metascrawl wrote:Nice one, this'll be fun! Nick, if you PM me your email address then I'll be in touch with you and Yoss via email nearer the time to confirm and arrange a time on that day and give directions to mine and stuff. Anyone else reading this that would like to come and play stringed instruments with us (or even keyboards - I have a fully functioning bontempi electric organ that I found on the street that's actually quite a decent instrument) at my house in North London on the 25th is more than welcome to send me their email address too. No need to bring an instrument, as I have a house full of them - unless you want to play fiddle as I don't have one of those. I've spent the day playing my Dad's hand-made guitar (which is older than I am I think) tuned to open G. It's a great tuning in which to wistfully improvise whilst sounding much better than you actually are. I'll show you guys how easy it is to sound cool on guitar in open G. That will be especially useful to you, Nick, as it's essentially the same as bluegrass banjo tuning. If you spend some time playing guitar out of open G you'll get a bit of a head-start for if/when you do get a banjo. Standard tuning is indispensable of course, as it allows for lots of different keys, but if your coming round my gaff be prepared to have me foist some alternative tuning stuff on you, I'm a bit of fanatic about it - something I inherited through my Dad via John Fahey, as well as directly from Fahey (via recordings and writings obviously). 'Morning is the end of idealism. [Skip] James has no guitar. Bill Barth goes to the car and gets his... Tuned in standard tuning. He does know standard a little. But not much. Slowly, confidently, he changes the tuning. He's going back towards a - no, it can't be. He's headed for open D minor. Primarily a theoretical tuning that no one in their right mind uses. But there it is. And he knows chord shapes in it too. Beautiful, terribly intense, hitherto-unknown chord positions. He sings and plays "Cherry Ball Blues," "Illinois Blues," and "Hard Time Killing Floor Blues." A few others. James is a little rusty but that is all. And he shows me how to make the chords. Great Sphinx chords. I could never have found them. Then, abruptly, he shoves the guitar into me. "Show me." I have it all.' - John Fahey, How Bluegrass Music Destroyed My Life. 2000.
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