Tunnings?

[Scott Danneker]

Greetings all, I have  question or four.

1) If I am playing in standard minstrel tuning (dGDF#A) and a harmonica player wishes to toot along, which key harmonica should the harmonica player select?

2) If I am playing in another minstrel tuning (dADF#A -"high bass"?) and a harmonica player wishes to toot along, which key harmonica should the harmonica player select?

3) If I am playing in yet another minstrel type tuning (dGDGA -"double-d" in old time?) and a harmonica player wishes to play along, upon which key harmonica should the player toot?

4) Finally; if I am playing in yet one more minstrel type tuning (dADGA -"Sawmill" in old time"?) and a harmonica player wishes to play along, upon which harmonica key should the player blow?

Many thanks,

-Scott Danneker

[Chris Prieto]

I am actually in the same boat as Scott, any time I play with a real musician and they ask me what key I am playing in I just stare and mutter "banjo...?" My banjo teacher seems to think it's okay and has faith that it will all make sense soon enough. However I feel I am desperately in need of a basic music class so I can get a better grasp on these rudimentary essentials.

[Tom Taggart]

All this discussion on tunings has been stiring up my brain cells.  So I so I googled musical keys and found and interesting article on wickipedia.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Circle_of_fifths#Definition It helped clear up some quistions I had on keys as they relate to "minstrel tuning".  I hope others who are stumbling around with this like I am will find it usefull as well.

[Strumelia]

Keep in mind that it's not that you can 'only' play in one key per tuning.  The whole idea of banjo tunings is that they make the fingering 'fall nicely' when playing in a certain key.  Banjos (even fretless ones) are 'chromatic' in that they have all possible notes available, but...if you try to play in another key, it might be really awkward to finger the notes in that tuning, that's a good reason to change the tuning... not because you 'can't' play in more than one key per tuning.  Some fingerings can be so awkward as to make it almost impossible, or else it sounds like crap when jumping around clumsily.  So you change tunings to make it smoother to play in a certain key or mode, or to enable open strings or drones or pleasing intervals possible when playing particular keys or songs, or to raise/lower the pitch or key to suit a voice or other instrument(s).  

[Al Smitley]

Um....I don't know if this would be useful or not but, I found that if I learned but 3 chord formations (5 if you want to include minor chords) I can play along with most tunes.  If you learn to use those 3 formations on any "fret" and learn the progression and fret (depending on which formation you begin the song), you can play along with most any tune whether they begin in Bb, C#, Ab, etc....  I think I've even played along with instruments that were tuned a half step differently.  You, of course, can't play melody but you can play back-up.  The fifth (drone) string might be off but I've found that in most cases, it still works and if not, you just work around it.  This is hard to explain and I'm certain my attempt was substandard.

[Al Smitley]

Ooops!  I tried to send a .pub file.  Here's the .PDF.

[Al Smitley]

The PDF file merely shows the chord name on the "fret" shown, but you would need to move these chord formations to any "fret". 

[Scott Danneker]

 Interestinng, nnow I've learnned somethinng else nnew !
 
Strumelia said:

That said, I'll now finally confess that I always grit my teeth a little when people write "tunnings' instead of "tunings".   I hope not to offend by mentioning this. Tunning would rhyme with running,  while tuning rhymes with pruning.    :)

[Scott Danneker]

Poor chap.

Chris Prieto said:

I am actually in the same boat as Scott,

[Don Rice]

Hi Scot,

Your harmonica should use the key of G for the standard minstrel tuning dGDFsA. For the other three I don't know at this time I've only just started minstrel banjo I will let you know when I find out.

Kind regards. Don. 

[Strumelia]

I think the harp player was actually just a made up thing, as an easy example for Scott to frame his questions asking what key he was playing in when he was in various tunings. He couldn't tell by ear what key he was in when in these various tunings he was trying out, and he doesn't yet know how to play in different positions/keys from one tuning.  "If the tune is in C better pull out the C harp, eh?"--you making the premise that Scott already knows what key he is playing in, when he doesn't.  That's what makes this thread a bit confusing.  Scott, correct me if I'm wrong about this.

(my spellchecker keeps underlining "tunings"....maybe it wants me to write "tunnings"...hahah)

[Don Rice]

Dear Strumelia,

That's a nice name for a lovely Lady like you. I'm the harp player what your saying is correct it's called 1st position.

If one is playing rock/blues then it's 4 keys on so G=C. I've been playing harp professional for a long time to long. Now I'm learning play the Minstrel banjo a big shock to the system and I have to use two hand & fingers that's not easy at my age.

Kind regards,

Don. Englishman in Germany. 

[Don Rice]

Don Rice said:

Dear Strumelia,

That's a nice name for a lovely Lady like you. I'm the harp player what your saying is correct it's called 1st position.

If one is playing rock/blues then it's 4 keys on so G=C. I've been playing harp professional for a long time to long. Now I'm learning play the Minstrel banjo a big shock to the system and I have to use two hand & fingers that's not easy at my age.

Kind regards,

Don. Englishman in Germany.