B11 lapsteel tunes.

[Rich Arnold]

You're right.

I'm not aware of any steel guitar instructions on Bebop.

Did you ever see this software?

https://youtu.be/iR0hcT9_Q6k?si=PEN3rGyejui4eHxI

Maybe if someone could create a version of this for the steel it would be helpful.

[Tim Toberer]

You're right.

I'm not aware of any steel guitar instructions on Bebop.

Did you ever see this software?

https://youtu.be/iR0hcT9_Q6k?si=PEN3rGyejui4eHxI

Maybe if someone could create a version of this for the steel it would be helpful.

LickByNeck! Such a weird name, buy absolutely incredible free resource. I love his arrangements, they are very pianistic, quite challenging, but I learned a few of them pretty well. I couldn't figure out how to download his software, doesn't seem to work on Mac. But this was the most helpful thing I ever found for leaning finger style jazz arrangements. He has a few instruction videos where he walks you through his arrangement process and you can really get inside of how he does this. Just by watching the videos of the software, I can see all the familiar chord shapes. I follow along and write out all the chord positions and highlight the melody notes. This guy is a genius on another level.

[Rich Arnold]

You're right.

I'm not aware of any steel guitar instructions on Bebop.

Did you ever see this software?

https://youtu.be/iR0hcT9_Q6k?si=PEN3rGyejui4eHxI

Maybe if someone could create a version of this for the steel it would be helpful.

LickByNeck! Such a weird name, buy absolutely incredible free resource. I love his arrangements, they are very pianistic, quite challenging, but I learned a few of them pretty well. I couldn't figure out how to download his software, doesn't seem to work on Mac. But this was the most helpful thing I ever found for leaning finger style jazz arrangements. He has a few instruction videos where he walks you through his arrangement process and you can really get inside of how he does this. Just by watching the videos of the software, I can see all the familiar chord shapes. I follow along and write out all the chord positions and highlight the melody notes. This guy is a genius on another level.

Here is how I play Scrapple.
They might want us to start another tread...

https://vimeo.com/1002319918

[Andy Volk]

Mike Neer wrote a book on 6 classic Bebop heads:

https://steelinstruction.com/product/al ... t-edition/

[Rich Arnold]

Anyway,

Back to the B11.

I screwed around with Nuages for quite a while and ended up playing it on PSG. It works out easily on there.

Something strange about the B11.

Sometimes everything seems clear and obvious and at other times it's as if I have a mental block that prevents me from doing anything but strumming straight across it.

[Mike A Holland]

Rich, I had a similar experience with Nuages. I just thought B11 was the way to go for that tune but never really got it to work. I put the guitar back in C6 and worked it up much easier. I assumed it was my lack of knowledge regarding how B11 lays out. I did record it, and in the end retuned the G string to Fsharp to save on split slants. I was later informed that this tuning was called D9!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n4t1mLGMpzQ

[Rich Arnold]

Rich, I had a similar experience with Nuages. I just thought B11 was the way to go for that tune but never really got it to work. I put the guitar back in C6 and worked it up much easier. I assumed it was my lack of knowledge regarding how B11 lays out. I did record it, and in the end retuned the G string to Fsharp to save on split slants. I was later informed that this tuning was called D9!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n4t1mLGMpzQ

I've been thinking of the B11 as an A6 but with funky things going on.
Maybe that's wrong. I don't know.
The B11 or whatever you want to call it is like a house of mirrors for me.
Maybe it could be that Andy Iona (RIP) was next level.

[Tim Toberer]

Here is how I play Scrapple.
They might want us to start another tread...

https://vimeo.com/1002319918

Thank you Rich that is very enlightening!

The B11 or whatever you want to call it is like a house of mirrors for me.

Same experience for me. E13 might be worth trying for this tune.

[Rich Arnold]

Here is how I play Scrapple.
They might want us to start another tread...

https://vimeo.com/1002319918

Thank you Rich that is very enlightening!

The B11 or whatever you want to call it is like a house of mirrors for me.

Same experience for me. E13 might be worth trying for this tune.

Never know until you try it.

I was screwing around with the B11 and the Pink Panther Theme is super easy on the first fret. At least the A part is. Unfortunately the rest of the song, I couldn't get in B11, but works out great in E13.
So I could play that whole song if I had a B11 on one neck and an E13 on the other. To go around with those 2 tunings... that's for professional players.

[Paul Seager]

I got into B11 through a post from Greg Beaumier way-back-when on this forum. It convinced me that B11 is the perfect compliment to A6. I also learnt a lot from Andy Volk's B11 song-book. And yes,

I've been thinking of the B11 as an A6 but with funky things going on

- absolutely!

