Still playing DADGAD

Upload and discuss your songs here. Open for Jazz and Rock, too!
Forum rules
Please do not upload songs protected by 3rd party copyright!
Post Reply
User avatar
VikingBlues
Posts: 4466
Joined: Sat Apr 03, 2010 7:44 pm

Still playing DADGAD

Post by VikingBlues »

Evening All

I'm still playing and mainly in DADGAD.

I did recently get a DADGAD blues book but it's not clicked yet. Partly due to lack of attention being distracted with other playing.

Still playing Celtic style DADGAD

:music1: https://app.box.com/s/2ctloa60cifcdh72p6z8zc4vv0ofxrzn
"Drowsy Maggie" - a simple arrangement of an old Scottish tune, but the open strings of DADGAD tuning make it sound much better and fuller than it should.

I've not been improvising much recently and I've been missing it. A good improvisation makes me feel good - soothes the worried mind!

So I mapped out Minor Pentatonic and minor modes - it's interesting how the tuning gives a fretboard pattern that falls very nicely under the fingers.
Minor Modes ex Pentatonic Fretboard DADGAD(1b).jpg
Minor Modes ex Pentatonic Fretboard DADGAD(1b).jpg (462.91 KiB) Viewed 8762 times
Minor Modes ex Pentatonic Fretboard DADGAD(2b).jpg
Minor Modes ex Pentatonic Fretboard DADGAD(2b).jpg (348.59 KiB) Viewed 8762 times
The dark circles are Minor Pentatonic - the empty circles are the two extra notes for each mode.

I went for Phrygian first as I love the dark sound and feel of that mode. Here's the resulting improvisation.

:music1: https://app.box.com/s/3h10ztj4j8yas5k9et1xixsvmk3hy3c6

So that's where I am!

I'm hoping for good results in the other modes too. It's so much tougher improvising on a solo acoustic than on an electric just playing lead over a backing track. Great fun though! :D
An improv a day keeps the demons at bay!
User avatar
Blindboy
Posts: 1787
Joined: Sun Apr 04, 2010 3:34 pm

Re: Still playing DADGAD

Post by Blindboy »

Wow! :pray:
That is some lovely music! Drowsy Maggie was beautiful and I liked your "Fridge" tune as well. I can really hear the darkness of that mode.
I have enough trouble keeping track of standard tuning, let alone the open G and D tunings I use for slide. Some years ago, I went to a guitar workshop at a guitar store in Albuquerque. I can't remember the guitarists name, but he was a Grammy winner. He did a very interesting presentation on DADGAD, showing how one could play jazz and blues. I enjoyed his playing, but never delved into the alternate tunings for fingerstyle.
Keep up the good work :thumbsup:
PS I think the guitarist was Artie Traum...
"Throw yo' big leg over me Mama, I might not feel this good again!"
User avatar
12bar
Site Admin
Posts: 3273
Joined: Thu Mar 25, 2010 12:05 pm

Re: Still playing DADGAD

Post by 12bar »

"Dark mode" - oh yes, that's true. Really amazing sound. A bit Celtic, plus Spanish and Blues. :pray:
User avatar
VikingBlues
Posts: 4466
Joined: Sat Apr 03, 2010 7:44 pm

Re: Still playing DADGAD

Post by VikingBlues »

Thanks guys! :D
Blindboy wrote:Wow! :pray:
That is some lovely music! Drowsy Maggie was beautiful
It was such a simple piece too - just one note at a time except a few added lower D notes by me for resonance and emphasising the drone/Scots theme. The fullness of sound that the open strings can give in teh right arrangement makes DADGAD a joy to play.
Blindboy wrote: PS I think the guitarist was Artie Traum...
I think you've remembered right. Is this him?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mTjARF8Ko6I
He's quite right to emphasise just how much great sound you can get out of an acoustic guitar with very simple fingering in DADGAD.
12bar wrote:"Dark mode" - oh yes, that's true. Really amazing sound. A bit Celtic, plus Spanish and Blues. :pray:
There's a definite Spanish / Flamenco aura in this tuning. I can't seem to help but have Celtic style creeping into whatever I play - I just seem to emotionally connect with the sound and style of that genre.

