Category: music

  • One Too Many Mornings

    Seven years ago, I wrote, in the first version of the tab of “One Too Many Mornings”:

    The chords below are what he plays. I’m not sure about the fingering, though. I have a feeling that it is played in some kind of altered tuning, but I’m not sure yet. The low g’s that are sounding throughout most of the song would indicate an open string. I’m working on it.

    This was one of the first songs I tabbed — or should I say: failed to tab. At that time, I only had the song on vinyl, and apart from the huge problem involved in tabbing from a vinyl player (moving the pickup five seconds back not only damages the record, it is also impossible). I thought about various open tunings — especially the consistent use of the G on the deepest string pointed in that direction, but also the many instances of two neighbouring strings with the same tone — but in the end I settled with an approximation in standard tuning, and the song remained in the “things to do” folder (only to prove that the last sentence in the quotation was a lie).
    Today I finally sat down with it again, and it turned out to be played in open A, the same tuning that he used on the Freewheelin’ outtake “Wichita Blues”. It’s an interesting tuning, because the strings are tuned as closely together as possible. This may also be the reason why it has not been used much: the closeness gives a very homogenous sound, but this also limits the sonorous possibilities. Also, the two c# strings give the major third a very prominent place, which almost rules out any blues oriented songs at the outset (in Wichita Blues, the highest string is not c#’ but e’).
    Anyway, the tab is ready.