Open D tuning

 Set the Tanglewood up for open D or Vestapol tuning (DADF#AD) and it sounds fab!

 

And then a little bit in DADFAD. Just dropped the F# to an F

A Kalimba and a little dog

 Another surprise from my other half, a 21 note Kalimba now tuned to the F major scale.

Also I sat at the piano the other day and played a piece based on a riff I played on my Lyre Harp. I had a little dog figure on the keyboard so I named it after him.

I got the Covid blues

 Just great. First I get a cold and annoying cough, then I test positive.

So the thing to do is self isolate and stay positive! Took myself upstairs with my uke (tuned ADF# B) and a book (Thief of Time by Terry Pratchett)

When I'm Dead and Gone

 A little bit of McGuinness Flint on the baritone uke currently tuned CGDA, with capo on the 7th so it sounds more like a mandolin, which is what it was originally played on.  

Chord progression in CGDA

 While playing around with the mandolele (baritone uke tuned CGDA) I found some chords and had came up with something involving a progression from B7 to Am, which sounded lush on the instrument. I tried those chords on gcea Ukulele, not nearly as good sounding, too bright, but the mandolele has a lovely dark tone. 

It also sounded nice on piano...

Mandola tuning on my baritone uke

 Following information provided by members of the mandolin cafe forum, I took the 5th 4th 2nd and 1st strings off my classical and strung up the baritone uke to CGDA-mandola tuning!

Ideally it wants new strings, they've been on the classical since 2015 but not played much. The 2nd string (D) sounds a bit dead. But its still very playable!

Chillin With Ma Dog

 Little ditty on the concert uke tuned to ADF# B 

Tuning ukulele to English tuning

I tuned my Tanglewood  concert ukulele up to ADF# B, which is called English tuning and is how ukes were tuned in England in the early days of the instrument. Its the same as putting a capo on the second fret but without the intrusion. It makes the ukulele sound even brighter.

Fun with SpongeBob

Had a little fun with my son's SpongeBob soprano uke, tuned down half a step so F#, B, Eb and Ab which is an old tuning for soprano ukes. Its not a bad uke but the intonation is slightly out, most noticeable on the B string.

Little piece in DADGAD

Having tuned my Fender acoustic to DADGAD I went looking online for chords, and I found a nice I IV V progression, with a Cmajor shape as a break. Not sure what chord C becomes but it plays C, E, G, Bb and D (bottom D muted)
An app  tells me its Gm6add11...

Fender DG5, D'addario EJ15s

Little blues lick

Playing in open G on my Fender DG5 with a bit of slide. Immense fun!

https://t.co/HCBjyQ3GMF

Open D7 on Fender acoustic

I wanted to have a go at slide guitar again so I picked up my trusty old Fender DG5 and tuned it to open D7 (DADF#AC)
Sounds lush.

Fingerstyle in open G

Just a little fingerpicking exercise I came up with in Open G (DBDGBD) on my Tanglewood.

D7 thing

I read an interview with folk guitarist Martin Simpson in the last issue of acoustic magazine and he mentioned an unusual tuning which is basically banjo tuning. I retuned my guitar and found it made a nice bluesy minor sound when strummed. Open it plays a D7 chord, my kind of chord! The tuning is DADF#AC, and here's a quick recording I made, playing open then barring up the neck, fretting on the high e string with my pinky finger:

D7 Thing