guitar/mandolin tuning Q

NoQuarter

just fooling around with the guitar in DGCGCD, better known as the rain song tuning to some, and was tryin to jam with the mandolin but should i be leaving the mandolin in its standard tuning GDAE or tuning the strings down/up in accordance with the guitar and if so, which 4 strings???

Beanstalk

Theres no real need to re-tune the mandolin unless you're using it in order to play unusual chords a little easier, if your using the mandolin for melody (tremolo etc) GDAE is pretty versatile and works well in terms of drone strings, but in saying that, theres no harm in trying different tunings it can be great fun when you come up with something that sounds cool....:rolleyes:

NoQuarter

true true, ive been coming up with nice stuff and the drone notes are workin too but i was just interested to know if it would be easier to retune,

if i was to retune it, would it the same as the 4 thickest or thinnest strings on the guitar? (not in terms of same notes obviously but in terms of tone difference from standard to DGCGCD!)

Beanstalk

It all depends on what key you wanna play in? rain song is Gmaj or something right? even though you probably wanna play more than the rain song you could try tuning the mandolin to GDGD, it would take some of the high pitch off the mandolin, mellow it out a little...worth a try anyway...

NoQuarter

basically im tryin to put some mandolin parts to a little guitar tune i have, by ear i would say the key is D(my song not the rain song) or should i say D would be the root note, im not a theory head at all! i might try that tuning and have a little listen, i love the melodies from a different guitar tuning, if only my fingers could find them notes in standard! :rolleyes:

Beanstalk

Ok cool, well if it's d, then open d on the mandolin might work, it goes something like a,d,f#,d (i think!) so you could even give that a go too, let us know how ya get on!

And sorry to be goin on about the rain song, but replying to this thread has brought back memories of learning to play it on guitar meself years ago, im gonna watch that awesome page and plant unledded version when i get home from work tonite.....:rolleyes:

NoQuarter

yeah thanks mate that tuning does seem to be a bit better and im gettin quite nice melodies out of it so ill keep crackin away and see what happens!

seeing as your memories are brought back heres my youtube version>

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bvPY3GLeas0

done this months ago on a dodgey camera so the video and sound got out of synch somehow so its
probably better to not watch the video cause it justs gets annoying!