The Horrible Esthete Wrote:Fair enough. If want to sit around and play this song for yourself, and don't want to tune to an Open E to play it properly, that's your prerogative. But just because it sounds "right" to you doesn't mean it is.
Even if you want to perform the song in public, why not do it the way you want to?
The Del McCoury Band plays Tom Petty's "Love is a Long Road" the wrong way -- they omit a passing chord in the verse lines. John Coltrane certainly played Rogers & Hammerstein's " My Favourite Things" the wrong way. Bob Dylan performs his own songs the wrong way -- every last one of them. I could go on and on. In fact, the Hip do a few of their songs the wrong way, too....
It's right if it sounds right, unless you're looking at it from a pedagogical angle, which is the disease of the classical music world. Then it isn't right unless it's played to some kind of standard, because a piece of music represents as much a proof of skill as it does a work of art. The rock world is the only other place where this mentality holds sway, presumably because of the way we put stars on pedestals, and of the competitive attitudes of teenaged guitar players -- the aim becomes not just to play the song, but to play Yngwie's solo note for masturbatory note, for example.
The Horrible Esthete Wrote:Guitarists use alternate tunings for a reason. When a song is played in an open tuning, it's almost always because certain notes are specifically desired for the chord composition that aren't available in the standard tuning. And that applies in this case as well. There are notes in the chords he's playing in the video that vary from the notes in the original composition.
Well, the chords are the same and the notes in the chords are the same -- else you'd be playing different chords. An E major triad is always the same thing. You're talking about chord voicings, and again, except from a pedagogical standpoint, I don't think anyone would complain that someone is playing the wrong chord voicings. Alternative arrangements are always possible.
You'd only complain if the voicings didn't work, i.e. if the song lost something tangible that wasn't compensated for elsewhere. And I'm talking about something tangible.
For example, Blowin' in the Wind -- because it's one of the most-recorded songs going. Dylan originally played Blowin' in the Wind out of G position with a capo on the 7th fret so he could exploit the descending bass line from the C, playing Carter-style. If you just strummed the chords in D, you'd lose that bass line, and someone might well feel that the result wasn't satisfactory.
But you'd still be playing the same song, and you'd be playing it "right" -- esp. given that the Bobster himself now plays it in C, has ditched the Carter-style playing, and embellishes throughout with sus chords. Is his new way somehow "wrong?"
And really, when you get down to it, you don't even have to play the "right" chords, as long as you know why. Peter, Paul and Mary recorded that same song with a minor chord -- the vi, I don't know what key they did it in. There's no minor chord in the Freewheelin' version. Were they "wrong?" I don't think so -- a lot of people treat that as the canonical arrangement, because they sold more records than Bob did.
If you want to pick through all the different recordings of this song, you'll find many different arrangements. Some work, some don't -- but that's largely a matter of taste. It's hard to say any of them are "wrong."
Unless you're looking at it from a teacher's point of view, and you want students to play it a certain way for a specific reason -- because, presumably, they're going to learn from the experience -- it's pretty much irrelevant.
And on a parenthetical note, let me add that I find it strange that so many rock guitarists sneer at the use of the capo as "cheating" (no, I'm not pointing at you), while at the same time embracing alternate tunings. Who's cheating now?