I always consider B11 to be a 6-string tuning so on an 8 string, nothing has to be fixed after string 6. After a lot of experiments I use a G# and E on strings 7 & 8 so you could call this an E Maj 13 but I tend to think of it as my "chord tuning". The graphic hopefully explains why.

From a jazz perspective one has a ii-V-I in a single position (and a whole lot more!) so songs that are chord heavy can lay out well. Try the chords of "Ain't Misbehavin" on this tuning, it's really nice to play that one! Melodies and solos are down to practice but I "try" to force myself to learn all melodies on strings 1-4 so I can move from A6 to B11 when necessary.

Regarding "Nuages", I do use B11 for playing behind a vocalist and I like the fact one can get a minor 6 chord. There's a couple of other songs where I use that chord - really keeps our guitarist on his toes when I do that!

[Tim Toberer]

It took me a second, but I really like this chart. Never seen one like this before.

[Fred Treece]

The first thing I notice about this tuning is every note in the E major scale is present. So it would follow that some inversion of every diatonic triad in E is therein. In fact, all but one needs to be inverted (C#m). And, if you played octave harmonics on the lower 4 strings and alternated them with naturals on the upper 4, you would have a one-octave do-re-mi. Which I would probably space out on for hours…

Cool chart, btw.

[Doug Beaumier]

Speaking of B11, here's some audio I made a while back. The "string section" in the background is the EH Oceans 11, shimmer setting

----> https://www.instagram.com/reel/C2ARAQxuaTL/

[Andy Volk]

Here's a little intro vamp in the key of D I came up with a while ago in B11th tuning. There's a ton of untapped potential in B11th. This is a little bit of a weird progression but could serve as an intro in a number of genres.

In the audio example, I didn't play the rhythms in the attached chart. Quick and dirty direct demo recording with a little bit of cord noise I didn’t bother about.



https://soundcloud.com/aev/intro-in-b11 ... ruh94dwj5g

I never got around to actually learning my own B11th arrangement of Fire and Rain but did this demo a few years back to show that some unexpected sounds lurk in the B11th tuning if you experiment.

https://soundcloud.com/aev/fire-rain-pr ... steel-demo

[Rich Arnold]

Speaking of B11, here's some audio I made a while back. The "string section" in the background is the EH Oceans 11, shimmer setting

----> https://www.instagram.com/reel/C2ARAQxuaTL/

That sounds hip.

I suppose the wrestling match I'm having with this tuning it that it seems to want to play what it wants to play. I'm trying to play songs on it like in the video I posted. A simple melody in chords, like "Fly Me To The Moon" or "East of the Sun".
I could just let it play itself and seen where things go and once a recognizable melody comes out of it, just call it a song I composed. The tuning is teaming with chords.
I tend to be a bit of a control freak though.

[Doug Beaumier]

I suppose the wrestling match I'm having with this tuning it that it seems to want to play what it wants to play.

I know what you mean. That full 7th chord in the tuning is very stubborn! It seems to get in the way a lot. B11 is awesome for certain tunes and styles, but it's not a good all-round tuning IMO. I have much better luck playing standards on C6 or A6.

I could just let it play itself and seen where things go and once a recognizable melody comes out of it, just call it a song I composed.

That's what I did when I came up with my original tune "Moontide". Dabbling with B11, and an interesting melody and chords popped out! So in a way, the tuning wrote the song. I never would have come up with such a thing on C6, A6, E13, etc.

"Moontide" ---> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w6KQC3A2t60

Tablature & practice track for "Moontide" on my blog ---> http://playsteelguitar.com/moontide-video-tablature/

[Rich Arnold]

I suppose the wrestling match I'm having with this tuning it that it seems to want to play what it wants to play.

I know what you mean. That full 7th chord in the tuning is very stubborn! It seems to get in the way a lot. B11 is awesome for certain tunes and styles, but it's not a good all-round tuning IMO. I have much better luck playing standards on C6 or A6.

I could just let it play itself and seen where things go and once a recognizable melody comes out of it, just call it a song I composed.

That's what I did when I came up with my original tune "Moontide". Dabbling with B11, and an interesting melody and chords popped out! So in a way, the tuning wrote the song. I never would have come up with such a thing on C6, A6, E13, etc.

"Moontide" ---> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w6KQC3A2t60

Tablature & practice track for "Moontide" on my blog ---> http://playsteelguitar.com/moontide-video-tablature/

"Moontide" is next level. Simple, but distinct with a strong melody. Everybody who play lap steel should listen to that.

[Doug Beaumier]

Thanks Rich, yes, Moontide is a very simple B11 tune. I especially like the strummed chords. They sound so full on B11.