Tenor guitar players?

Dusty Turtle
Dusty Turtle
@dusty
9 years ago
1,720 posts

James, my understanding is that the tenor guitar is tuned to fifths, usually CGDA or GDAE. AndGDAE is exactly how a mandolin is tuned, though an octave higher than a tenor guitar). So you might seek out mandolin tab for tunes. Even if you tune CGDA, you could still use that tab; you will simply be in a different key. But chord charts and tab for the mandolin are certainly more popular on the internet, so you might look for that stuff instead of limiting yourself to lessons on tenor guitar.




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Dusty T., Northern California
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James Phillips
James Phillips
@james-phillips
9 years ago
87 posts

Thanks Stephen. I ultimately did get an Ibanez tenor guitar from Sweetwater, and printed out a sheet of basic chord shapes I found on the internet. I'll be looking for some tenor banjo books on Barnes and Noble later on. I did post a picture of my Ibanez on my profile page a few minutes ago if interested in seeing it.

Stephen Addison
Stephen Addison
@stephen-addison
9 years ago
9 posts

I was looking around for any recent things on tenor guitar - I found this Youtube lesson - it's a good introduction. The playing is not always legato - but the information is good. It should get you started.

Stephen Addison
Stephen Addison
@stephen-addison
9 years ago
9 posts

Not many resources out there - but tenor banjo and manual are tuned the same (CGDA) you can find chords for them. Mel Bay has some tenor banjo resources. You can find some Youtube video of Wayland Holyfield playing the tenor guitar. I'd played a mandolin and fiddle which I'd viewed as an upside down guitar - when I got a manual, I just transposed. You can actually tune it as DGBE and treat it as baritone ukulele - I currently have my mandola tuned as a tiple - I could play in mandola/tenor guitar tuning but I didn't find it useful to sing with. It depends on your voice though - clearly Wayland Holyfield has made great use of a tenor guitar accompanying his singing,

Your best bet for finding things online is to look for tenor banjo material - there is a lot of it - including methods - some of them are on the internet archive. Good luck and have fun!

James Phillips
James Phillips
@james-phillips
9 years ago
87 posts

I'd been playing guitar since I was 16 years old, and decided since I will turn 40 in March (ugh), to add another guitar to the arsenal, an acoustic tenor guitar. I saw a modest priced Ibanez that I am looking at, which should fit the bill nicely.

I was wondering if anyone on here owns a tenor guitar, can point me in the direction of some resources etc. so I can halfway have a clue when the time comes when I get a tenor guitar.


updated by @james-phillips: 08/05/23 06:22:49PM