NickDrake.com

scott briggs · Joined: 04 Feb 2004 Posts: 8 Location: United States

tried sending this to harlan thompson but he wasnt home, so.... no, NORTHERN SKY is not in alternate tuning.

Finally had some time to sit down and figure out Northern Sky,

using your own tabs I found online, thanks for the help. the thing is,

I would never play this song in alternate tuning. It sounds dead exact

to the Bryter Layter version this way-- standard tuning, with capo at 1st fret,

(absolutely 1st fret) and your chords as given are exactly correct!! a great help.

but I doubt they recorded this song in anything alternate to standard tuning,

except maybe the celeste but even that seems in standard to my ears.

Not sure if you're still taking revisions but I am certain the standard tuning

with capo at 1st fret is THE way to play this.

yours,

Scott Briggs

dowland58 · Joined: 03 Jul 2012 Posts: 8

I tried for some time to figure out
the exact tuning of Northern sky.
If you trust Dann Trevor (Darker than the Deepest Sea: The Search for Nick Drake (2006), (Hardback) Portrait. ISBN 0-7499-5095-1
the tuning should be DADGDG

On youtube I found some good renditions
using another tuning, BEBEBE

I tried the song with both tunings,
but BEBEBE seems really near
the Nick's guitar on disc

dowland58 · Joined: 03 Jul 2012 Posts: 8

This a good cover of the song tuned in BEBEBE

Northern sky

This one is a how to play the song at 4th fret
(exactly like the original song), in BEBEBE

Northern sky

dowland58 · Joined: 03 Jul 2012 Posts: 8

Matt (admin) · Joined: 29 Jun 2006 Posts: 629 Location: United Kingdom

I play it in standard tuning (in E) but hook my thumb over the neck to fret bottom E string so I can leave the top 2 strings open throughout. It's not how Nick played it but it sounds nice if you don't have time to re-tune Smile

dowland58 · Joined: 03 Jul 2012 Posts: 8

dowland58 · Joined: 03 Jul 2012 Posts: 8

Anyway, listening to songs by Joni
Mitchel and Nick Drake, I started
using open tunings thirty years ago.

And probably they influenced my
own compsitions

(two or three songs, in fact)

LostBoy · Joined: 05 Aug 2007 Posts: 187 Location: Oxfordshire UK

I wouldn't trust the Trevor Dann tuning at all simply because it's not the only mistake in the book. Him being a writer and not a musician, it's not surprising. Chris Healey's tabs are mostly correct.

dowland58 · Joined: 03 Jul 2012 Posts: 8

dowland58 · Joined: 03 Jul 2012 Posts: 8