Topic: Retuning while playing

[banjochris]

Here's kind of an oddball thing I was thinking about today. How many country blues tunes are there where retuning while actually playing is an integral part of the tune?

The only two I think I've ever heard are Little Children's Blues by Leadbelly and Joe Turner No. 2 by Big Bill Broonzy. Mance Lipscomb tunes his 6th string up from D to E in one recording of Meet Me in the Bottom, which sounds great, but he's obviously just correcting forgetting to tune it up beforehand.

This became a common bluegrass banjo technique thanks to Earl Scruggs and his magic tuners, but has anyone heard any other examples of this?
Chris

[SteveMcBill]

In terms of country blues then no I can't say I have heard of others though there may be the odd one here or there. But, in terms of modern players the main proponent of this technique is Adrian Legg who has had Scruggs Pegs fitted to his guitar especially to allow tuning changes on the fly. Other modern players have also espoused the occasional tuning change but via the normal tuning pegs including Stefan Grossman, Ton VanBergeyk etc.

Steve

[Johnm]

Hi all,
Reverend Pearly Brown re-tunes his G string as the final chord is decaying on his performance of "You Got To Move" on the recently issued Rounder CD of his music.  He has been playing side in Vestapol and his third string was low, and as the last chord was dying out, he tuned it up.
All best,
Johnm

[Johnm]

Hi all,
Arthur Weston re-tunes while playing his version of "Stack of Dollars", and in the course of doing so makes it clear that he is playing the song out of EAEGBE tuning.  Gus Gibson also re-tunes extensively while playing his "Railroad Song" on the Traveling Man CD, "Red River Blues".
EDITED TO ADD:  Re-reading Chris's original post in this thread, I realize that my examples are not really what he was talking about, since Arthur Weston's and Gus Gibson's re-tuning was not integral to the songs they were playing, but was perhaps more accurately described as fine tuning or simply getting in tune.
All best,
Johnm