Friday, February 17, 2006
My Favorite Keys in Open-D
One of them has to be "A" - partially because it nicely suits my (oh so limited) singing range. What a happy coincidence!
But reality is, "A" (major or minor for that matter) is a beautiful thing in open-D.
For one thing, if you're soloing on electric guitar, it is a nice zone for the fingers - not cramped like up at fret 12, and not ringing all over the place like on the lower end. But, if your tune has anything resembling a major 4th (the IV as I call it), hint-hint a 12-bar blues, hello! You are at D - as in open-D. That means you can take your finger off the barre and riff away at fret seven with all those open-D strings ringing right along with you - a cool effect. People are always telling me they hear harmonics coming out of my playing, that, believe me, just seem to happen. Only recently have I (a) tried to control or mute them and/or (b) noticed them at all as I play. But they simply happen and they are amazing.
Come to think of it, that D being the IV in the key of "A" can also be played on fret 12 - here you can tell if your axe is in tune with itself (3 Ds especially but also the 2 as) as well as your intonation. But hold a couple strings on fret 12 and let the open ones ring and again! Harmonics and overtones out the wazoo!
People on the site www.easierguitar.com have e-mailed about slide an open-D or Guitar-eze as it's called. Topic for another post while I gather my thoughts...
But reality is, "A" (major or minor for that matter) is a beautiful thing in open-D.
For one thing, if you're soloing on electric guitar, it is a nice zone for the fingers - not cramped like up at fret 12, and not ringing all over the place like on the lower end. But, if your tune has anything resembling a major 4th (the IV as I call it), hint-hint a 12-bar blues, hello! You are at D - as in open-D. That means you can take your finger off the barre and riff away at fret seven with all those open-D strings ringing right along with you - a cool effect. People are always telling me they hear harmonics coming out of my playing, that, believe me, just seem to happen. Only recently have I (a) tried to control or mute them and/or (b) noticed them at all as I play. But they simply happen and they are amazing.
Come to think of it, that D being the IV in the key of "A" can also be played on fret 12 - here you can tell if your axe is in tune with itself (3 Ds especially but also the 2 as) as well as your intonation. But hold a couple strings on fret 12 and let the open ones ring and again! Harmonics and overtones out the wazoo!
People on the site www.easierguitar.com have e-mailed about slide an open-D or Guitar-eze as it's called. Topic for another post while I gather my thoughts...
