Please email me if you have any transcription requests.
Here is what my friend Fred Simon says about Jonatha:
"Jonatha Brooke, in my view, is one of the very few best singer/songwriters working today.... She is as inspired a melodist as there ever has been, with an equally superb harmonic sense ... always dancing on the edge between surprising and satisfying. Smart, tuneful, musical, moving. And fantastic lyrics. Also, she can really do it live, either alone or with a band ... she is a musician. I can't recommend Jonatha Brooke highly enough, no matter how hard I try...."
You can order autographed
CDs, read some of her journal entries, join her discussion list, and maybe even talk to Jonatha
personally at the Jonatha Brooke website.
Jonatha Brooke uses alternate tunings in many of her compositions. She recently
posted a list of her tunings at her website. I find the letter names of tunings
very confusing, so I put her list into a database and re-organized the songs according to their
tuning patterns. See Jonatha Brooke's tuning patterns.
Here are some transcriptions of her songs - some by me, West Point from Ken Temple,
Angel In The House from Nick Kemp, Digging from Jim Davidson who transcribed it by watching a video of Jonatha playing, tablature for
When Two And Two Are Five from Matt Holtz, tablature for Is This All? in Jonatha's tuning from Dave Blackburn,
and three others from a friend of mine, Trey Ellett, who has been watching Jonatha like a hawk during her concerts.
After The Tears
(New!!! 2020-08-17)
Always - Live version
(Updated!!! 2001-08-26)
Always - Grace In Gravity
(Updated!!! 2001-08-26)
Amelia
(New! 2001-02-24)
And Our Faces, My Heart, Brief As Photos
(New! 2001-02-24)
Angel In The House - transcribed by Trey Ellett
(New! 2001-03-01)
Angel In The House - transcribed by Nick Kemp
(New! 2001-09-12)
Annie
At The Still Point
Because I Told You So
Because I Told You So (the true version!) - transcribed by Trey Ellett
Because I Told You So - Trey & Marian
(New! 2001-07-15) (Updated! 2001-08-26)
Better After All
(New! 2004-01-24)
Better After All - with 3-string capo
(New! 2007-11-24)
Bleecker Street
(New! 2001-04-29) (Updated! 2001-10-12)
Blood From A Stone - transcribed by Trey Ellett
Charming
(New! 2001-02-24)
Crumbs
Damn Everything But The Circus
(New! 2002-04-08)
Digging (tablature) - transcribed by Jim Davidson
(New! 2001-04-16)
Digging
(New! 2001-04-16)
Dog Dreams
(Corrected! 2001-04-27)
Dog Dreams - Jonatha's Tuning
(New! 2001-09-09)
Full-Fledged Strangers
(New! 2001-10-21) (Updated! 2001-10-22) (Updated again!!! 2001-10-24)
Genius Or A Fool
(New! 2002-03-31)
Grace In Gravity
(New! 2001-02-25)
How Deep Is Your Love?
(New! 2001-04-16)
I'll Take It From Here
(New! 2001-04-16)
Inconsolable
(New! 2002-03-31)
Is This All?
Is This All? - Jonatha's Tuning (New! 2001-08-26) (Corrected! 2001-12-06)
Is This All? - Jonatha's Tuning - transcribed by Dave Blackburn - (PDF File) (New! 2015-11-24)
Just One Word
(New! 2001-02-24)
Landmine
(New! 2001-02-25)
Linger
(New! 2001-04-16) (Updated! 2001-08-26)
Love Song
(New! 2001-02-24)
Lullaby
(New! 2002-03-31 Corrected! 2002-04-10)
Made Of Gold
(New! 2001-04-15)
No Better
Nothing Sacred - standard tuning version
(New! 2001-04-15)
Out Of Your Mind
(New! 2001-08-20)
Paris (Jonatha's tuning)
(New! 2001-03-24)
Paris
(New! 2001-02-24)
Red Dress
(New! 2001-04-16) (Updated! 2001-08-26)
Secrets And Lies
Shame On Us
(New! 2001-02-25)
So Much Mine
(New! 2001-06-23)
Ten Cent Wings
(New! 2001-02-25)
The Choice
(New! 2001-02-25)
Walking
(New! 2001-08-18) (Updated! 2001-08-24)
West Point (drop-D tuning) - transcribed by Ken Temple
West Point
West Point - Jonatha's Tuning
(New! 2001-04-28)
When Two And Two Are Five - transcribed by Matt Holtz
(New! 2001-10-31)
Your House
(New! 2001-03-25)
I have been a fan of Joni Mitchell's
music for many years. Her early guitar work is especially interesting.
Nearly all of her songs were composed with alternate guitar tunings and only a few of her
songbooks included her tunings and chord shapes, so I was very excited to find a collection
of Joni songs a few years ago at Sue McNamara's Joni Mitchell Guitar Files.
I felt inspired to help Sue reach her goal of compiling a complete catalogue of transcriptions
for Joni's guitar songs and began working with the other JMDL guitarists towards this end.
The catologue is essentially complete now, although we do add things that people send us from time to
time. If you are interested in learning how to play Joni's music, or if you have
a contribution to make to the collection, go to:
I found Jim Leahy's article containing the tuning for almost every Joni song with guitar very helpful when I first started doing transcriptions of Joni's songs. In the course of the transcription work, though, I discovered some previously undocumented tunings and also sometimes changed the tuning suggested by Jim Leahy for a given song. I have kept track of my changes and discoveries as well as those made by other guitarists who have been helping Sue to complete the transcription work.
I also did an analysis of Joni's tunings and found a way to group her songs according to their essential tuning patterns rather than by the letter note-names of each tuning. If you would like to gain a better understanding of how to organize and navigate between open tunings in general, and Joni Mitchell's tunings in particular, you can read my analysis of Joni Mitchell's Tuning Patterns.
Please email me if you have any comments!
LATEST UPDATES MADE ON: 2002-07-17
I find Michael Hedges' music very beautiful. Sadly, he died in a car crash in November 1997, so we will never know what might have been. Two CDs of his songs have been released since since he died: Torched, which contains previously unreleased studio work, and Beyond Boundaries, which has 14 of his guitar solos. You can find out more about the incredible Michael Hedges at the Michael Hedges website which is dedicated to his music and memory. Here are some transcriptions, the most recent one, Funky Avocado, from a Michael Hedges fan in Australia named Michael:
All Along The Watchtower
Funky
Avocado (New! - 2002-07-17)
Streamlined
Man