Rock This Town tuning.

Hey ArtVandelay,
I guess you're asking tuning/key?
I play it in a Dropped D tuning so when I'm in the D 5th position I can let the open D on the bass string ring out/along. I started doing this before I saw Brian play it that way, as I heard a blues band play something in D and they used the same method and they only had one guitarist. I find it helps fill out the sound a bit better, as I'm the only guitarist in the band.
I play the song this way:

Little riff, aka Dixieland tune or Lil' Devil by the Cult and as the song goes into the last chord I rip straight into the chord strumming pattern of Rock This Town, then the boogie pattern for a while so the crowd realizes what song. When I strum A7 it's the start of the song. We play the sequence like this: verse-D-A7-D-G-E(7)-D-A7-D#9/D9...chorus the same.
Problem is I've played the song so many times, for so long I keep on changing it! All the little licks I keep like the chromatic run from the A, but the solos always come of the head and the boogie lines, fill ins are pretty off the cuff.
Cheers Pete. Hope it helps, anyone else.

PICKIN' PETE wrote:

Hey ArtVandelay,
I guess you're asking tuning/key?
I play it in a Dropped D tuning so when I'm in the D 5th position I can let the open D on the bass string ring out/along. I started doing this before I saw Brian play it that way, as I heard a blues band play something in D and they used the same method and they only had one guitarist. I find it helps fill out the sound a bit better, as I'm the only guitarist in the band.
I play the song this way:

Little riff, aka Dixieland tune or Lil' Devil by the Cult and as the song goes into the last chord I rip straight into the chord strumming pattern of Rock This Town, then the boogie pattern for a while so the crowd realizes what song. When I strum A7 it's the start of the song. We play the sequence like this: verse-D-A7-D-G-E(7)-D-A7-D#9/D9...chorus the same.
Problem is I've played the song so many times, for so long I keep on changing it! All the little licks I keep like the chromatic run from the A, but the solos always come of the head and the boogie lines, fill ins are pretty off the cuff.
Cheers Pete. Hope it helps, anyone else.

Can I play along with the record in drop D?

Yeah sure!
The first album's version does not have the dropped D tuning. Brian started doing that some years later through the 80's.

PICKIN' PETE wrote:

I started doing this before I saw Brian play it that way...

Yeah right!


Just kidding.
To be honest, first time I read about Brian's picking style (the way he holds the pick with his index-finger and picks with the others), I was floored.
For some time I already played that way!!

I said to myself: i'm gonna be as good as Brian!
So 26 years later I'm still not as good...

Another story.
Somewhere in the late 60's when I was about 5, my dad thought me a little thing on the guitar. It was done with 2 hands on the fretboard. So I learned that bit but thought to myself:
"Man this is stupid, that's all wrong. Your other hand should be at the soundhole!"
Years later I saw some guy named Eddie van Halen doing the same thing my dad did in the 60's. So in fact he stole it from my dad!

Spread the word!

Ive tuned and retuned my guitar every which way and it still doesnt sound close at all. I've tried every every different chord I can think of but none of the Ds Bs Es Cs or Qs work.

Hey Patrick,
So ya don't believe me, huh! haha!
Seriousily man, I remember seeing a blues band when I was real young and the guitarist dropped his tuning while playing. Man, I thought he was the shit!
The band was Smokin' With Joe, and the guitarist name was Fish. He showed us what he was doing and later I met Tommy Emmanuele and he did the same thing. I thought I was part of an elite crowd! When I saw Brian do it, I thought Holy Shit he knows about it as well!
ArtVandelay, just drop the bass E string to D. To play chords with the bass E string you just gotta compensate that string a whole step up. Example... power chord A on the 5th position, you would fret the E-A-D strings at the 7th position.
Hope that helps, just experiment as this is the easiest alternate tuning probably to use, cheers Pete.

Just makin' the rounds!
.....Smalls, you want a s'more?
.....Some more what?
.....You're killin' me, Smalls!

PICKIN' PETE wrote:

Hey Patrick,
So ya don't believe me, huh! haha!
Seriousily man, I remember seeing a blues band when I was real young and the guitarist dropped his tuning while playing. Man, I thought he was the shit!
The band was Smokin' With Joe, and the guitarist name was Fish. He showed us what he was doing and later I met Tommy Emmanuele and he did the same thing. I thought I was part of an elite crowd! When I saw Brian do it, I thought Holy Shit he knows about it as well!
ArtVandelay, just drop the bass E string to D. To play chords with the bass E string you just gotta compensate that string a whole step up. Example... power chord A on the 5th position, you would fret the E-A-D strings at the 7th position.
Hope that helps, just experiment as this is the easiest alternate tuning probably to use, cheers Pete.

Hey Pete

You'll be telling us they do a wound third now!!!!! Seriously dude - I love your poss, they're seriously educational.

Keep posting

Mikey D'Addario

xx

Hey Mikey,

You don't believe me either? lol! I've done ALOT of things, but NEVER lie!! hahaha!!
Man, just trying to help! Sheesh! I know we'll have the whole Aussie vs Barmy Army thing goin' on soon!! haha!!

Can'twealljustgetalongabilly Pete.
P.S. They DO have an unwound third string now. Eric Clapton showed me how he substituted a banjo string in place of the wound third! haha!!

PICKIN' PETE wrote:

Hey Mikey,

You don't believe me either? lol! I've done ALOT of things, but NEVER lie!! hahaha!!
Man, just trying to help! Sheesh! I know we'll have the whole Aussie vs Barmy Army thing goin' on soon!! haha!!

