By sheer coincidence, two different friends sent me links to a couple of notable fingerstyle guitarists within the span of just a few hours. One of them was Andy McKee; the other was Don Ross. And of course, these two guys play together from time to time as well. You can get a good taste of what these guys can do by checking them out on YouTube — for example, McKee’s version of “Africa.”

Wait, don’t go listen yet. I’ll sound awful in comparison. 🙂

Anyway, I noticed somewhere that the tuning that McKee was using was CGCGBbC. So I figured I’d give it a whirl, and this is what popped out after a couple of hours. Unfortunately, I developed a blister on my finger pretty early into the process, and ended up with a performance I am really not very happy with. Lots and lots of timing issues. 🙁 On top of that, I don’t think I managed to capture the resonance of the guitar very well in the recording this time… a tuning like this excites harmonics all over, and should sound rich and deep, but it sounds a little harsh and tinny when I listen through my desktop speakers. But here it is anyway. (If you still want to listen after all those disclaimers!)