You Can Tune a Piano...
Apr. 8th, 2026 09:30 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
billroperI'm working on learning a new song for Debbie's Interfilk Guest concert at FKO. I went to look up the chords on line and discovered that Ultimate Guitar believes that the song is in F. The song is pretty much brutally unplayable in F, but I can play it in D and capo 3 to get to F, so I can make that work.
Then I looked at the music video and saw that the guitarist was playing this in the key of G. This is because his guitar was detuned two half steps. Great. The chords make *much* more sense in G.
Ah, and Debbie actually wants to play the song in A, which would be G capo 2. All good.
Except that I need to play along to learn the song's rhythms and I really don't want to detune my guitar to match the only track I have to play against right now. Grumble.
I then realized that I have a baritone guitar sitting here, which is detuned by *five* half steps. So if I capo 3 and play G forms, then I am playing in the key of F, which matches the video.
And then I can capo 2 for the concert on my guitar that is tuned to concert pitch.
Whee!
Then I looked at the music video and saw that the guitarist was playing this in the key of G. This is because his guitar was detuned two half steps. Great. The chords make *much* more sense in G.
Ah, and Debbie actually wants to play the song in A, which would be G capo 2. All good.
Except that I need to play along to learn the song's rhythms and I really don't want to detune my guitar to match the only track I have to play against right now. Grumble.
I then realized that I have a baritone guitar sitting here, which is detuned by *five* half steps. So if I capo 3 and play G forms, then I am playing in the key of F, which matches the video.
And then I can capo 2 for the concert on my guitar that is tuned to concert pitch.
Whee!