible!
Cheers,
John
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