Modern Folk (Standard and DADGAD)

Started by knight_lite_1974, February 08, 2007, 02:26:29 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Howdy folks.  OK, this is a potential long-shot.  I want to invest in some resources that will take my acoustic playing to a new level.  I'm interested in modern folk, with an emphasis on learning interesting chord voicings and embellishments in both standard and DADGAD tuning, to make the music sound more intricate and intriguing.  I'm a singer/songwriter as opposed to a solo musician, so this is for the purpose of supporting and enhancing performances of that kind.  Also, I'm open to either pick/plectrum based technique, or fingerstyle.  Any thoughts?  Perhaps a good TAB book, or a DVD, or whatever...  Thanks.
www.grantcyster.com

Larrivee J-05 Jumbo
Taylor 815 Jumbo
American Series Custom Stratocaster

Hey knight, most of what I learn is for the purpose you stated...I'll get into an artist, a new tuning, something just a bit beyond my abilities, until I wrestle something out of it for myself. It adds interest to my live repertoire and I always find numerous ways to apply any single new technique.

For DADGAD, there are a few artists that do a lot of work in this. Probably the most familiar to acoustic players (as well as those of us who are aging hippies) is Crosby, Stills & Nash. Also, Ian Anderson does a lot in this tuning, both old Jethro Tull acoustic bits and his more recent stuff; a lot of Celtic music is well realized in DADGAD, songs such as Greensleeves, Skye Boat Song (a couple of my favorites). For more advanced takes on the tuning try Pierre Bensusan, some of the most original compositions in DADGAD you will ever hear.

As far as standard tuning chord shapes, the book that really put me on another level was the Micky Baker Books I and II, from back in my college days. I don't know if they are still in print but you might be able to find a used one on Amazon or eBay. These books have a couple dozen of the most useful chord shapes I've ever found. They're mostly jazz oriented, but as with anything, they can be put to whatever use suits you, or modified, deconstructed, reverse-engineered and perverted out of all recognition. Big Fun!

:nana_guitar

I appreciate the comments and suggestions Max.  I just came across this 2 DVD set:

http://www.acousticmusicresource.com/product_info.php?manufacturers_id=&products_id=181

Anyone familiar with it?   :donut :donut2 :coffee
www.grantcyster.com

Larrivee J-05 Jumbo
Taylor 815 Jumbo
American Series Custom Stratocaster

hey. i ran across this after having written a few songs in DADGAD tuning last week.

http://www.xs4all.nl/~hspeek/dadgad/dadgad.txt

hope this helps. =)
Taylor 810ce
Larrivee OM03
??????? who knows what's next? :)

I've had this book for years:

http://www.halleonard.com/item_detail.jsp?itemid=699072&order=0&catcode=00&refer=search&type=product&keywords=bensusan+

It's all DADGAD, all the time.  Very interesting stuff including many tunes from his albums(I would suggest you buy "Musiques"...excellent), scales, recipes, poems, nail care, stretching, photos...etc.  Very cool.


Bensusan has been doing this since the early 70s...amazing that he isn't more well-known on this side of the puddle, but that's changing.

jonlee's text file (which I just copied into Word and saved...thanks!) has a LOT of fingerings for chords in dadgad...the guy that put this together spent a lot of time doing this. One thing you will notice at first glance...all the "0"s designating open strings, which to me is one of the things that makes this tuning click. Another is the large number of chords with the 3rd left out, which is in line with the tonality of the tuning...isn't biased toward major or minor, one way or the other.

As I may have mentioned in other posts, almost half my repertoire is in dadgad, and most of my original stuff as well. I also use a lot of others...open G, D, Gm, D9sus, C. It's a whole other world.

Quote from: knight_lite_1974 on February 08, 2007, 07:20:42 PM
http://www.acousticmusicresource.com/product_info.php?manufacturers_id=&products_id=181
Anyone familiar with it?   :donut :donut2 :coffee

Hi KL - I have this DVD set and think it's outstanding!  In fact, I have several from the series and they are all excellent.  I know that not everyone enjoys or wants to learn via DVD, but if you do feel comfortable with it, I think the production quality of these is fantastic.

One of the best parts is that each series includes a performance of each piece, as well as a separate in-depth discussion of how to play it, presented by each artist, plus a tab booklet.  The camera angles are great because you get to see close-ups of both fretting and picking hands, and the overall sound quality is excellent.

And, if all else fails and the pieces are too difficult or not what you want to learn, they are nice just to have for the performances! :nana_guitar

Hope this helps!
Jane

Quote from: maxferry on February 09, 2007, 09:47:53 AM
As I may have mentioned in other posts, almost half my repertoire is in dadgad, and most of my original stuff as well. I also use a lot of others...open G, D, Gm, D9sus, C. It's a whole other world.

I use G, Gm and D quite a bit and some C tunings too but...please let me in on the D9sus tuning....any tunes I would know in that?

Powered by EzPortal