craigb
I mean, how the heck does he play guitar like he does when he only plays in open C??? And how did he get started doing that?? Was he bullied by a much larger keyboard player or something?? 
~ Inquiring minds and all that. 
(Just so the UK folk can follow along, I'm talking about Donny Donzi. HTH 
)
LOL at this thread! Well, I sincerely appreciate your interest and the kind words. I'll try to explain it the best that I can for you. This may sound a bit like an auto-biography, so I apologize ahead of time, but there's really no other way to tell it other than to tell it the way it happened. :) I know you don't mind reading my novels, so here goes.
When I was a little kid at 4 years old, I got a drum set and a guitar one Christmas. I got behind the drums and played them like I was playing my whole life keeping good time, beats, hand/foot coordination and even some basic drum fills. I picked up the guitar and tried my best to get a sound out of it. Of course my hands were so small, I could barely fret anything anyway. So I put it on my lap while sitting down and put my thumb across the entire fretboard.
Of course you know what that sounds like with a guitar tuned to standard...not very pretty. But what did I know....I was 4, I just wanted to make music. One day, I decided to touch the tuning keys and tuned the thing so that when I put my thumb across the frets on all 6 strings, it would make the sound of a major chord. I didn't know it was a major chord, it just sounded like music and a nice full chord. I just experimented until it sounded like a chord and all the notes had a purpose all the while not having a clue what it was I was doing.
I played like this for a little while but didn't really have much interest in it because the drums were my passion really. As time went on, I'd pick up the guitar here and there and always would tune to that open chord. I started to get good at playing pieces of songs. Nothing special...Smoke on the Water, 25 or 6 to 4, stuff like that. When I'd tune too high, I'd break strings so I'd be stuck with whatever was left. I still have that guitar to this day with 4 strings on it. LOL!
I got into bands playing drums at a young age. Each time the band would go home, I'd grab the guitar players axe and mess with it...and of course I'd tune it to that open tuning. This went on for years in any band I got into playing drums because we always practiced at my house.
One day, we lost the lead guitar player in our band and found another guy to play drums. I didn't have an electric guitar, so that band broke up. So I asked for an electric guitar for my birthday. When my b-day came, I opened a present and sure enough, there was a Kingston guitar with all the pup selector switches etc. Now at this time, I'm about 8 years old and was playing trumpet, drums and messing around on keys a little bit on my cousin's piano. So my family knew I would always be able to get a sound out of something. Well, this guitar came in standard tuning. When I tried to play, the sound of horrible came out of it and I was so embarrassed, I just sat there and cried because everyone was looking at me waiting to hear some sort of good music come out. I didn't even think of tuning it in front of them, I just crashed and burned and cried until I could gain composure.
After a few days of course, I tuned the guitar and started messing around. I remember putting on the song "Freebird" and wanted to just make noise and play along with it. I don't know where I was tuned at the time, but as the song played, I had a good enough ear to fumble my way around on one string to learn the song. The low E was a bit out of tune with the song by a few increments (which I didn't know was a low E at the time) so I tuned it until it sounded right and learned the whole song. By this time, it was the summer of 7th grade and I was like 12 I believe. A friend of mine who also played guitar wanted to jam with me.
So we were going through what songs we may know and he says "Do you know Freebird?" So I said YES!! So I say, "what note do you play to start the song?" and he says "I play a G chord" and he plays it. Now, I only knew the song on one string at this time, and when I played what would later become MY G, it wasn't right with his. He had a tuner so his guitar was in perfect tuning. So I said...ok, play the first note of Freebird and let me tune up to you." So wherever I was tuned that day, that first note to Freebird became my G...which for me, is 7th fret today.
As I said, I was playing trumpet so I knew note values. Once I knew that was a G note, I knew the rest of the notes on that string as well. Thus, my C tuning was born because I ended up tuning to an open (and I do mean open...as in literally play and it's a full major chord) C chord below standard E.
