DonCon Gear Box
The Other Side... How To Play It
Playing The Other Side on a Mermer 'Konah' guitar...photo by Debi Friedlander
Playing "The Other Side"
I used open D tuning on the Paradox Of Grace CD and played it on acoustic lap steel (Hawaiian) guitar using a tone bar. (The strings are raised off the fingerboard by using a raised nut and saddle...you don't actually fret with your fingers).
Steel Guitar in D or C:
If I have the steel guitar tuned down to an open C, which I usually do when I play it live, this requires some thicker string gauges in order to keep the intonation in line and to prevent the strings from flopping all over the place. For specific gauges check out the "Strings" section in the DonCon Gear Box in the News section of my web site and look for The DonCon Mermer Kona ("Kahu") string specs. The minor chord is achieved by barring only the three lowest strings at the 4th fret and letting the others ring open
Six String Guitar with Capos:
If I use a regular 6 string guitar for the tune I do it in C# and use two capos. One at the 2nd fret placed almost all the way across...except for the low E string which stays open to the nut...and I add a partial capo at the 4th fret which only clamps the A, D, and G strings. I play it using the G, Bm, C, D chord shapes. When you play the C shape it has that low E string open to the nut...but when you play the D position you have to fret the low E with your thumb at the 6th fret...OR...if you have the flexibility you can fret the low E string with your index finger at the 2nd fret ( or beside that lower capo) and then reach up and across the capos with your pinky and fret the G string two frets above that top capo. The rest of the strings will sound great open. Good luck with that one!
To raise the Key...for example, to play this in the key of C add a third, full capo at the 1st fret...always keeping it two frets below the nearest capo...the one that is covering 5 strings. This means you'll have to move the other two capos up the neck. In this instance you'll have capos at the 1st, 3rd and 5th frets. To go even higher just maintain two frets spacing between all the capos and move all the positions and fingerings up (or down) accordingly. Nothing really changes other than adding that third, full capo, which essentially becomes a movable nut. Yeah, it's excessive. That's why I call it Capo Abuse.
Hope this helps.
I used open D tuning on the Paradox Of Grace CD and played it on acoustic lap steel (Hawaiian) guitar using a tone bar. (The strings are raised off the fingerboard by using a raised nut and saddle...you don't actually fret with your fingers).
Steel Guitar in D or C:
If I have the steel guitar tuned down to an open C, which I usually do when I play it live, this requires some thicker string gauges in order to keep the intonation in line and to prevent the strings from flopping all over the place. For specific gauges check out the "Strings" section in the DonCon Gear Box in the News section of my web site and look for The DonCon Mermer Kona ("Kahu") string specs. The minor chord is achieved by barring only the three lowest strings at the 4th fret and letting the others ring open
Six String Guitar with Capos:
If I use a regular 6 string guitar for the tune I do it in C# and use two capos. One at the 2nd fret placed almost all the way across...except for the low E string which stays open to the nut...and I add a partial capo at the 4th fret which only clamps the A, D, and G strings. I play it using the G, Bm, C, D chord shapes. When you play the C shape it has that low E string open to the nut...but when you play the D position you have to fret the low E with your thumb at the 6th fret...OR...if you have the flexibility you can fret the low E string with your index finger at the 2nd fret ( or beside that lower capo) and then reach up and across the capos with your pinky and fret the G string two frets above that top capo. The rest of the strings will sound great open. Good luck with that one!
To raise the Key...for example, to play this in the key of C add a third, full capo at the 1st fret...always keeping it two frets below the nearest capo...the one that is covering 5 strings. This means you'll have to move the other two capos up the neck. In this instance you'll have capos at the 1st, 3rd and 5th frets. To go even higher just maintain two frets spacing between all the capos and move all the positions and fingerings up (or down) accordingly. Nothing really changes other than adding that third, full capo, which essentially becomes a movable nut. Yeah, it's excessive. That's why I call it Capo Abuse.
Hope this helps.