Miscellaneous

For several weeks, I?ve been working on a little instrumental version of ?Silent Night? for guitar, key of A, standard tuning, with optional slide. Here is the tablature (PDF). It?s a minimalist version, just melody and bass notes, which works for this song. The great thing about this version is that all bass notes except one (see below) are played on open strings. This allows me to play the melody on slide, which seems to suit this song. My guitar teacher, Vincent, recommends playing those bass notes slowly, around 66 beats per minute. That equates to a nice resting heart rate, suitable for a lullaby.

One problem I?m still working on is the ?Sleep in heavenly peace? line. I want an F# bass for the 3rd through 6th beats of ?peace??the only bass note that?s not played on an open string. Until today, I?ve played it on the fifth (A) string, 9th fret, because at that point, the melody can also be played on the 9th fret (first string), allowing both notes to be played with the slide. The problem is that, when the F# is played there (with or without slide), the bass note just kind of thunks instead of ringing like the bass notes played on open strings. There's a nicer F# on the 6th (low-E) string, second fret, but my fingers aren?t long enough to reach the 9th and 2nd frets simultaneously. (Probably no one?s fingers are long enough to make that reach!)

So here, to get a better sounding F#, I?ve dropped the octave on that line. This lets me play the melody down at the 2nd fret (2nd (B) string), where the F# at 2nd fret, 6th (low-E) string is an easy reach. And since both the bass note and melody are at the 2nd fret, both notes can be played with slide.

I?m not sure whether this is the best solution for the thunking-F# problem. Frankly I'm not crazy about dropping an octave for one line of the song. If any guitarists out there know a better solution, please leave a comment.

Another way to play this song on slide could involve re-tuning the guitar. I?m going to give that a try, transposing the song to the key of G and seeing how it works on a guitar tuned to open G. This may require a whole new arrangement, which could be fun to create.