I then started to experiment with chords since this friend of mine was learning too and I liked the sound of chords more than single notes. At first we were going to make me a bassist, but one day, he was playing Refuge by Petty and I started playing the lead (which is a pent scale) on one string in the key of F# on my G string which for me is an E. It sounded weird of course sliding all over the place on one string, but it was in key and this guy couldn't play a lick of lead at the time. Now mind you....all this is going on, and I'm having to sit down and still use my thumb. LOL! So I'm sliding around playing lead with my thumb and couldn't stand up and play.
We did this for months...and a year passed by. I started to really get things down as far as my notes and major chords. I had no idea how to play minor chords or scales yet, but it would come eventually. I got in a band playing drums with dudes that were nearly 10 years older than me. The guitarist was a monster and one of the best in our area. I loved this dude...he made me sick when he played.
So I begged him one day to teach me. He said sure...so I showed up at his house for lessons. He pretty much laughed in my face about the tuning and said "I can't teach you like that...it's not the right way to play. Why are you wasting time with this anyway? You're a better drummer and dude...you'll never be as good as me anyway."
That hurt...like really bad man. I can't even describe how it felt. One of my guitar hero's whom I looked up to, just made me feel like a loser when I cried out for help. I turned the hurt into anger. Each time I played drums in that band, I hated this guy even more and began to practice guitar so much, my fingers would bleed...literally. I have spots on my wall here at the house that still exist where I would sit in a corner and play till I bled...and then I'd touch the wall.
I started getting into Eddie Van Halen and Randy Rhoads. The stuff they played really helped me because it wasn't really hard or anything...the keys to those guys in my opinion are/were the sounds they got as being more challenging...not really the playing part. I had a good ear...like a really good ear man. I can hear something one time and either play it back spot on or so close, it won't metter.
From there I locked myself in my room and didn't do anything but play....in this same weird tuning and now I had started using my index finger and my middle finger. The reason being, quite a few people laughed at me and really made me feel terrible. I got laughed at for sitting down using my thumb, I got told my tone sucked, I got told I should have stuck to drums...it just sucked man.
So, I tried to contact a few teachers, but none of them would teach me in this tuning and I just could not get the hang of standard. Too many fingers for one chord...where in my mind, why use 4 when you can use one and then dance inside that chord? Work smarter, not harder...as long as you make music, ya know? I found this incredible teacher that everyone was scared of. He was big...mean....biker guy. He said "I don't care what tuning you use as long as you keep up and play all the right notes."
So I played with this guy for two years. He was brutal man. Seriously brutal. He'd listen to me play and blow smoke rings off my face and yell "NO Ace, that ain't how it's done for fk sakes!" He also had a 3 strike rule. You come in unprepared 3 times, he would fire you. That fear alone made me work harder. As time went on, I learned some cool scales and he showed me how to use them. From there, once the door was open and I knew a little basic theory, I began to come in and teach him stuff.
He was a blues player...kinda like a cross between Clapton, Eric Gales and Gilmore but with the speed of Van Halen. Really tasty player. I got him into the VH stuff and started teaching him tapping and showed him some of the motifs I was working on using different tapped sequences etc. This went on for another 6 months. Then my world dropped out from under me. I went to lessons one night and he didn't look himself. He was always sort of mean, but I won him over over time...but this night, something was wrong.
After the lesson...he looks at me in the most sincere way and says "I've taken you as far as I can take you...you're now beginning to teach me to where I feel bad to take your money. This will be our last lesson." I nearly cried on the spot, yet a part of me was really happy...like I had conquered the beast in a sense. From there, he and I became great friends and as I got older, we got together once a week, had a few beers and jammed.
From there I really started getting into the solo aspect of guitar and was learning more theory, chord structure, sculpting tone, the whole 9 yards. The whole 80's metal thing was in full swing and guys like Yngwie, Gilbert, MacAlpine, Vinnie Moore, Jason Becker as well as the Lynch's, DeMartinni's and other monsters hitting. So I was obsessed with the lead aspect of things and it really forced me to use all my fingers as well as learn new chords and structures...and more theory. I really started to get the hang of this, but it was never easy playing covers. I don't have a low E, I don't have an A, I don't have a D and I can't get the ringy chords you guys can get. So in my tuning, there are others that share similar chord positions.
