Original Guitar Piece in Straight D Tuning

[8Muddypaws]

I wasn’t sure where to put this. The guitar is tuned to what’s known as ‘Straight D’ (DADF#AD) so it might have fit in the drop D tuning thread. I used a capo on the ADF# strings at the fifth fret. Strange fact, I did not wear fingerpicks for this. My nails are short so this is the sound of just the pads on my fingers on the strings. A tiny bit of EQ and reverb was added to the two stereo tracks.

Anyway, the piece is named “That Picture” and it moves around from the fifth to the 22nd frets. I used a 1994 Taylor 915C, two microphones and the pickup Taylor installed back in ‘94. I’ve been working on it for a long time but other songs interrupted my flow.

https://soundcloud.com/russell-causey%2Fthat-picture

 

[Tom]

Thanks again Russ for another of your compositions. I can't get my head around the "off-tuning" (sorry, my term) of the guitar and the partial capo. I still have several partial capos from when you first introduced me to them.

 

[John From Detroit]

Nice Relaxing and decent music.

 

[Larry N.]

Nice song, Russ- very relaxing. Thanks for sharing it.

 

[8Muddypaws]

I can't get my head around the "off-tuning" (sorry, my term) of the guitar and the partial capo.

I enjoy experimenting. I started using drop D tuning back in the 80s. It wasn’t long before I tried DADGAD but when I literally stumbled upon straight D it felt like home.

With the capo on the ADG strings at the 5th fret strumming all 6 strings gives you a D6sus4. (Normally not a great sounding chord) Turning that into a D major only requires 2 fingers at the 12th fret.

A lot of players are using altered tunings. Look up James Rigby on YouTube. I think you’ll like his stuff.