But for barre chords, non-open chords, it gets more tricky.
Detuning is a way of playing simple chords like fifth chords (otherwise
known as 'power chords'), and barre chords of other descriptions, without
injuring your fingers. Some detuned chords can involve open strings, and
these tend to sound cool.
The most common detuning, low to high,
is Drop-D, DADGBE,
with the low E string tuned down a step to a D. This is basically punk
music in a nutshell; hold down the three low strings to make a power chord,
then slide up and down to make more power chords. Even wankers like Eddie
Van Halen tune their guitars into drop D.
I play chords like this using either my first or second
finger holding down all three strings. With this tuning, and an amount
of distortion, you can play pretty much any punk song, from the Sex Pistols
to Elastica, to say nothing of pretty much everything in nu/thrash metal,
and a lot of Nirvana and grunge stuff; most notably 'Bleach' and 'In Utero'
are almost entirely in Drop-D, as is a lot of the Pavement back catalogue.
Drop-D is a pretty conventional tuning, and doesn't need
any particular training to do it. The tunings below are not all quite so
conventional. When retuning your strings, the general rule is don't tune
a light gauge string (something between .010 and .013) up more than
four notes, or two steps: which means you can just about risk tuning your
first string up to a G, I just don't recommend it! Changing string gauges,
particularly for the lighter strings, can often be a good idea, to stop
them from sounding too tinny when tuned unnaturally low. Thicker strings
are naturally suited for lower tunings, because they have the same tension
tuned to D, for example, as a thinner gague string tuned to E.
OPEN
TUNINGS AND CLOSED TUNINGS
A lot of detunings are open, rather than closed. An open
tuning is one where if you can play a chord without fretting any notes:
just strumming open. Closed tunings are those where strumming all six strings
won't play a basic major or minor chord. Standard tuning is a closed tuning.
The main advantage of open tunings is that if you fret any six or less
strings together at one fret, you form a chord (usually major), or the
same with a slide. So you don't necessarily have to think about the fretting
of notes with your left hand so much. In standard, a D chord is played
022100, but in open D it's just 222222.
The big disadvantage with open tunings is they're very
restrictive. Because most open tunings have less different notes than closed
tunings, you can't play as many chords. In standard tuning, you have easy
access to something like 50+ different-sounding chords, while open tunings
generally have far less. Basically the simpler the tunings, the less chords
you can play.
TUNING
BY CHORD SHAPES
Open tunings are chords. They can be major, minor, seventh,
fifth, ninth, whatever, but usually they're major. To tune a guitar to
a chord shape, find out what the notes of the chord shape are. For example,
E major has the three notes E, B and G# on all six strings. So if you tune
your guitar to EBEG#BE, then when you strum open you play an E chord. The
same approach applies to fifth (power) chords; a D power chord has the
notes D and A in it: so if you tune your guitar to DADAAD, for example,
when you play open you'll play a D power chord. You can make up any number
of tunings by finding out which notes are in the chord, and tuning your
strings to them. It's best to work from D, G, F or E chords, however, because
the guitar fits best into these tunings.
STRING
GAUGES
The lighter the string gauge, the higher it's tuned.
The 1st and 6th strings are designed to be an octave apart, so while both
are made to be tuned to the same note, one is an octave higher than the
other. A set of heavy gauge strings would be more suited to a low tuning,
like CGCFAD, while extra light strings can cope with
unusual, higher tunings like FCFACF. If necessary, you can use different
gauge strings to fit a tuning, either by swapping strings around or by
starting from scratch with an uncoventional set of string gauges. One word
of caution - never have your guitar tuned really high, as that will
bend the neck and can damage it forever. Hawiian steel guitar uses very
high tunings, but with extra-light string gauges which fit the high tuning
naturally. I use medium gauge strings, which are comfortable with being
tuned a few notes up or down.
TONE
CLUSTERS
What makes Nick Drake probably the most interesting of
all the famous guitarists is the way he used alternate tunings. In piano
playing, you play a lot of weird, dischordant-sounding chords with five
or more notes, called tone clusters. In standard guitar tuning, it's hard
to play tone cluster chords, so Nick Drake used a variety of mysterious
and often unique alternate tunings to play these chords. Generally speaking
the chord shapes are still hard, as they're often barre chords and usually
require all six strings. And because Nick Drake is all awkward and dead,
these tunings and chords are often lost. My advice to anyone is to experiment
with tone clusters and dissonant chords, because it's the only area of
the guitar which hasn't been explored. Except by other folk guitarists
who write songs about rivers a lot, that is.
A
NOTE ON INTONATION
If you guitar has fucked-up intonation, like mine did,
then chords and scales will always sound wrong. Which is all very well
if you want them to sound wrong, but not when you're trying to play
something, you know, in tune. So I recommend you visit
this faq for advice on how to set up the intonation of yr instrument.
The slacker's tuning. Tune 6th string down to D, 3rd string
up to A. Hold down ADA strings to make power chord, as well as DAD strings.
Used by Pavement, among others.
Very popular acoustic 'D' tuning. Tune 1st and 6th strings
down to D.
Pronounced 'dadgad', this is another folk tuning. Tune down.
Called Low-C, this is another folk tuning. The 6th string
is tuned all the way down to C, which gives a nice contrast with the normal-sounding
other strings.
