A Chart of Chris Whitley’s Tunings

12 thoughts on “A Chart of Chris Whitley’s Tunings”

1. I was listening to Wilco’s “Can’t Stand It”, and thought that there’s no way the main riff was being playing in standard… it have kinda of 12 string feel to it… so I’ve seen a video, and Tweedy doesn’t play the standard chords, then I looked for chord charts and then I discovered this tuning, DADADE… and, looking for more songs with that tuning, I ended up getting to know Chris Whitley 🙂

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   1. Great story, Rodrigo. However you got to Chris, I’m glad you found him.

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2. This is the best web page in the history of the internets. Thank you so much.

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3. War Crime Blues – based on the notes of open strings in this song I’m pretty sure this is the Open G tuning transposed way down to D# -ish A#D#A#D#GA# The guitar seems to be around these notes – somewhere in between A# and B….I tune to the record, and try my best to sing an approximation of one of the most powerful tunes on this album. I love the one brief slide in it too – ultimately minimal.

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   1. Hello!
      Thanks for your comment.
      The key could be A# or B, or in-between (wow!).
      But I’m sure the tuning pattern is 75723 (similar as “Her Furious Angel” – used to be played in a row sometimes), being confirmed by his notation on a setlist.
      
      Maybe the interval of 1st & 2nd string (= 3 frets’) made you think it were Open-G tuning pattern.
      Hiroshi

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4. Hi Hiroshi, hope you and your family had a great holiday. Ours was good. Leave it to me to notice, but tonight I went looking for the tuning to ” something shines” and can’t find it here.Do you have it ? If not, it probably falls into one of the “groups” and I”ll work on it. It does have a lot of piano.maybe that’s why….
   All the best with faith and love, Desiree

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   1. Hey, Desiree – Hiroshi doesn’t live here…. But I’ve copied your comment and emailed it to him, asking him to reply to you. Hope he’s able to help – if he can’t, NO ONE can!……………..Katie

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5. It was 1998 when I started to learn Chris’ songs seriously, with songs off of DIRT FLOOR album.
   Except a few acoustic songs recorded ever (Phone call, New Machine), it was so difficult to figure out every detail of guitar part of LWTL, DIN, Terra songs performed with bands. It was very soon to find it’s still very difficult to do about DIRT FLOOR songs, but, I said to myself it is “solo acoustic live recording with NO overdubs”, and with the help of “genuine” Tuning chart posted by Chris’ guitar tech to the New Machine website then, I just tried hard.
   Eventually, I kept learning with referring to his live recordings of Dirt Floor tour in that year (1998).
   I might have found some typical patterns about his setlists, I still don’t know what they (=patterns) were based on, though.
   But, it’s not “efficiency” about (changing of) tunings, I believe. Many of the 1998 shows, he had a guitar tech and with his 3 Nationals plus ES-125 perhaps.
   I believe Chris is a man of uncompromised, and honest and loyal to his urge, necessity of his music. The key (of the song, guitar tuning) must have been determined by his vocal needs.
   So, the same DADADE type tuning but the key is different about Immortal Blues (C), LWTL (D), Guns and Dolls (D#), Scrapyard Lullaby (C#)… just because of his vocal key I believe.
   i.e. I don’t know if there’s a show that all these 4 songs were played, and what happened if there were. At least, I believe he’d never used a capo.

   I was rather surprised Dust Radio (E) and Look What Love Has Done (F) were played in the same key (E) in LWTL band shows (LWTL era), and Scrapyard, WPL, LWTL were played in a row in C# key (a few show from 1998 Dirt Floor tour).
   Acoustic Cafe radio show (#177 in 1998), Scrapyard was played in D… it’s very rare, by the way, while LWTL was played in C# at Mountain KMTT radio show might be understandable because Chris caught a cold and not in usual condition.

   However, solo shows in later years, with just 2 (or 3) Nationals without a guitar tech, his setlists became different.
   I think it’d be – change of his vocal key (because of his physical condition?), vocal style, guitar sound (or a bit of playing style, with thicker strings’ gauge i.e. WEED / a bunch of his classics were performed in the different key ).
   Anyway, some song order were made with demand of tuning.
   New Machine, Forget you every day – in the same key
   Home is where you get across, Poison Girl, As Flat As The Earth – in the same key. Change the 5th string (2 frets’) only.
   Weightless, Accordingly – in the same key
   Vertical Desert, God Thing – in the same key
   … and a few more partial song order patterns I could tell.
   These patterns (I personally have been doing these song order and key, when I practice those songs with a National or 2 in my tiny room, or, to the studio I could bring with me) were apparently made with easiness and speed.
   I understand this as Chris’ versatility and maturity on vocal (could make this possible).