**************

I seem to have baffled a good few players on an acoustic forum I'm on with those diagrams I had in my post above. :icon_whoknows:

I was discussing how difficult I found the normal teaching approach to modes and quoted a bit from a Guitar World lesson, which made no sense at all to me, although I could recognise each word individually. I then found out that in at least one persons case it was the only part of my thread where what I had typed made any sense to him!

This was the quote :-
'the Phrygian mode is often referred to as the “third mode” because—starting from the major scale, which is the “mother,” or “parent,” scale to the seven fundamental modes and is itself considered the first mode—Phrygian is the third mode in the series, as it is based upon the third scale degree of the major scale.' :eye_rub:

JasonGuitar on YouTube who does lessons that are usually easy to understand has a series of lessons on modes - copied into a Word document it's over ten thousand words and runs to over 40 pages. My digrams on the opening post in the thread plus the same again for major modes is the total of my guide to playing modes!

Anyway, I will just plod on with my fretboard diagrams. It does just show how my brain is wired up differently - I need to see patterns and shapes to understand what to play, and only learn from the actual playing! :shy:
An improv a day keeps the demons at bay!
User avatar
12bar
Site Admin
Posts: 3273
Joined: Thu Mar 25, 2010 12:05 pm

Re: Still playing DADGAD

Post by 12bar »

You may also use the scale generator on this site... :big_smile:
You can add and overlay pentatonic as well as other notes. But yours look better... :whistle:

Image

http://12bar.de/php/scale_generator.php
User avatar
VikingBlues
Posts: 4466
Joined: Sat Apr 03, 2010 7:44 pm

Re: Still playing DADGAD

Post by VikingBlues »

I must have another look at your scale generator Gerd - I didn't realise you could overlay.

I really like the way the Phrygian is laid out within the Minor Pentatonic in Standard Tuning. Once an on-line teacher had pointed out in a video lesson how to see that it worked that way. Before then it was just another confusing scale! Very simple lesson - very easy to understand - very easy to start playing the modes afterwards.

Every gap of three frets between notes in the Pentatonic scale there is the additional Phrygian note just one above the lower of the two separated notes. Very easy to remember! The amount of flavour those two additional notes give is huge, particularly that minor 2nd. :drool:

The Dorian is similarly easy to remember - the additional notes are just one below the higher note in those gaps. I never really managed to capture the feel and mood of Dorian in the same way as Phrygian though. :icon_whoknows:
An improv a day keeps the demons at bay!
User avatar
12bar
Site Admin
Posts: 3273
Joined: Thu Mar 25, 2010 12:05 pm

Re: Still playing DADGAD

Post by 12bar »

Funny as I'm currently trying to record some ambient score for another short paddling video, this time inspired by a Spanish tune. I can't play it right, will never be able to, so I just take the main theme plus the Phrygian scale.
I have a favor for flamenco, but it's hard to learn... :music1:
User avatar
VikingBlues
Posts: 4466
Joined: Sat Apr 03, 2010 7:44 pm

Re: Still playing DADGAD

Post by VikingBlues »

Flamenco .... not easy to learn - absolutely true! I've tried and failed! :wall:

****************

DORIAN
Dorian Mode in DADGAD - Fretboard Diagram - Minor Pentatonic + E and B.
D Minor Dorian DADGAD.jpg
D Minor Dorian DADGAD.jpg (123.67 KiB) Viewed 8641 times
Filled in black circles = Pentatonic Scales.
Circles with white centres = additional Phrygian notes which give the mode its character.

***************

An attempt at Improvising in this mode
:music1: https://app.box.com/s/qp4kqod06ud9kbcm9ntuicrcza3wqckp

One thing I noticed moving from Phrygian to Dorian is that it's not just the two additional notes that change things to make it sound like Dorian instead of Phrygian - it's the playing style and rhythm needs to be adjusted too. Play it in the same style as works for Phrygian and it ends up sounding just like a characterless scale. Change it to a more, for want of a better word, rock (rather than flamenco) feel, and the Dorian character comes through. Or at least Dorian a la VB!

Maybe? :think:
An improv a day keeps the demons at bay!
Post Reply