Exploring Open Tunings through the Eyes of Will Ackerman | Guitar Control

[@willackerman-guitarist]

It's amazing to sit back and listen to my being analyzed from a technical perspective. I am sincerely grateful to Sean for delving into my obscure methodology, but truth be told, my process is to slack the strings til they're flapping in the wind and just bring the strings up to a chord which (pardon) resonates with me in the moment and then explore this new universe. Objectifying myself, I think the whole point of having worked in nearly a hundred open tunings over the years, I believe this is all a self-designed trick to remove the frontal lobes from the process. Hell, I don't know where a G chord is... I don't know where an Am chord is... so the brain gives up and I'm left with a landscape that is going to be explored purely by emotion, not intellect. Pretty much every piece I've ever written is in a different tuning.... I know of only two pieces sharing the same tuning... those being ANNE'S SONG and HAWK CIRCLE. There's a good story with that. Having been given the first SONY digital processor, the 1600 (Barbra Streisand and Ry Cooder beat me to it) to record on, SONY wanted to do a promotional video. Having grown up in Palo Alto, CA. and having lived in Ken Keysey's place in La Honda (on the way to San Gregorio Beach), I spent a lot of time hauling over Skyline Blvd. I was happy to find an alternative route that would take you to a section of the Old La Honda Road which was still (and I hope still is) a dirt road. I would be there for sunsets and loved watching the fog roll in off the coast and blowing through the Redwood trees (Note: Redwood trees absorb most of their water through their needles more than the roots). So I hauled the camera crew up to the Old La Honda Road and we were going to do a video of me playing ANNE'S SONG in a meadow there. So they're taking forever setting up and I'm bored to death and there were a bunch of hawks circling above me.... and in something of a trance looking up at them, the chords of HAWK CIRCLE just appeared.... the tuning is pretty much a drone, so it's been easy to have any instrument on the planet join me on stage. I don't read music, standard or tab, and still rely on my heart to find the way. It's worked so far :)

[@mrl0p3z]

Thanks for this. I love Willie Ackerman and his approach and your freewheelng take on it does him justice

[@guitarcontrol]

Thanks Marcos. You can get access to many more free lessons and tabs here. bit.ly/2YQ9seq

[@dr_davidmd2065]

Brilliant!

[@eyeandmind]

Thanks for being a good sport, Sean!

[@sinclairwhitbourne2090]

I found this absolutely fantastic. Ackerman is one of my guitar heroes (also Michael Hedges - a rather unusual technician-, Richie Blackmore, Sean Lane, JJ Cale, Jeff Beck and Eddie Hazell). The tunings make a lot of sense the way you demonstrate it and help explain how he can play what seem sometimes to be quite layered passages without a second guitarist or overdubs. I think you do point out a certain irony in his stated approach, as to do what he does in trying to get away from being too intellectual actually requires a very intellectual, technical grasp of the instrument. Did you enjoy Ackerman's stuff from the playing viewpoint once you'd worked it out? A surprisingly rarely mentioned pair of tracks of his that I think are outstanding are 'Rain to River' and 'Nightslip' from the 'Visiting' album (1982). Many thanks for this.

[@guitarcontrol]

Thanks Sinclair. You can get access to many more free lessons and tabs here. www.guitarcontrol.com/g.php?gl=58ed917b595c97f243f668a5

[@samsukut3714]

Cool video man

[@quentinrasco6229]

Enjoy ur videos

[@guitarcontrol]

Thanks Quentin. You can get access to many more free lessons and tabs here. www.guitarcontrol.com/g.php?gl=58ed917b595c97f243f668a5?