Sharing this for a couple of reasons. First, I think Seth Lakeman is a bit of a genius - lucky enough to have seen him a couple of times and it's enthralling. Second reason is I do like to occasionally feature the close cousins of the ukulele on this site.
Wait a minute is he playing a ukulele or isn't he? Well, whilst it is four strings, and looks like a large Baritone, it's actually a Tenor Guitar. Seth is a fiddle player at heart, and the tuning of the tenor is linked to that. The tenor guitar is tuned CGDA, and the violin (and mandolin) is tuned GDAE, so it fits him perfectly.
So similar but different, but enough of that, just listen and enjoy.
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Seth's tuning on tenor guitar is GDGD. Capo on 7th fret for this one. Great song!!
ReplyDeleteThe Tenor guitar came about in the Jazz age as a mixed marriage between the Tenor Banjo and the Guitar.
ReplyDeletewith the invention of louder dreadnought guitar body and it's warmer, sophisticated sound, the banjo quickly came to be regarded as old fashioned and the tenor guitar developed as a means for banjo players to stay in work without having to learn a new instrument. The Tenor guitar's been an adaptable progeny. Its steel strings have a beautiful sound and offer a very broad range of tuning possibilities including CGDA, GDAE, DGBE, CGBD, DGBD and ADGB. Its 'voice' dovetails very nicely with another traditional six string. It's had an upsurge of interest lately which I think follows in the footsteps of the ukulele - Rather than being perceived as limited, four strings have become cool again - could be, it's a hipster thing!