skipellis
Strummer
Posts: 30
My main instrument is: Acoustic Guitar
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Post by skipellis on Mar 23, 2019 2:45:26 GMT
For those of you who use this diabolical tuning, how can I go about getting it into my head. I rarely if ever learn someone else's arrangement of anything. I learn the chords and melody and just play it on the fly usually never the same way twice but I find that I can't do this and improvise because the notes are all in the wrong places from what I'm used to. Am I doomed to just play a stock arrangement out of a book or is there a trick that I'm missing? I really love the British Isles tunes and want to add some to my repertoire but it's fighting me. Any suggestions appreciated. I have several books of arrangements already so maybe I need to just work on them but that's sort of opposite to the way I usually do things. HELP!!
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Post by Onechordtrick on Mar 23, 2019 7:30:56 GMT
I’m learning DAGAD and use tab to learn from. But I suspect I’m coming at it from a very different direction to you. I used to play guitar 30 years ago but not to any standard at all; i could strum some chords and the odd riff and that was it. Two years ago I bought a mandolin and then moved back to guitar a few months ago.
I suspect that you’ll have to take a few steps back and learn from the beginning. Perhaps find some DAGAD arrangements of tunes that you know so you get a feel for the tuning and where the notes lie and then start to improvise around that?
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Post by Deleted on Mar 23, 2019 7:47:27 GMT
I'd like to know "how to get into it" as well. As soon as I get another acoustic, this one will go to DADGAD, and I'm gonna start a couple of courses on TrueFire (Tony McManus and Pierre Bensusan). But the couple of times I have tuned to it so far, it has been pretty impenetrable for me. I guess like anything on the guitar you just have to stick with it for a while until it becomes natural in your mind and under your fingers.
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Post by littlemart on Mar 23, 2019 9:20:45 GMT
skipellis and Gregg Hermetech try watching this video. It is Phil Hare's very good introduction to DADGAD. An extremely clear, concise explanation but at the same time avoids the trap of making it over simplistic. It really shows what a beautiful and versatile tuning it is. My guitar is permanently in DADGAD!
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Post by Cams on Mar 23, 2019 9:32:03 GMT
I started out with Tony McManus's two-volume set of Celtic DVDs, the Stefan Grossman ones. I find exploring to be useful too and playing arpeggio style fingerpicking and moving basslines around and stuff. It's hard to make DADGAD sound bad! I hope leoroberts chimes in with a link to his song, Sodding DADGAD!
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Post by Onechordtrick on Mar 23, 2019 10:54:40 GMT
I started out with Tony McManus's two-volume set of Celtic DVDs, the Stefan Grossman ones. I find exploring to be useful too and playing arpeggio style fingerpicking and moving basslines around and stuff. It's hard to make DADGAD sound bad! I hope leoroberts chimes in with a link to his song, Sodding DADGAD! Agree with that; even I sound OK not terrible in DADGAD!
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Post by robmc on Mar 23, 2019 14:57:57 GMT
That's a great video littlemart . skipellis I have been using DADGAD for a year or so and in that time have only learnt one tune, ocarolan 's (Keith's) superb 'Coming Home'... I've simply played it and composed my own little things. I would keep the books closed for a while and just have a play it's a very intuitive tuning I find... 'messing around in DADGAD' sums it up well for me.
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Phil Taylor
C.O.G.
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Post by Phil Taylor on Mar 25, 2019 8:45:29 GMT
Hi skipellisI just gradually got into it by learning tunes from tab and getting to know a few chords but to be honest I just explored it by finding chord shapes that sound nice and putting them in the old memory banks - I couldn't name the majority of them If you do want to go the whole hog and learn the theory (I'm to old for that now) then there are lots of books. I have the Doug Young one which is quite good. If you want to write your own stuff there is a danger of falling into the key of D rut which I am attempting to get out of at the moment by writing something in G/Em but learning tunes in various keys will guide you. The Phil Hare video above is a good introduction but I disagree with Phil in that I think you can incorporate some strumming into a tune. For example: Good luck with the exploration Phil PS just noticed the CD plug in the video - sorry
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Post by vikingblues on Mar 26, 2019 20:20:26 GMT
It seems like a long time that I've been enmeshed in playing in DADGAD - so long that it's difficult to remember how I got into it and what path I followed.
I think there were a few chords that I started playing around with at the beginning - ones that used all 6 strings. The D5 (000200), Gadd9 (550400), A Maj3sus4 (770600), Bm7 (990700), Dmaj7/F# (440200), Dm7/F (330200), Em7sus4 (222000), Dmaj (0 0 0 11 0 0). These are all variations on basic chords, but the variation is what brings in DADGAD sounds. But I agree with Phil - the fun is in exploring and trying note combinations yourself and seeing what works. Particularly enjoyable for me is getting combinations of fretted notes higher up the fretboard combined with open strings to get chord voicings that just can't be got in standard tuning.
I really enjoy getting tabbed music in DADGAD that's way beyond me - like Pierre Bensusan pieces - and play around with what's there and semi improvise based around some of the notes patterns and sequences. It's nice to play music but not be sure what you're going to hear. I can't get that in standard tuning except in a bad way of the unexpected being nasty sounds!
Rob mentioned the intuitive aspect of DADGAD and I'm 100% with him on that.
The resonances and qualities within the sound are a great reward and most acoustic guitars seem to revel in the DADGAD tuning.
Mark
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Post by bellyshere on Apr 3, 2019 13:23:39 GMT
I very rarely learn many tabbed out tunes. I play DADGAD a lot but just sit and move about the fretboard and play what sounds good.
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Post by andyhowell on Apr 3, 2019 21:18:58 GMT
I very rarely learn many tabbed out tunes. I play DADGAD a lot but just sit and move about the fretboard and play what sounds good. That’s the only way ;-)
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Post by dangad on Apr 4, 2019 14:45:35 GMT
echo whats already been said... I don't think its any different to learning Standard tuning... learn a few tunes...find the note groupings you like and play from there...
I found this Muriel Anderson video pretty cool...
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Post by stevie2sticks on Aug 30, 2019 9:47:37 GMT
I have just started in DADGAD and went for Tony McManus intro to Celtic and Pierre Bensusan's Guitar Intuite package. Both great packages of learning material that's gonna keep me busy for ages.
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leoroberts
C.O.G.
Posts: 24,505
My main instrument is: probably needing new strings
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Post by leoroberts on Aug 30, 2019 13:41:45 GMT
I don't understand it. Never have. I love hearing stuff being played but just can't work it out myself. My wife considers me a disappointment (But that's nowt to do with DADGAD)
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Post by frankieabbott on Oct 6, 2019 11:42:27 GMT
I don't understand it. Never have. I love hearing stuff being played but just can't work it out myself. My wife considers me a disappointment (But that's nowt to do with DADGAD) Same here. Admire players who play in this (and other alternative) tuning and love the sounds that they make. Maybe if I had been introduced to DADGAD earlier on in life then it might have been a different outcome. I play Celtic music and songs very badly....and always wonder if it's my bad playing or maybe I need to be in DADGAD to do this musical genre justice.
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