- Six Strings - DADGAG Noodle 1
(Invasion - Dance With The Dead)
Anyone paying attention will recognize Dad's Martin in this video. It's probably always going to be 'Dad's Martin' or 'The Martin' in my head. Anyway... Someone commented to me that they hadn't seen me play said Martin on my channel in a long while -- not since Bittersweet Secrets, for anyone who might be counting -- and maybe I should make another video with it. This suggestion came at a time when I was already looking at playing in different tunings so that I could take licks and chord patterns I had grown accustomed to using and seeing how they sounded using different notes.
My first thought went to DADGAD, a tuning that is pretty much tailor-made for acoustic guitars. DADGAD sounds amazing on acoustics because the bass note in the tuning drops a whole delicious step. Anyone who is TEH METAL will tell you that Drop D tuning -- Standard tuning with the low E dropped to a D -- produces some amazing tones, and also allows for very easy power chording. Dad's Martin sounds amazing in Standard on the low end anyway, especially with good Phosphor Bronze strings on it, so dropping the entire tuning range down a whole tone only makes it sound better in my opinion.
Yes, yes, I know that not every string is dropped. I'm speaking in music theory generalities. Calm yourselves. This all to say, I ended up picking the Martin back up, retuning it to DADGAD and then playing around a bit just to get used to it again.
Several people have asked why I don't make more videos with this guitar, and the simple answer is, "Because it's a pain in the ass to play." No, the irony here isn't lost on me. As I mentioned in the video, this guitar is what started my revisit of guitar playing and yet I almost never play it. You have to keep this guitar strung with heavier gauge strings as a result of it being an acoustic, and if you want to get that cannonball tone out of it that my family and I all grew up being familiar with, you need to put -very- heavy gauge strings on it. Dad always used to play with 12s, and the noise they made in that guitar was...amazing.
"So why don't you put 12s back on it, Steve?" you ask. The simple answer? I have a weak left hand. We're not sure why. I've seen doctors, I've done physical therapy, and nothing really helps. I just have a weak left hand with comparatively limited mobility. I've seen guitar teachers and wise men, and every one of them has suggested that I simply learn to play left handed.
...I have chosen to ignore every one of them.
The strings are only one part of my struggle with the guitar though. The rest of it has to do with the hugeness of the instrument and the shape of the neck relative to what I can make my fretting hand do. It's possible that I could adapt my playing in the future or grow hand strength in some way that hasn't already happened playing my other guitars. I could spend more time playing the Martin. This impedes some of the other music that I need to get out of my head though, and once I start down one of those rabbit holes, I tend to focus on it. That said...maybe it's time to go down this rabbit hole.
Guitar Notes:
Guitar: Martin D-35 Dreadnought
Tuning: DADGAD
Amp: None.
Chord Notes:
No real chords here. What you hear is the result of fretting the third string at the second fret, and then the second string at the second fret, and then moving that second string fretting around the second, fourth, and twelfth frets. That's the glory of DADGAD.
Anyone paying attention will recognize Dad's Martin in this video. It's probably always going to be 'Dad's Martin' or 'The Martin' in my head. Anyway... Someone commented to me that they hadn't seen me play said Martin on my channel in a long while -- not since Bittersweet Secrets, for anyone who might be counting -- and maybe I should make another video with it. This suggestion came at a time when I was already looking at playing in different tunings so that I could take licks and chord patterns I had grown accustomed to using and seeing how they sounded using different notes.
My first thought went to DADGAD, a tuning that is pretty much tailor-made for acoustic guitars. DADGAD sounds amazing on acoustics because the bass note in the tuning drops a whole delicious step. Anyone who is TEH METAL will tell you that Drop D tuning -- Standard tuning with the low E dropped to a D -- produces some amazing tones, and also allows for very easy power chording. Dad's Martin sounds amazing in Standard on the low end anyway, especially with good Phosphor Bronze strings on it, so dropping the entire tuning range down a whole tone only makes it sound better in my opinion.
Yes, yes, I know that not every string is dropped. I'm speaking in music theory generalities. Calm yourselves. This all to say, I ended up picking the Martin back up, retuning it to DADGAD and then playing around a bit just to get used to it again.
Several people have asked why I don't make more videos with this guitar, and the simple answer is, "Because it's a pain in the ass to play." No, the irony here isn't lost on me. As I mentioned in the video, this guitar is what started my revisit of guitar playing and yet I almost never play it. You have to keep this guitar strung with heavier gauge strings as a result of it being an acoustic, and if you want to get that cannonball tone out of it that my family and I all grew up being familiar with, you need to put -very- heavy gauge strings on it. Dad always used to play with 12s, and the noise they made in that guitar was...amazing.
"So why don't you put 12s back on it, Steve?" you ask. The simple answer? I have a weak left hand. We're not sure why. I've seen doctors, I've done physical therapy, and nothing really helps. I just have a weak left hand with comparatively limited mobility. I've seen guitar teachers and wise men, and every one of them has suggested that I simply learn to play left handed.
...I have chosen to ignore every one of them.
The strings are only one part of my struggle with the guitar though. The rest of it has to do with the hugeness of the instrument and the shape of the neck relative to what I can make my fretting hand do. It's possible that I could adapt my playing in the future or grow hand strength in some way that hasn't already happened playing my other guitars. I could spend more time playing the Martin. This impedes some of the other music that I need to get out of my head though, and once I start down one of those rabbit holes, I tend to focus on it. That said...maybe it's time to go down this rabbit hole.
Guitar Notes:
Guitar: Martin D-35 Dreadnought
Tuning: DADGAD
Amp: None.
Chord Notes:
No real chords here. What you hear is the result of fretting the third string at the second fret, and then the second string at the second fret, and then moving that second string fretting around the second, fourth, and twelfth frets. That's the glory of DADGAD.
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