Like you have that D chord down at the bottom of the neck...I do a C that looks like that. I do ringy Bb chords and all the different stuff that you guys can't do. For some chords that you play that I can't due to the positions being too tough, I have to do inversions of those chords. For example, I can't to this day, play Stairway to Heaven in my tuning. I could do it halfway in G, but not in A because I don't have the drones. I can play the lead...which is what I used to do in my old band...but I always wanted to play the chords in that song just to say I could do it. Impossible in this tuning...yet I can play Diary of a Madman...go figure. LOL! Wait, I think I gotta play that in Gm too since it's in Am. Hahahaha!
Anyway, to make a long story longer...lol...I just stuck with this and it's made me who and what I am today. I sincerely think the chord voicings I use in my tunes as well as when I use them in other peoples songs, gives it a unique sound due to the chords not being standard forms. For minor chords in this tuning, I have to pivot and actually move a finger to execute the minor in the chord. I can't just play a 6 string minor. So I create it and move it in real time. It's not easy.
Drone playing where I have to play an E or an A...means I have to move 12 frets to the jump points if a high, full barre chord is involved. Try playing a song like Lay it Down by Ratt without having an open D to fall on. I have to literally play the chord passage at the 14th fret and then go all the way down to the second fret on the low C (E string for you) to hit the D drone. When doing drone E's, I'm making the full chord at the 16th fret and running all the way down to the 4th fret for the drone.
Pentatonic scales look like this for me:
E--------4-------7-----------
B--------4-------7-----------
G-------3---5----------------
D---2----4-------------------
A---2----4-------------------
E---------4------7-----------
A bit different from yours, but sort of close. You can see where I'd lose speed as it's not all right up likes yours is.
Diminshed, arpeggios, all the modes...they really look weird. I can play this stuff easier in standard than I can in this tuning, that's for sure. I'm also limited on some of the incredibly beautiful voicings you guys have in standard tuning...so I have to do halfies or inversions. It's very limited when doing other peoples material or covers. But for my originals...man, it's awesome because most people will never figure out the tuning to play them right anyway. :)
It comes with more of a price. Guitars today aren't really built to handle this sort of tuning. So a lot goes into how I set them up. You need way more heat on a truss rod than you would on a standard guitar. Intonation is tricky due to the low tuning giving off strange tones or dual tones at times...and I need my strings flat across the neck...they can't cascade in increments like they do on just about every guitar. And when you try to do this using a Floyd...God help you because you don't get individual saddle adjustments. So I have to file down each saddle and sometimes put washers under them to bring them back up and even then out. Then I can raise the entire bridge. This was easy to do when I used Kahler trems, but they don't stay in tune or feel as good as Floyds in my opinion. I've dealt with this my entire life, so I'm used to it now and can set up a new guitar in about 3 hours. I use 9-42 as they seem to work the best for me. You would think heavier gauge strings would help, but they actually make things worse for me.
Anyway, this is probably more information than you wanted to know...but it's the only way I can tell it. I do not think I'm an innovator, great player nor am I doing anything special as far as WHAT I play...but how I play....I don't know of anyone else that plays what I play exclusively in a tuning like this. I know different tunings have been in existence for millions of years. But usually people revert back to standard or whatever....I use this in everything I play and it's the only way I know...flaws and all. Though it has limitations, there's never been a style of music I couldn't play. Granted, I'm not good at jazz or chicken pikcin', but I can do it and teach myself if I ever need to. I'm limited, not restricted....not to mention, with this tuning, I can teach any person in the world to play a song with one finger in under a minute. :) It's like anything else really...if you stick with it, you eventually get results. I can tell you it's not been easy though, that's for sure. I sucked for 5 years before I felt I sounded fair. Hope this explains it and answers your questions....thanks for your interest brother. :)
-Danny
P.S. I haven't shared this with many people, but at least you can sort of get a close up as to how some of this stuff looks. I was working for Acme Bar Gig helping to develope one of their plugs and this is my amp we created in real time using that plug. I did two takes...one playing rhythm, and one playing lead and just faded them into each other. Left the mistakes and all because I was just testing things out. I did this in my little 12x12 man cave at the house. Hope ya like it...but I know it's not for everyone. :)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=56M0QSD0twM&hd=1
post edited by Danny Danzi - 2012/07/01 05:53:58