Grateful Dead Music Forum

Hey all,
I read that Garcia was the one who gave the Airplane the music to their song "Coming Back to Me" and the song is in Open E. It's a beautiful song and it got me to wondering about Jer using alternative tunings. Anyone know of any songs where he used them? Didn't he even play slide in standard tuning?

I dont have the answer to youre question, but I don't THINK he ever used different tunings.

but how do you tune to open e? I've never really bothered with slides, but im interested in starting.

phreaker, the open is tuned as follows . . .

standard
E ----- A ----- D ----- G ----- B ----- E


open E

E ----- B ----- E ----- G# ----- B ----- E

ah, thank you.

Over the years, I have asked people about Jerry and alt. tunings and without exception folks seemed to oddly enough take great offense at the question. Maybe I was asking the wrong folks, but I always thought the reaction strange. That being said, I would be blown away if Jerry never messed with tunings on his own - I mean come on, this is Jerry we're talking about!

As far as playing the songs in different tunings, dadgad tuning thread from a few weeks back listed several songs that just sound wonderful in dadgad. As far as open E goes, I tune to open d and capo at the second fret (less stress on the guitar's neck) and play Dylan's "Shelter from the Storm" with hints of the Little Martha Riff between verses.

I also keep my twelve string tuned to standard D (just tune all the strings down a step and play standard chord forms). I own a guild 12 string and don't really need to tune down, but the D standard has such a presence that I don't want to get out that tuning. Of course, the tricky part of this tuning is that you gotta keep your chords straight - you may be playing a D in the first position, but because the guitar is tuned down, it is actually a C chord - once you get these things straight, it is a great tuning - Lazy River Road is another great tune to play in D standard.

Just a note as Jimk referenced it, you might want to tune to open D and capo it at the 2nd fret. Open E puts alot of stress on the neck and could damage your guitar.

I also keep my twelve string tuned to standard D

I have a guitar that I do this with as well. Some great songs to play, that were originally played this way include:

Sugar Mountain
Hey Hey My My
Rockin in the Free world -all Neil Young
The Joker - Steve Miller
Sunday Morning - Velvet Underground

And, of course, if you capo at the 2nd fret, you're back in standard E tuning.

See, I'm with you jimcck. Jerry MUST have used alternative tunings as he was such a guitaraholic. He played peddle steel, slide, banjo, etc. I'm just surprised there isn't much out there to back this up.

Oh, and I like open E better than D because it's easier to tune to and while it does create more stress on the neck, a well-made guitar can handle it.

Just a quick note - I have also played with the Leo Kottke C# tuning which is pretty cool; however, tuning all the way down to C allows you to play around with Bflat and EFlat - which are gorgeous keys for a twelve string.

hey amyjarod, how's about a Sunday Mourning post

hey amyjarod, how's about a Sunday Mourning post

Sounds good to me. I'll put it in the submissions section as soon as I get a chance. Look for it!

Assurdedly he did use alternate tunings as additional colors on his musical palete. As a banjo player, he knew all about non-standard (EADGBE)guitar tunings. Shooting from the hip on this one, I always thought that Duprees' Diamond Blues had something funky about the acoustic guitar that suggested an alternate tuning. Why doesn't somebody contact Weir or Lesh about this?
Peace

You might be onto something there, doc. Those acoustic Dupree'ses and Mountains of the Moonses from 68 & 69 could very possibly be in non-standard. So could some of the 1970 acoustic stuff I guess. I don't think he ever used them in a live setting after that point though.

Shaw enough tigerstrat! Do you have a tiger maple strat?

No it's an alder MIJ strat with a birdseye maple/ebony neck with jumbo frets. I just recently upgraded the neck! Love it.

any velvet underground tabs would be grately appreciated