|
NormanKliman -> RE: tuning all strings down a full step (Sep. 1 2010 11:48:16)
|
What Ricardo said is what I meant.
So far, I've only found examples of tuning down for toque de granaína. For a number of reasons, we can't really say conclusively that guitarists tuned down as a strategy for accompaniment: (1) new strings stretch out, (2) guitarists don't always use a tuning fork, (3) some guitarists might have preferred to tune down to make the strings last, (4) some might have found it easier to play that way (as James indicated in the OP). Also, it's reasonable to doubt the accuracy of the reproduction of recorded media, especially 78 rpm disks. However, about this last point, I've experimented with audio software and there's a big difference in the voice when you accelerate or slow recordings by a whole step. So, the point I want to make is that I've come across a series of very old recordings where the voices sound normal and the guitarists are accompanying with toque de granaína in A Phrygian. In most of the cases, these guitarists didn't record toque de taranta (F# Phrygian), so my theory is that they weren't familiar with it because it was a relatively new thing. I've analyzed literally hundreds of old recordings of cantes mineros and the most common keys among singers were by far G# and A, which obviously can't be accompanied with toque de granaína unless you tune down.
There aren't too many recordings of granaínas being accompanied with anything other than toque de granaína. But I haven't studied granaínas much and, in fact, I was going to say in this post that I've only come across a few disks of an obscure guitarist who accompanied granaínas por medio. So I thought I'd double check before posting and I've just gone over some recordings of granaínas of José Cepero (relatively deep voice and he recorded very few malagueñas). There are at least two disks of his granaínas in which Ramón Montoya and Miguel Borrull hijo accompany with toque de taranta and there's another one in which Luis Yance accompanies por arriba. There are probably more examples in the recordings of other singers with relatively deep voices, although those kinds of singers weren't usually the ones who sang granaínas.
Maybe that's why granaínas often sound "screechy" as someone once said. If the guitarist insists on accompanying with toque de granaína (without tuning down), the singer might have to struggle to sing in that register.
|
|
|
|