Can'twealljustgetalongabilly Pete.
P.S. They DO have an unwound third string now. Eric Clapton showed me how he substituted a banjo string in place of the wound third! haha!!

Hey Pete

i believe ya man (sincerely)! I just love your wealth of knowledge. All who know me know how trusting am Pete. But, a banjo string, now you're asking me to believe too much dude!!!

Mike Gullabilly

xx

Hey Mikey,
OK now ya caught me out! The unwound string was created by 2 Scots fighting over a silver coin, as neither would give in, it stretched so much as they held onto the coin and walked away from each other, that it created the fabled string that we use today.
Cheers Pete.
P.S. Just out of curiosity, check out what Eric did early on in his career. He might just mention something about him playing in a dixie band, a banjo and substiting banjo to guitar strings!

PICKIN' PETE wrote:

Hey Mikey,
OK now ya caught me out! The unwound string was created by 2 Scots fighting over a silver coin, as neither would give in, it stretched so much as they held onto the coin and walked away from each other, that it created the fabled string that we use today.
Cheers Pete.
P.S. Just out of curiosity, check out what Eric did early on in his career. He might just mention something about him playing in a dixie band, a banjo and substiting banjo to guitar strings!

wake up pete its time for school, skippys waiting for
you at the barby, croc dundees after ye for slagin the scots
hurry up or all chuck ye in the wheely bin cheeky boy sheesh!!!!!!



mattscotlandabillytheylnevertakeoorfreedomabilly

Hey stray matt,
Good to see at least ya can have a banter and take/give a ribbing on this site. Some other guitar/band/car sites are so up their arses that everthing is so damn politically correct. It seems to me we all belong to 1 big community on here. I've said it before, being on here is like being down at the pub or clubhose, just good times.
Cheers Pete.
P.S. My families best friends where Scottish. From the Burton clan and boy did they put the Italians to shame when it was time to neck a few!

Pete, i think it's cos we're all coming from the same place. Also, Brian's fans (unlike somother bands) seem to be coming at it from many different angles. He's the ultimate guitarist, so get's the musician's interested, then he's a songwriter, which throws in a few more fans, then he's creating his artform in a modern way, enter pop fans, and then finally, he's one cool cat - enter everyone else. I think that gives us a good mix. You get discussions on his tuning, his health, his writing, and what he was wearing the other night. How many other boards discuss that kind of quality content huh?

I wonder what it is that has kept me musically interested in the guy since 1980???

Mikey the Philosopher

Hey Mikey,
Here,here.
The guy is my hero and like ya said his fans do come from all walks of life and for different reasons.
Alot of my musician friends are from the hard rock/metal school, but they all respect and admire him for his abilities.
Other mates of mine are car heads into muscle cars and serious horsepower and they respect him for his rides.
A lot of others just dig him 'cos he's a real cool cat.
He also seems really approachable. I met him briefly after a gig in '91 and he had time for all of us. He even happily signed stuff we brought along, and even got us picks and promo pix.
Ya gotta respect a guy like that and any of his fans are surely to be pretty much the same.
Cheers Pete.

ArtVandelay wrote:

Ive tuned and retuned my guitar every which way and it still doesnt sound close at all. I've tried every every different chord I can think of but none of the Ds Bs Es Cs or Qs work.

Hi,

I take it you know the chord sequence/song structure?

The track was recorded slightly off standard concert pitch - i presume this wasnt a deliberate thing just Brian and Lee tuning to each other rather thn using a reference to tune to.

Using an excellent program called Transcribe! the opening guitar chord is shown to be about 35 cents flat of a concert pitch D chord (so not quite half way betwen a D and a Db (flat)).

So to play along to the track you can either tune down slightly or use Transcribe! or similar to adjust a mp3 or WAV copy of the song up to meet concert pitch

I hope this helps

Cheers

Thanks for all your help guys but I tune it a bit higher and that was exactly right. Was the recording sped up or slow down or something? I know that takes a lot of time but its definatley not tuned to a normal E A D G B e.

[="PICKIN' PETE"]Hey ArtVandelay,
I guess you're asking tuning/key?
I play it in a Dropped D tuning so when I'm in the D 5th position I can let the open D on the bass string ring out/along. I started doing this before I saw Brian play it that way, as I heard a blues band play something in D and they used the same method and they only had one guitarist. I find it helps fill out the sound a bit better, as I'm the only guitarist in the band.


Hi Pickin Pete

Like you I had played the drop D thing for years before realised Brian was doing it - just seemed an obvious thing to do - all the octave runs etc that you can ad lib with.

Also like another poster on this one I was doing the pick and fingers thing before had heard of Stray Cats - back in 1979 at least - didn't think I'd invented it -obviously(!)- just seemed an obvious solution to getting a full rockabilly pattern going like Scotty but without using thumbpick.

Most stuff that people come up with on the guitar is usually a product of 'problem solving' anyway!

Regards.

My guitar and I once spent a summer in the South with reletives. Billy Crash Craddock ,T-Bone somebody and a guy that knew (or made up) more about Elvis than i could imagine, hung around there. They all played great but all I learned from them was how to smoke and look really cool. I didn't do really well at that either so I quit. But I still pick around on my guitar and rememeber that summer.

the tuning on the original recording of rock this town for the whole band is down a half step from - D in A440 - as they play it live. not sure if the recording was slowed down in mastering, (which i doubt because brian's voice would be different tonally)

i suspect the band tuned down during the tracking of the record.

tw