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 RMR to Classic - the problems it's solved... 
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Post RMR to Classic - the problems it's solved...
Just sharing the love with my minor switch to Classic tuning from Raised Matched Reciprocal. A minor adjustment but it solved a couple of sonic and practical choices I was having issues with, so thought I'd share.

SONIC
I'd been looking to thicken up the sound of my stick just a touch (Railboard). I'd considered dropping the melody side to (say) Full Baritone, but instea dropped the bass side a whole step = Classic. This did the trick. Anchoring chords with a low C-D, and being able to access D/Eb chords at first position with strings 8-10 is huge.

POSITIONAL
I'd dabbled with Classic in the first month or two of getting the Stick but found positionally I wasn't able to make it work with how I'd started (I'd got positionally locked in with RMR). Whereas now I've got 5-10 songs I can do on the Stick and can comfortably switch positions without being locked in, having my hands 2 frets closer together across all positions feels more comfortable. The issue of hands colliding doesn't matter/occur that much when you can move nutwards on the bass side without running out of range, again, lower tuning making this possible.

If I'd started with Classic I don't think I'd have felt my hands bumping into each other as a problem, rather an encouragement to use appropriate nutward/bridgeward motion... but hindsight is always 20/20 right?

MUSICAL
I found chordal playing super easy in RMR, but I couldn't get the thickness I wanted from single note lines on any bass string other than the lowest one, and so avoided it. By dropping a whole tone I've found a thickness comes into the sound AND stays bright enough to use all the same chords as before without getting too thick/dark. This has led me to find a whole different style to a couple of different sound, e.g. piano style chordal accompaniment in the LH OR percussive clav/EP type accompaniment in the LH (or bass guitar style lines in the LH)

PRACTICAL
As a pedagogical aside, I think for learning the Stick for basic accompaniment, having the hands so close together in Classic tuning is a big benefit, especially if started in playing in keys around D-E or slightly higher. As a starting position where both hands are side by side, this (in my fledgling opinion) quickly enables the learner to:
a) see both hands simultaneously without head movement (or with only minor head movement)
b) play bass root notes in the LH and comp 5th/octave in the RH to begin with, on all major diatonic chord functions without/with minimal shifting
c) encourages nutward motion in the LH and bridgeward motion in the RH.

All the same chords are there, piano vs bass/guitar style accompaniment styles are sonically obvious and available. It's a position that enables people to start experimenting with hand independence/interdependence, get some rhythmic interplay going, etc. The hand separation in RMR is nice to start with but I found myself splitting my visual attention from day one, whereas Classic CAN minimise this to some extent.

It's early days with Classic tuning for me, but I think I could've accelerated my learning somewhat if I'd had some pedagogical info along these lines laid out for me at the beginning (and started with Classic).

Just my 2p, thought I'd share what I've found and the problems it's solved for me! Feel free to disagree, chip in with your own findings or preferences.

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Fri Dec 28, 2018 5:06 am
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Post Re: RMR to Classic - the problems it's solved...
Recently had a student agree to change to standard Stick tuning on his railboard and after a few lessons, he confirms the advantages in note access, fingering and technique accessibility. Keep moving forward

Steve A


Fri Dec 28, 2018 6:21 am
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Post Re: RMR to Classic - the problems it's solved...
Lee Vatip wrote:
Recently had a student agree to change to standard Stick tuning on his railboard and after a few lessons, he confirms the advantages in note access, fingering and technique accessibility. Keep moving forward

Steve A


Phew! Glad to hear there's others experiencing the same!

Steve, as an educator and player, are you keen on Classic/Standard tuning as the best way to set up the instrument?

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10 string Railboard #7076 (Currently in DBR)


Fri Dec 28, 2018 6:32 am
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Post Re: RMR to Classic - the problems it's solved...
Yes. For the first 20 years of the Stick's existence, there were no alternative tunings. I've never felt any obstacles in voicings, techniques, orchestrations etc with standard tuning. Actually I find it advantageous in this respect to play a classic tuned Stick
I've taught folks with all kinds of variations and still find standard to be most user friendly for my melodic, harmonic and rhythmic explorations and discoveries. Hope that answers your question without stirring up any controversy.
SA


Fri Dec 28, 2018 8:38 am
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Post Re: RMR to Classic - the problems it's solved...
I too switched from RMR to Classic at Steve’s suggestion all for the same reasons you brought up. No regrets here

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Fri Dec 28, 2018 9:06 am
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Post Re: RMR to Classic - the problems it's solved...
Interesting
I have moved from my old stick classic
to new stick RMR
Considerations was that my right hand stays exactly the same
Left hand stays the same related to the nut.
Just as the stick “stretched “ between the hands.
No need to transpose anything from what I use to.

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#7159, Grand Railboard,Plum,
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#2001,10 strings Shedua, MR tuning
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Fri Dec 28, 2018 9:21 am
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Post Re: RMR to Classic - the problems it's solved...
I use Classic on the vintage Stick, RMR on the Railboard. 8-)

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Fri Dec 28, 2018 9:38 am
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Post Re: RMR to Classic - the problems it's solved...
Lee Vatip wrote:
Yes. For the first 20 years of the Stick's existence, there were no alternative tunings. I've never felt any obstacles in voicings, techniques, orchestrations etc with standard tuning. Actually I find it advantageous in this respect to play a classic tuned Stick
I've taught folks with all kinds of variations and still find standard to be most user friendly for my melodic, harmonic and rhythmic explorations and discoveries. Hope that answers your question without stirring up any controversy.
SA

Actually, Emmett has been making instruments in custom tunings for other players almost since the beginning. He's also continued experimenting with tunings himself, switching to the full Baritone tuning in the mid 1980s. My own tuning change happened in 1985, when I dropped the melody strings by a 4th (later called Baritone Melody) This change made my music possible, and that's the important factor. Whether you want Matched Reciprocal (like Bob Culbertson), mirrored 4ths (like Rob Martino), or some other variant, you might find something you like better than what you have, and the instruments hardware makes experimentation easy.

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Fri Dec 28, 2018 9:49 am
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Post Re: RMR to Classic - the problems it's solved...
I like classic tuning

RoknRol


Fri Dec 28, 2018 1:30 pm
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Post Re: RMR to Classic - the problems it's solved...
It gets my left hand across both sides of the board.

RoknRol


Fri Dec 28, 2018 1:31 pm
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