My favourite open D tuning, good for acoustic and slide.
Tune down.
| DGDGBD |
 |
The open G tuning. Chord charts
for this tuning. Used by everyone who plays slide, slightly altered
versions used by Sonic Youth.
Slightly perverse Stephen Malkmus folk-style tuning. Tune
1st down to D, 3rd up and 6th down.
Similar to the above. Slighter better-sounding tuning, though,
I think. Just tune down the 5th and 6th strings two notes.
Vaguely sitary tuning, as used by Beck on 'Black Hole'. Sounds
nice just played open.
Tune 1st down to D. Change 2nd string to a different gauge,
such as .010 and tune to an E, or alternatively just tune 2nd string down
to E, but it will flap around loosely like a sitar string. Tune 5th down
to G. Play power chords on GDG strings, leaving the low E string open.
Used by Sonic Youth on most the of more 'rock' songs.
| F#F#F#F#EB |
|
Complete thrash tuning. Chord
charts for this tuning. Tune 1st down to B, 2nd down to E (or just
swap 1st and 2nd strings around). Tune 3rd down to F#, 4th up to F#, 5th
down to F#, 6th up to F#. Hold down all four F#s to make a massive one-note
'chord'. Play with maximum distortion. Used on most of the really heavy
SY songs.
For those who want it, this is half-step down. Just tune
every string down one note. It sounds a little lower and makes the strings
a bit wobbly, but Hendrix used it almost all the time.
This is a pretty daft tuning. Tune all the strings down except
the 6th. Hold down either the three G#s or the three Es and let the open
three strings ring out. Used in SY's 'The Expressway to yr Skull'.
Tune 1st down to B, 2nd down to A, 3rd down to E, 4th up
to E, 5th up to A. Used by SY's Lee Ranaldo quite a bit. Power chords readily
accessible by holding down low four strings, with or without open strings.
For example, a nice chord would be 12-0-0-12-X-0.
The 'E' tuning. Tune 3rd up one note, and 4th and 5th up
two notes to E and B. Common tuning for slide guitar, and also used by
Phoebe out of 'Friends'. No, really.
Pretty whacked Pavement tuning as used by Stephen Malkmus
(although not Spiral Stairs). Tune 1st down to B, 5th down to G. For the
6th string you tune all the way down to a C. The middle GDG strings form
a power chord.
Looks weird written down, but this is yer basic nu/trash-metal
tuning, as used by Slipknot et al. Tune all the strings down one step (2
notes), then tune the 6th string down an extra step. Play the same way
as drop D, just with more distortion!
I think this is my own invention. Open, it forms a C 6th
chord without a third. Tune strings down low, low, low. Swap the 1st string
for a 2nd string gauge or leave it as is for a sitary sound. Also try CCAGAA.
This is my rock tuning, basically tune all the strings down,
except for the 3rd string which goes up one note to a G#. Essentially this
means you can play power chords easier.
Originally a folky style tuning, chords played (for example)
5-5-7-5-5-7 or simplified just 5-5-7 sound very evil. All strings tuned
down, including the 6th string which is really low. Similar
tuning used by Conrad Keeley out of ...Trail of Dead.
Sonic Youth tuning, this really needs the 1st and second
strings changed to a heavy gauge, or it sounds a bit odd. Tune 1st, 2nd,
4th and 5th down, and tune the 6th string up to F#. Used a lot on
the early stuff, most notably on 'Schizophrenia'.
The Koto tuning, as used by Melt Banana's guitarist. Tune
all strings up, except the 1st string, which you tune down to C#. AEA forms
a power chord, and playing the open strings arpeggiated plays a melodic
scale.
| CFCFAF |
|
Jimmy Page's tuning on 'Bron yr Aur Stomp' - an excellent
F open tuning. Chord charts for this tuning.
Tune all strings down to the note, except for the 1st string which goes
up one semitone to F.
As a final word, although alternative tunings are great,
I personally have my main guitar tuned in standard (my other guitars are
currently in standard and DADGAD). I'm learning theory and all the notes
and crap, and only a really good guitarist can instantly transpose scale
and chord shapes into different tunings. So for the moment I'm learning
this in standard. However detuning is, I think, essential for any beginner
guitarist, because it allows you to build up finger strength while actually
making music, rather than just fucking up everything and getting nowhere.
Equally there are plenty of more strange, jazzy chords which are pretty
hard/impossible to play without detuning of some form or other, plus alternative
tunings also mean you can use more open strings for different chords, thus
taking advantage of all the pleasant ringing qualities/ear-wrenching shrieking
noises which the electric guitar is capable of producing.
Printable
version of this page
#LINKS#
Contemporary
Folk Tunings
Folk
might often be dull as shit, but they have a very interesting approach
to music. This is a collection of some very weird, and some less weird,
tunings.
Guitarists.net
Alt. Tunings
A
mixed bag of good, bad and obvious tunings.
Mary
McCalslin
Good
old Mary, whoever she is, has posted some very handy chord charts for the
more commonly used alternate tunings.
Strummer
Online
May the resurrection of
Christ Jesus transform your life! No, really. Nowt to do with Joe Strummer,
like many alternate tuning sites this is based around acoustic guitar.
Chords and tips for Low C, Open G and many other nice tunings.
