One of the first things that made me fall in love with clawhammer banjo was the open tunings. G modal was my first step away from standard G tuning. The Cuckoo was the tune. I was totally hooked, I see now, for life. I've always loved how banjo player Wade Ward described tunings as "atmospheres." I think this perfectly describes the way that the right banjo tuning can inhabit a melody and make it come to life. 

 

In this workshop, I will introduce (or reintroduce) you to 5 of my favourite alternate banjo tunings.  I tried to keep it to tunings that are somewhat off the beaten track, but practical and versatile enough to use in a jam session, once you gain familiarity. For each tuning, I've chosen one of my all-time favourite tunes as the lens through which to view it. 

 

We will look at the “when, what, and why” of each tuning - What are its strengths, unique qualities, and limitations?  How do we know when to use them? What are the chord shapes? How do we get in and out of these tunings? 

 

Here are the tunings and tunes we will be looking at. I will not be teaching these tunes in their entirety in the workshop. I plan to spend about 20 minutes on each tuning. We'll spend a little time exploring where the notes fall in the tuning, look at the chords, and I'll teach/demo the parts of the tune I think are most interesting and highlight the tuning's strong points. I will provide a detailed video and tablature for you to work with after the workshop, so you can learn the tunes in thier entiretly, in your own time. 

 

Camp Meeting on the 4th of July
This is a beautiful variation on Double D tuning. 
I recorded this on my Old Dog album - Listen Here

F#DF#AD
Chilly Winds
Sometimes called Reubin's Train Tuning. Great for dark and bluesy D tunes…as well as happy ones!

I recorded this with Lonesome Ace. It's a bit of a wild track, but you'll get the idea - Listen Here

 

GCGCE
Snowdrop
Probably my all-time favourite banjo tune. This tuning is very close to double C. I will show you a couple of handy variations on this tuning. 

I recorded this on the 2nd album I made with Arnie Namian - Listen Here

FCFCD
Wild Horses on Stony Point
You might be familiar with this tune from playing "Last Chance". It seems like most people just play that one tune in this tuning, but it is actually a very versatile and works well for more melodic tunes.

I've never recorded this one, so you'll have to take my word for it - it's a hell of a tune! 

 

GDADE
Elk River Blues
This is my "G out of D" tuning. By changing just one string, you can play in G out of Double D tuning! As a bonus, I will include an older workshop I did on this one topic for those of you who want to delve deeper. 
This one is going to be on our upcoming album Afield 2. Here we are playing it in a cold church in England. Listen and Watch Here

Live Workshop - On June 21 at 2 pm ET, I will go live with the workshop on Zoom. You'll be sent an invitation to join the meeting. If you can't make the meeting live, you'll be sent the link afterward for you to view at your convenience. 

 

Support Material - If you've taken my workshops before, you'll know that I put a lot of time into the support material for these things. After the workshop, you'll be sent (emailed) a package with a written overview of each tuning, which includes tabs and chord charts for what we cover. You will also get video files where I teach/demo each tune in detail, including variations.