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Thread: Best Of My Love tuning

  1. #1

    Default Best Of My Love tuning

    This is sort of an obscure question but does anyone know what the tuning of what Best Of My Love is? I know Don in a recent concert said it’s open C and it came from Joni Mitchell but when I look up the chords for the song I don’t see any one say that it’s in open C. It sounds like just normal tuning in C major to me. Any help would be appreciated

  2. #2
    Stuck on the Border
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    Default Re: Best Of My Love tuning

    I believe I have asked this before and no one knew. Still a mystery to me. Joni Mitchell has used a lot of different tunings and it wouldn't help going through them all. Perhaps Glenn wrote it in an open tuning, but recorded and later played it in standard tuning?

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    Border Rebel Pippinwhite's Avatar
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    Default Re: Best Of My Love tuning

    When in doubt, consult the sheet music! Here's the first page:
    https://www.screencast.com/t/7e81n6Nj

    It's the in the key of C and you can see the guitar tabs in C and D minor. Just the first page, but it holds true throughout the song, I think. It's an unusual key for a guitar, but if Glenn wrote the melody on the keyboard, then it makes perfect sense. My husband the keyboardist, tells me these things. LOL.

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    Stuck on the Border WalshFan88's Avatar
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    Default Re: Best Of My Love tuning

    Standard A440 tuning with a C major key.

    Not sure why Don would have said Open C, that's not used very often and is mostly for slide guitarists. I think it's a case of he doesn't know the guitar that well and that is the terminology he uses.

    Open tuning means whatever you've tuned to, when you strum all strings with no fingers held down, that's the chord you get. Open E and G are the most used.
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    Default Re: Best Of My Love tuning

    The tuning thing has been mentioned before, but I don't remember whether it was Don or somebody else. So Don didn't just make it up in the recent gig.

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    Stuck on the Border WalshFan88's Avatar
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    Default Re: Best Of My Love tuning

    Quote Originally Posted by chaim View Post
    The tuning thing has been mentioned before, but I don't remember whether it was Don or somebody else. So Don didn't just make it up in the recent gig.
    Hmmm. Well someone has incorrect info because the recording on the album is most certainly standard tuning with a riff based in and around the C chord.

    In fact, I'm having a hard time envisioning how that would be pulled off in open C. There are some chords in BOML that you just don't (not saying you can't) do in an open tuning. D minor, for one. Open tuning is all about major chords, IME, if you aren't playing slide. A great example is Keith Richards. It's all about one finger bars and that three finger minor-7th shape that makes that classic Rolling Stones sound. There are little parts you can play in the open position too but again, those are major chords. And you can strike the strings open for the chord. I can't think of any example of someone doing minor chords in an open tuning, but I am a straightahead rock guy. Maybe in other genres it happens. Dunno.
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    Default Re: Best Of My Love tuning

    Quote Originally Posted by WalshFan88 View Post
    Hmmm. Well someone has incorrect info because the recording on the album is most certainly standard tuning with a riff based in and around the C chord.

    In fact, I'm having a hard time envisioning how that would be pulled off in open C. There are some chords in BOML that you just don't (not saying you can't) do in an open tuning. D minor, for one. Open tuning is all about major chords, IME, if you aren't playing slide. A great example is Keith Richards. It's all about one finger bars and that three finger minor-7th shape that makes that classic Rolling Stones sound. There are little parts you can play in the open position too but again, those are major chords. And you can strike the strings open for the chord. I can't think of any example of someone doing minor chords in an open tuning, but I am a straightahead rock guy. Maybe in other genres it happens. Dunno.
    I'm with you there. I don't know how BOML could be played in a different tuning. But I've heard it two different times (a couple of decades in between) that it was at least written in an open tuning.

    EDIT:

    Well, I'm not sure if it was an "open" tuning that was mentioned previously or just a "different" tuning.

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    Default Re: Best Of My Love tuning

    Quote Originally Posted by Pippinwhite View Post
    When in doubt, consult the sheet music! Here's the first page:
    https://www.screencast.com/t/7e81n6Nj

    It's the in the key of C and you can see the guitar tabs in C and D minor. Just the first page, but it holds true throughout the song, I think. It's an unusual key for a guitar, but if Glenn wrote the melody on the keyboard, then it makes perfect sense. My husband the keyboardist, tells me these things. LOL.
    The question was about a guitar tuning, not about the basic chords. In that sheet music the chord boxes show a simplified version of the chord progression for standard tuning.

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    Default Re: Best Of My Love tuning

    I'm no authority on this, but maybe there are several guitars and at least one of them is playing the song in an alternate tuning. It doesn't necessarily have to be open, just something different. Joni Mitchell must use well over 50 diffferent tunings in her repertoire and many of these are unusual, but beautiful in the context of the songs. I know I've read that Glenn picked up some things from her and it's possible that it is used on BOML along with standard tuned guitars.

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    Default Re: Best Of My Love tuning

    Quote Originally Posted by scottside View Post
    I'm no authority on this, but maybe there are several guitars and at least one of them is playing the song in an alternate tuning. It doesn't necessarily have to be open, just something different. Joni Mitchell must use well over 50 diffferent tunings in her repertoire and many of these are unusual, but beautiful in the context of the songs. I know I've read that Glenn picked up some things from her and it's possible that it is used on BOML along with standard tuned guitars.
    Yes, if there's a different tuning in BOML, there are guitars in the standard tuning as well.

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