Uploaded November 2010 | Updated September 2026, 6 hours ago
This is a popular Hawaiian song played in the B11th tuning. I'm playing a 1953 Rickenbacker Double-8 steel guitar. The 1/4" guitar jack is underneath the body, which I like. I don't like where the volume and tone knobs are located, because they get in the way of my right hand on the rear neck when I try to do harmonics. I played the song a bit up tempo than standard, but I've got the same track, or slower or slowest on my website link below.
I like using a volume pedal, which you can see in the video from my right leg being raised slightly. I just put the volume pedal in the sand. I use compressed air from a can (for computers) to clean the sand out of my equipment. The song is called, SAND, no pun intended...lol.
I think the B11th tuning is avoided by too many players. By simply retuning a few strings a tone or two, you can go from C6th to B11th. My B11th tuning from treble to bass is: E - C# - A - F# - D# - C# - B - A
Barney Isaacs Jr. and Alan Akaka use a "B" note on the 6th string instead of a "C#". I like the C# for my style, which is what Jerry Byrd used. Here's the B11th tuning of Barney Isaacs Jr. and Alan Akaka from treble to bass: E - C# - A - F# - D# - B - F# - B
And here is Jerry Byrd's B11th tuning, from treble to bass: E - C# - A - F# - D# - C# - B - B (double B on the bottom). Try these different tunings and see which one's work best for you. I have tabs freely available on my website link below for the B11th songs: Hana, Sand, and How D' Ya Do (and free rhythm tracks too).
If you've never tried the B11th tuning, then start with the song "SAND," which is easy to play. My favorite song is HANA, which there's a couple videos of me playing on this YouTube channel.
On strings 3,4,5 there's a great diminished chord on the B11th tuning. A diminished chord repeats every 3 frets, so you can play strings 3,4,5 on say fret 2, and then slide up to fret 5, then fret 8, then fret 11, then fret 14, and so on. I love diminished chords. A diminished chord is known as a "passing chord," because you use it to pass between chords in a song. Newer players have a tendency to stick to major and minor chords, ignoring the beautiful diminished and augmented chords, which are both passing chords.
B11th is definitely Hawaiian, and an excellent tuning to learn, as seen in this song I played called SAND. I don't do anything fancy in this video, just straight playing. At the very end I use palm harmonics, raking my thumb-pick across the strings while simultaneously gently placing my right palm exactly 12-frets higher than where the bar is placed (i.e., one octave higher). I then slide up one octave (12 frets) to finish the song.
Thanks for watching my videos and reading my comments.
This is a popular Hawaiian song played in the B11th tuning. I'm playing a 1953 Rickenbacker Double-8 steel guitar. The 1/4" guitar jack is underneath the body, which I like. I don't like where the volume and tone knobs are located, because they get in the way of my right hand on the rear neck when I try to do harmonics. I played the song a bit up tempo than standard, but I've got the same track, or slower or slowest on my website link below.
I like using a volume pedal, which you can see in the video from my right leg being raised slightly. I just put the volume pedal in the sand. I use compressed air from a can (for computers) to clean the sand out of my equipment. The song is called, SAND, no pun intended...lol.
I think the B11th tuning is avoided by too many players. By simply retuning a few strings a tone or two, you can go from C6th to B11th. My B11th tuning from treble to bass is: E - C# - A - F# - D# - C# - B - A
Barney Isaacs Jr. and Alan Akaka use a "B" note on the 6th string instead of a "C#". I like the C# for my style, which is what Jerry Byrd used. Here's the B11th tuning of Barney Isaacs Jr. and Alan Akaka from treble to bass: E - C# - A - F# - D# - B - F# - B
And here is Jerry Byrd's B11th tuning, from treble to bass: E - C# - A - F# - D# - C# - B - B (double B on the bottom). Try these different tunings and see which one's work best for you. I have tabs freely available on my website link below for the B11th songs: Hana, Sand, and How D' Ya Do (and free rhythm tracks too).
If you've never tried the B11th tuning, then start with the song "SAND," which is easy to play. My favorite song is HANA, which there's a couple videos of me playing on this YouTube channel.
On strings 3,4,5 there's a great diminished chord on the B11th tuning. A diminished chord repeats every 3 frets, so you can play strings 3,4,5 on say fret 2, and then slide up to fret 5, then fret 8, then fret 11, then fret 14, and so on. I love diminished chords. A diminished chord is known as a "passing chord," because you use it to pass between chords in a song. Newer players have a tendency to stick to major and minor chords, ignoring the beautiful diminished and augmented chords, which are both passing chords.
B11th is definitely Hawaiian, and an excellent tuning to learn, as seen in this song I played called SAND. I don't do anything fancy in this video, just straight playing. At the very end I use palm harmonics, raking my thumb-pick across the strings while simultaneously gently placing my right palm exactly 12-frets higher than where the bar is placed (i.e., one octave higher). I then slide up one octave (12 frets) to finish the song.
Thanks for watching my videos and reading my comments.
