CHORD CHARTS:
DGDGBD
F#F#F#F#EB
CFCFAF
DADGAD

There's nothing wrong was standard tuning - it was developed over centuries, originally from a Spanish guitar tuning which went something like EACGAE (I forget), which itself came from the lute and other poncey mediaeval instruments. But when the vast majority of guitarists have been using it exclusively for decades, it gets kind of old. Alternate tunings are limiting, and tend to force you to play in one key, but that's why they interesting. There are many chords, or at least many formations of chords, which are impossible to play in standard. Try and play any of the Sonic Youth back catalogue in standard and you'll see what I mean.

If you can think of something in standard tunings, then you can guarantee it's been done before. Whereas alternate tunings are a really original area of guitar playing. Famous guitarist who've used alternate tunings include Nick Drake, Bob Dylan, Jimmy Page, Joni Mitchell, right up to Stephen Malkmus and, of course, Sonic Youth. Some guitarists, like Thurston Moore and Lee Ranaldo, use them almost exclusively, but there are few who haven't dabbled at some point.

The most common alternate tunings are Drop-D (DADGBE) Open D, Open G and DADGAD. Sonic Youth and Pavement tended to make up their own, however.

These are a pretty conventional tunings, and are fairly easy to tune to. The tunings below are not all quite so conventional. When retuning your strings, the general rule is never tune a light gauge string (something between .010 and .013) up more than four notes: 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 an optimum tension which is pitched lower than thinner strings.

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, but something more odd. 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, an E 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 within realistic reach. The simpler the tunings, the less chords you can play.

TUNING BY CHORD SHAPES
Open tunings are chords, and 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 folk guitarists who write lots of songs about rivers, that is.

A NOTE ON INTONATION
If you guitar has fucked-up intonation, 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.

ETC..
As a final word, 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 alternative tunings are, for me, the only real way of making your playing sound original. Plus they 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.

Tunings List

CHORD CHARTS:
DGDGBD
F#F#F#F#EB
CFCFAF
DADGAD

 #LINKS#
Contemporary Folk Tunings
Folk has 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.

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