Norwegian Wood Two Cigar Box Guitars Update

I was intrigued by the first of these videos, and again by this one. So - the idea is that, on the "major" guitar, on the first string, you've got G,A,B,C,D,E,F#, etc, and on the "minor" one you've got F, G, A, Bb, C, D, E... So you get the benefit of a Bb and an F-natural in addition to the G major scale.

The first thing I did when I heard this was went over to a chromatic 3 string (and then a chomatic 4-string) and played the song - that was before I understood that it was a proof of concept, and the idea was to be able to play the song using only diatonically tuned instruments. Duh.

The second thing I did is tried to figure out if there would be a major scale that would, when juxtaposed with a G major scale in the way you did with two guitars, give you full chromatic melody capabilities, and of course, the answer (or one answer) is G# (Also Duh), which gives you G#,A#, C, C#, D#, F,G The two added together give you all the notes. So, with two diatonically tuned guitars, one tuned G-D-G, and the other tuned G-D-G#, you could play any melody that can be played on one string... OR - you could fit a sharping lever on the highest string, to raise it a half-tone for the "B" part of the song, flip it back for the "A" part, and then just use one diatonically tuned guitar. Or just say the heck with it, and play a chromatic.... I think I'd better get back to work now... :-D

BTW - I don't mean any of this as a put down - I thought the concept, the playing and the video were very cool... :-)

That got me thinking about building something with a sharping lever on the high string

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Comments

eK April 14, 2013 at 12:59pm

I've been gradually working out Beatles arrangements on a 5-string tuning (DGDGBD). Nice to see somebody else out there with a love for the Fab Four!
Jim Pickles April 11, 2013 at 10:23pm

Beautiful
Michael Recchione April 11, 2013 at 1:03pm

I was intrigued by the first of these videos, and again by this one. So - the idea is that, on the "major" guitar, on the first string, you've got G,A,B,C,D,E,F#, etc, and on the "minor" one you've got F, G, A, Bb, C, D, E... So you get the benefit of a Bb and an F-natural in addition to the G major scale.

The first thing I did when I heard this was went over to a chromatic 3 string (and then a chomatic 4-string) and played the song - that was before I understood that it was a proof of concept, and the idea was to be able to play the song using only diatonically tuned instruments. Duh.

The second thing I did is tried to figure out if there would be a major scale that would, when juxtaposed with a G major scale in the way you did with two guitars, give you full chromatic melody capabilities, and of course, the answer (or one answer) is G# (Also Duh), which gives you G#,A#, C, C#, D#, F,G The two added together give you all the notes. So, with two diatonically tuned guitars, one tuned G-D-G, and the other tuned G-D-G#, you could play any melody that can be played on one string... OR - you could fit a sharping lever on the highest string, to raise it a half-tone for the "B" part of the song, flip it back for the "A" part, and then just use one diatonically tuned guitar. Or just say the heck with it, and play a chromatic.... I think I'd better get back to work now... :-D

BTW - I don't mean any of this as a put down - I thought the concept, the playing and the video were very cool... :-)

That got me thinking about building something with a sharping lever on the high string
Dano Collins April 11, 2013 at 11:26am

sounds great!
Cowbird April 11, 2013 at 8:55am

That sounds really nice.
Daddy Long Les April 11, 2013 at 6:48am

Go straight to 3:50 to hear it with delay and chorus!

This reply was deleted.