   Sorry, George, I haven’t understood what you exactly mean and I might miss the point… but this is my thoughts.

   One thing to add… I think the code system (Key + fret numbers to tune the next string, such as D75752) is not useful, not contributing to minimize the tuning works unless the KEY is same.
   I mean, if there were a D75752 song and the next were C#57525 … guitar tech just has to start with the 6th string and he could not figure out if there were any string(s) that not need to be changed.

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   1. Thanks Brother Hiroshi —

      > Sorry, George, I haven’t understood what you exactly mean and I might miss the point… but this is my thoughts.

      You understood perfectly!

      “I might have found some typical patterns about his setlists, I still don’t know what they (=patterns) were based on, though. But, it’s not “efficiency” about (changing of) tunings, I believe. Many of the 1998 shows, he had a guitar tech and with his 3 Nationals plus ES-125 perhaps.”

      Agree. What i meant was — when he was playing solo — having to do wildly divergent tunings would disrupt a set and potentially bring the guitar into a new tuning that didn’t want to stay “in tune” (you can hear CW very often complaining to his guitar and the audience between songs about his tunings … at one show he called it “his safety blanket” LOL!).

      “I believe Chris is a man of uncompromised, and honest and loyal to his urge, necessity of his music. The key (of the song, guitar tuning) must have been determined by his vocal needs.”

      Yes, so i think we are talking about two different things: (1) the key in which he is playing, as a function of his vocal range at any given point in time and (2) the tuning of the guitar itself.

      “So, the same DADADE type tuning but the key is different about Immortal Blues (C), LWTL (D), Guns and Dolls (D#), Scrapyard Lullaby (C#)… just because of his vocal key I believe.”

      Yes. Someone else made a similar point (Jeff L?) on the FB group about this, that as his career went on, C went to heavier gauge strings to get to lower keys to support his lowering vocal range.

      “i.e. I don’t know if there’s a show that all these 4 songs were played, and what happened if there were. At least, I believe he’d never used a capo.”

      Never saw a capo in the three live shows i caught, or any videos, etc.

      “understandable because Chris caught a cold and not in usual condition.”

      Yes, those of us who perform know exactly how this goes! 🙂

      “However, solo shows in later years, with just 2 (or 3) Nationals without a guitar tech, his setlists became different.
      I think it’d be – change of his vocal key (because of his physical condition?), vocal style, guitar sound (or a bit of playing style, with thicker strings’ gauge”

      Yes, exactly.

      “Anyway, some song order were made with demand of tuning.”

      Yes, that was my original point — that there is something like an “economy of tuning” that influences the set list.

      “One thing to add… I think the code system (Key + fret numbers to tune the next string, such as D75752) is not useful, not contributing to minimize the tuning works unless the KEY is same.”

      Yes, that is definitely the case.

      Konna komakai koto ha muzukashii desu na! 😉

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6. > it’s easy to make a lot of bad noise on an amplified guitar with all of that on your hand.

   LOL — word, Keith!

   Hiroshi, looking at at the cipher system, it occurs to me that it provides a quick numeric way to determine “tuning effort” to get to a specific tuning in an incremental way. When you ‘diff’ any given cipher against another, you can see total number of strings and key(s) that need to change. As you guys know, one of the infuriating things about covering CW tunes (esp. on our vintage Nationals) is the frequent changes, esp. where the “absolute value” of the string tension change causes the guitar to want to get back out of tune during the song. So you can, to some extent, minimize this by creating a set list based on smaller increments.

   That’s not to say that this was driving set list decisions, just that it might have been a factor (esp. when not traveling with a bunch of guitars and having a guitar tech in the wings managing tuning for you).

   Hmmm … sounds like something for us to write about …. 🙂 -g

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7. Thanks for your comment, Keith. If you don’t already know rustradio’s (Hiroshi Suda) YouTube channel, you should check it out. Hiroshi (the guy who created this tuning chart) posts lots of videos of covers of CW tunes; he’s also a great guy who will talk CW guitar techniques until forever!

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8. This is a great list. I actually saw a couple songs listed that I wasn’t aware of.

   While the tunings are clearly a large part of the puzzle in trying to play Chris’s music, the right hand technique is what blows me out of the water. It’s remarkable how much control he had over with the flatpick and two metal fingerpicks; it’s easy to make a lot of bad noise on an amplified guitar with all of that on your hand. I’m always struck by how little his right hand seems to be moving when he’s playing; I think one of the secrets to his control was keeping the motion reeled in.

   I’ve been working on Big Sky Country from Weed and there’s so much I can’t pin down. There’s a lot of beautiful subtlety at work there. A wonderful challenge, nonetheless.

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