What key is sawmill tuning?
It is basically a variant of standard C Tuning, with the second string raised from B to C, the tonic note. This tuning is sometimes called Sawmill tuning, presumably because a tune by that name was played using it. It is used by old time clawhammer players for g modal tunes, and sometimes to play in the key of F.
What is Banjo sawmill tuning?
Sawmill tuning (gDGCD or aEADE) is very common tuning in Old-Time banjo music. It is one of three or four “standard” Old-Timey tunings. It is used for tunes such as Shady Grove, Pretty Polly, Cold Frosty Morning, Betsy Likkens, Cluck Old Hen, Cuckoo and some other hundreds of well known traditional tunes.
How many parts do most fiddle tunes have?
Most fiddle tunes have two parts, which on PEI are referred to as the low turn and the high turn. For the vast majority of tunes, each turn has eight measures and is played through twice before going on to the next turn.
Is a fiddle tuned differently than a violin?
For violin, synthetic strings are often preferred, with an unwrapped steel E string on the end, requiring a fine tuner. The violin is tuned to perfect fifths (GDAE). Fiddle players typically use all steel strings and rely on peg tuning as well as a fine tuner. Their tuning depends on the music they are playing.
What is sawmill tuning?
It is also sometimes called “Sawmill Tuning” or “Mountain Minor Tuning.” This is very close to standard G tuning but the second string is tuned up to a C note. This eliminates the third of the G chord and produces a G sus 4 chord.
What is the 5th string on a banjo for?
The short fifth string is what makes the banjo unique. The fifth string is also called the “thumb string” or “drone string” because the early “clawhammer” banjo technique involved the thumb picking the fifth string often creating the syncopated sound that is associated with the banjo.
What is a modal tuning?
In modal tunings, the strings are tuned to form a chord which is not definitively minor or major. These tunings may facilitate very easy chords and unique sounds when the open strings are used as drones. Often these tunings form a suspended chord on the open strings. A well known user of modal tunings is Sonic Youth.
What key is a fiddle tuned to?
D major
While the standard tuning for open strings of the violin is GDAE—with the G being the tuning of the lowest-pitched string and the E being the tuning for the highest-pitched string—fiddlers playing tunes in the key of D major sometimes employ a tuning of ADAE.
How does old time Appalachian fiddle music work?
Old time and Appalachian music retains some of its Celtic roots, but it a unique style relying heavily on double stops (chords) and cross tuning (changing the pitch of the strings to facilitate drones and harmonics) and uniquely rhythmic bowing. Like Irish music, it often uses modal constructs rather than keys.
What kind of cross tuning does a fiddle player use?
What I learned is explained in Musical Architectures: Modes, Intervals and Scales on this website. Typical fiddle cross-tunings include GDAG, ADAD, DDAD, AEAE, AEAC#. This helps the fiddle player add the drones that mark so much of old-time sound.
Is the fourth string used in fiddle music?
“Fiddle music does not as a rule call for the use of the fourth, or little, finger. The open string is used instead.
What kind of tuning does a clawhammer banjo use?
This tuning is sometimes called Sawmill tuning, presumably because a tune by that name was played using it. It is used by old time clawhammer players for g modal tunes, and sometimes to play in the key of F. A variant of Open G, with the second string raised to the C, this tuning rings out with the fourth interval instead of the third.