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- The differences between “altered” and “open” tunings
- How to tune your guitar to several of the most popular tunings
- How to play the most popular chords in each tuning
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Altered Tuning Basics
Many beginner guitarists assume that there is a single correct way to tune the instrument. But if you think about it, there’s no real reason you have to use standard tuning (E A D G B E). Players have been retuning their guitars since the birth of the blues, in the early part of the twentieth century. Indeed, if you go back far enough, even the guitar’s sixteenth-century ancestors used altered tunings: the lute and vihuela, for example, were often tuned G C F A D G.
How to Use Altered Tunings
As long as it sounds good and your string gauge can cope with it, any tuning you devise is fair game. Listen to Jeff Buckley and Joni Mitchell to hear what can be achieved with an imaginative use of tunings. Don’t spend a lot of time working out new fingerings for the chords you normally use: you’ll waste all the creative potential of the tuning. Instead, use altered tunings as they were meant to be used: to expand the range of sounds and textures you can produce from your guitar.
Below are some tips that will help you get the most out of playing in altered tunings. Do—and don’t do—the following:
Five Dos for Altered Tunings
- Thicken your strings: Figure out whether your string gauge can cope with the tuning. If you’re playing an electric guitar fitted with .009 gauge strings, for example, you won’t get a particularly great sound out of drop-C tuning. You’ll have to use higher-gauge strings.
- Create your own tunings: Start with one from this guide, then alter one note to see what sound it produces. For instance, if you start in open-D tuning and drop the 3rd string down a half step, you’ll get open-D minor tuning.
- Check the tuning of the tuning: Make sure you’re exactly in tune. Often a tuning might sound terrible simply because the notes aren’t completely accurate. Check and double-check, using a tuner if you have one.
- Use your fingers: By far, the most frequent users of altered tunings are acoustic players, so if you’ve used a pick all your life, try using your fingers instead.
- Try using a bottleneck: You’ll probably find that the open-chord version works better for straight blues-chord licks, but all the tunings in this guide have the potential for slide.
Five Don’ts for Altered Tunings
- Don’t tune up too far: If you’re raising any note by more than a whole step (two frets), you’re substantially increasing the risk of string breakage. If in doubt, figure out the whole tuning a step lower and use a capo.
- Don’t judge a tuning by its open sound: Sometimes the tuning doesn’t sound good when all the notes are played open. Not all altered tunings have to create a chord on their own. You might just have to find the right fingering to get the best sounds out of it.
- Don’t rely on your old playing habits: For example, if bends work well on the 3rd string in standard tuning, they might not sound good in an altered tuning. Then again, they might sound great on another string.
- Don’t practice only a few of the chords: Strum every chord you see in this guide. Some of the chord shapes work better played fingerstyle, and some may be more effective when picked one note at a time.
- Don’t give up on a tuning: It typically takes years to become comfortable playing in standard tuning, so be prepared to put in the hours as you learn new tunings.
Tuning Notation
All the tunings in this guide are shown relative to standard tuning. However, you’ll find it much easier to retune a string quickly and accurately if you use a chromatic electronic guitar tuner. These tuners start at around $15 and are available at most music stores.
Tunings
In the table below, the columns on the right represent the string numbers (the 6th string is the lowest and thickest string on a regular guitar). The first row shows the notes of the strings in standard tuning. The second row shows how many steps the string has to be tuned up or down in relation to standard tuning. For example, “+ 2” means raise two half steps, and “- 2” means lower two half steps. The third row shows the notes of the strings in the new tuning: in this case, open E.
String |
6 |
5 |
4 |
3 |
2 |
1 |
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Standard tuning |
E |
A |
D |
G |
B |
E |
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Change (steps) |
0 |
+2 |
+2 |
+1 |
0 |
0 |
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Notes (in open-E tuning) |
E |
B |
E |
G |
B |
E |
Chord Notation
Below, the bottom staff contains guitar tablature, or tab. In tab, the six lines represent the strings of the guitar, with the 6th (thickest) string at the bottom, going up to the 1st (thinnest) string at the top. The numbers represent the frets, and an 0 means the string should be played open.
The top staff shows the chord as it would appear in traditional music notation. This guide also includes standard notation and tab for each of the most popular chords in each tuning.
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