Decoding John Lawlor Part 2 - My Take

Standard tuning for the 4-string tenor guitar is in fifths (from the bottom) C G D A, like a tenor banjo. John tunes his guitar a step lower, Bb F C G. Either way, this tuning results in chords that are really open, with the notes spread farther apart than on a standard guitar. John really likes this open sound. He also says it is really easy to play melodies in octaves with this tuning. In fact, I don't think I've heard him play a single-note melody line - he always seems to use octaves.

John uses an incredible variety of harmonies using only four strings. Interestingly, he doesn't seem to do much chord substitution in a bebop sense - that is he doesn't use many harmonies that are distant from the key. He sticks pretty closely to the tune's original chord progression.

What he seems to do is treat a chord type as a color and then use many different shades of that color. In other words, he may play a major chord as a triad, or use the 6th, 9th, major 7 or any combination. A dominant 7th chord may be played as a 7th, 9th, 13th, with or without altered 5ths and 9ths. In "Exactly Like You" he uses just about every chord I can think of - triads, 7th chords, augmented, diminished, flat 5, 9, flat 9, 13, 13 flat 9, and the list goes on! And he does it by ear, putting his fingers where they need to be to get the sounds he hears in his head.

And if that's not enough, he swings like a fiend! There's no dead air in his playing, just a driving rhythm that never lets up for a moment. He has a great sound and is really fun to listen to.

But John doesn't get any gigs! Even though he's a legend among tenor guitarists (and wannabes like me), nobody else has ever heard of him. Will somebody please hire this guy, for crissakes!!