I’m trying to build a set of covers to play while busking. The thing is, I can’t sing worth a damn, and I hate retuning my guitar. My favourite tuning is open C so I’m looking for as many instrumentals in that tuning as I can find. So far I’ve got
Ocean - John Butler.
Under An Indian Sky - John Butler
Bron-Y-Aur - Led Zepp (not quite open C, but only one string out so it’s close enough).
And that’s about it. If you know any cool open C instrumentals I could use in my set, let me know. I’d massively appreciate it. I only request that, if possible, you please link to the tab of the song. I can’t play by ear so the tab would come in very handy.
Well, any number of Stones songs are in Open G, as are a lot of blues songs. If you aren’t singing, there’s no reason you can’t just play them - or any Open-chord songs - in Open C and just transpose them…
You can’t just play a tab arrangement for Open G in Open C and have it sound correct (just in a different key) - the string-to-string intervals are different between the two tunings resulting in different chord shapes, different scale patterns, etc.
True - if you are doing finger-picky stuff. Lots of rock is more just strummy stuff and with an Open tuning, you just need one finger - or, as Keef so famously put it - 5 strings, 2 fingers and 1 asshole…
Well, I can’t link to the tab online, but John Fahey had a number of tunes in Open C. You’ll have to find a copy of his book, Best of John Fahey 1959 - 1977, and then find a copy of the album that goes with it. The book has note-for-note tab of all tunes on the album. You maybe don’t need the album – some people have recorded his tunes and put them on Youtube.
Just a note: Fahey recorded a very wide range of stuff, and was a major league contrarian, doing everything he could to piss people off. You might do a search on him and turn up all sorts of stuff that you don’t like. Persevere a little. If you like picking tunes, he’s got some really nifty traditional ones in dropped D and open C. He’s got one tune – I don’t remember the name – that’s a C unison or “drone” tune. He’s got about four or five of the strings tuned to a C. Great tune. Just roars at a few points.
Leo Kottke has a few tunes in Open C - see this site, which has some tabs and some links to commercially available transcriptions - trying to play at his level is a pretty daunting task, though!
Actually - not quite true; I am no pattern-based fingerpicker to be sure, but do a lot of hybrid picking where I throw my fingers in with my pick to get the job done.
If you are trolling youtube - very good idea - check for country blues clips by folks like Keb Mo, well-regarded instructors like Happy Traum, etc. - I bet Blues in Open C would work as a search…
::checks::
Yep, it turns up a lot - do you play slide? You can really expand your options if you do…
**zombywoof **- forgive my memory - do you ever visit the Great Ongoing Guitar Thread - your username seems familiar. What do you play?
I don’t think I’ve posted on that thread…I have a Santa Cruz OM and like to play Mississippi John Hurt, Rev. Gary Davis, etc. style fingerstyle blues…have a couple of electrics I haven’t touched in a while, and dabble on mandolin a bit.
Oooo - is it an OM/PW? I have a small-bodied Gibson for mellow fingerpicky stuff and a wonderful old Martin dread for big stuff, but would really like an OM body size for, well, the in-betweeny stuff. Like Hey, Hey by Big Bill Broonzy.
I toured the Santa Cruz factory a couple of years ago - very cool…
Wait, wait – I’m no guitarist, but somebody told me once that lap steel and/or pedal steel were often tuned to open C. Pretty sure that’s what he said. But you’d pretty much have to be a country fan to take some of those off, like, Western Swing type music.
Oh, c’mon, boy, where’s your spirit! (Didn’t even know pedal steel’s had two necks). I busk every other day with a Rhodes piano and a DC-powered amp. Kidding. I wouldn’t want to even carry a pedal steel, let alone busk with it.
Yeah, though C6 is what I remember now – that’s basically open C, though, right? Or do you have to get rid of the A natural to make it a true open C?
I see your question, but the words have to do with actual music theory, yes? Sorry, does not compute
(Isn’t a C6 a C major + an added 6th? I don’t think there’s an added or 7th or anything - that wouldn’t make sense - and the chord would be called a Cadd13 at that point, right?)
“C” means some combination of the notes C, E and G (Root, 3rd, 5th of the key/scale). The most commonly used “Open C” guitar tuning is CGCGCE low-high, it’s music arranged for this particular tuning the OP is looking for.
“C6” means C, E, G, and A (Root, 3rd, 5th, and 6th). A commonly used lap steel tuning is CEGACE low high (there are others).
The notes in Am7 are A, C, E and G (Root, minor 3rd, 5th, minor 7th) - which you’ll notice are the same set as those in C6.
I’m with you – I see C6 and (in a jazz chart, I assume a Maj7 but wouldn’t necessarily supply one in the voicing for accompaniment) I think C triad with an A natural.
I nitpick, and a lot of people would disagree – I really do think 13th is reserved for a minor 7 chord – it might even be just for a dom7 chord, but it’s tempting for me to reserve label dom7 just for those chords that have the dominant function. I’ve heard it lots of times in lots of places, and it’s just the way I learned it.
I probably just showed my ass out here by just using stuff I’ve heard without formally studying since I was a tween.
But that’s a major beef I have with guitarists “spelling” changes – a lot of “them people” see a C6 as the same as an Am7 inverted, but that ain’t how I see them (but they are kind of, sort of the same). In some thread about blues jams or something, I mentioned a guitarist called (my first tune up) in A and it was in C, and I said it was sort of the same in the thread. Well, same thing, kind of. Different tensions, but they are sort of in the same neighborhood.
There are lots of different chord naming conventions out there, but generally I agree that “13” (or “11”, or “9”) implies the presence of some sort of 7th in the chord.
Thank you – that’s the usage I’m familiar with. If you see a C9 on a chart, that means dom7 with plain 9 added. 11 is a bit different, because you always see a Cm11 or such, but I guess if I saw a C13 I’d use a dom7 with a 13. That seems pretty standard even for them six-slingers!
I guess I was nitpicking myself about calling a Maj triad with dominant 7 as a dom7, but I’d rather hear the function as a dominant of some kind, but I’m kind of fussy in my off-time (read: now!)
