Try this guitar tuning: EGBDF#A
I’ve been trying out alternate tunings today. I’ve recently added a trumpet part to a song in which the trumpet is looped, overlaying all the notes of an Em7 with and adding 9th and 11th, like this:
E G B D F#A
It’s a really nice, urgent chord, so I tried it as a tuning and got really into it really quickly. The great thing about it is that you have Em (EGB), G major (GBD), B minor (BDF#) and D major (DF#A) all there in the open strings. So if you’re playing folky fingerpicking it’s easy to lay down a solid harmonic foundation with the open strings then put melodies over it. Or if you’re a novice, you can easily bar three string chords. In fact, with your left hand in the first position you can play all these chords using only one finger! Em, G, Bm, D, Fm, G#, Cm, D#, F#m, A, C#m, E, Gm, Bb, Dm, F, G#m, B, D#m and F#. All of the minor and major chords can be really easily played on the first three frets if you’re will to use three fingers…!
Also because of the limitations of standard tuning, unlike say a piano, a normal chord on a guitar normally has a very high third (it’s normally a 10th rather than a 3rd really). As it’s one of the most important notes in the chord for setting the mood of the harmony, it’s really nice having it nearer to the first and fifth, I think it makes the harmony sound more whole.
It’s also really easy to make more interesting chords and easy to tune - if you’re tuning from frets then it’s 3rd, 4th, 3rd, 4th, 3rd. Hope someone has fun with this.
Filed under recommendations | Comment (0)Willkommen night: James Blackshaw, Hamilton Yarns and Caroline Weeks
I’m putting on a Willkommen night in February, it’d be splendid if you could make it.
There are more details on the Willkommen event page here.
Saturday February 7th, 8pm, £6, BYO alcohol.
Westhill Hall, Compton Avenue, Seven Dials, Brighton
Buy Tickets | Facebook event | Last.fm event | Google map
Filed under gigs, recommendations | Tags: brighton, caroline weeks, hamilton yarns, james blackshaw, westhill hall, willkommen | Comment (0)Supporting David Grubbs and Sons of Noel and Adrian on Monday
I’m really excited to be playing with these two bands at the Albert, Brighton on Monday (19th January). David Grubbs is a personal hero of mine and Sons of Noel and Adrian is a fantastic band that I’m proud to play double bass with, it’s always great when I get to do a Kopek set on the same bill.
I’m planning on doing quite a dark and experimental set and, since I’ll have it with me for the Sons set, I might incorporate double bass in the Kopek set for the first time. We should be playing two new songs from an EP we’re plotting called ‘Nocturne’ and ‘Aphorism’ as well as ‘My Prison, My Fortress’, the Brian Eno cover ‘By This River’ and another new one called ‘Trondheim’.
There’s a video of us covering ‘By This River’ at Corsica Arts Studio last time we played with Sons of Noel and Adrian. It includes live illustration from Jimp and you can see it here:
Kopek cover Brian Eno’s “By This River” live in London
Elsewhere - Helen is still having lots of fun with The Leisure Society and they did a great show at Bush Hall last night, expect glowing reviews soon. I’ve also played the upright bass with them on a few shows recently, including a really fun filming in a bandstand with Emmy The Great. I’ll add the videos when they appear online at bandstandbusking.com (which already has a lot of other great videos).
We’ve also been working on lots of new material for the Sons of Noel and Adrian set ahead of our tour of Germany and the UK, more news on that soon.
Filed under gigs | Tags: albert, bandstand busking, brian eno, brighton, by this river, david grubbs, emmy the great, oib records, sons of noel and adrian, the leisure society | Comment (0)The Leisure Society single released
Ahead of their album in March next year, The Leisure Society (featuring the talents of Kopek member Helen) have released their first single this week. It’s available from iTunes here and there’s a limited edition handmade CD version available here.
Filed under Uncategorized | Comment (0)Kopek blog reset!
Annoyingly, just as this blog was getting built up and respectable, it got hacked and everything deleted. Oh well. I was in Norway at the time so I couldn’t do very much to rectify it. Now I’ve got a bit of time and have sorted it. Whilst in Norway I met some people making some cool music worthy of your ears:
- Red April on Myspace
- experimental singer-songwriters - Captain Credible on Myspace - interesting, glitchy, circuit-bending IDM
- Orange Box at Myspace
- The E at Myspace (RIP!)