The Pinky Posted March 17, 2023 Posted March 17, 2023 I am fascinated by alternative tuning, I don't know any and have never tuned to anything other than standard tuning, however I remember years ago Michael Chapman released an album about playing guitar the easy way. This comprised of alternative tunings to play selected songs - it never seemed easy to me. This week I learnt that apparently Otis Redding couldn't play guitar but had a guitar tuned so that he could play chords simply by "barre" a finger across all the strings and simply moving up and down the frets. I'd never heard of this before and I wondered how the guitar is tuned to achieve this. I realise it is a very limited way to play.
ezbass Posted March 17, 2023 Posted March 17, 2023 (edited) Tune to the chord of your choice (major or minor) and then if you barre anywhere on the neck, you have that mode of chord at a different pitch. For instance, tune your guitar so that it plays an E major (E B E G# B E), then barre at the 3rd fret and you have a G major and so on. Keith Richards is well known for taking off the 6th string and tuning to open G (G B D B D), although you can leave the 6th on and tune it to D. Play a straight barre anywhere, then play a Amin7 shape and then release it; instant Stones and great for slide. Edited March 17, 2023 by ezbass 1
Soledad Posted April 2, 2023 Posted April 2, 2023 It's worth exploring 2 widely used open tunings: DADF#AD - basically an E Maj open tuning but a whole tone down. I think Joni Mitchell used that quite a bit. The other obvious is DADGAD and Tony McManus is an exponent - he has some vids on Youtube and explains the whole thing very well. I've personally found some care in choice of strings / gauges is important as dropping a whole tone on the low E (for example) it can easily become sloppy. I suspect the devotees have guitars set aside and set-up for the above tunings. I recommend Tony McManus 'Introduction to DADGAD' on YT (YT prevents me from embedding that vid here, but it's easy to find). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yl9q6dFOpA4 2 1
upside downer Posted January 2 Posted January 2 On 17/03/2023 at 15:15, ezbass said: Keith Richards is well known for taking off the 6th string and tuning to open G (G B D B D), although you can leave the 6th on and tune it to D. Love a bit of open G. I've got a 5-string Strat copy set up like this, although I do prefer using my 4-string cigar box guitar (tuned G D G B) to give it some Keef. He says in his book that removing the 6th string 'clears out the clutter' and gives you some wonderful harmonics and drone notes. It's banjo tuning that a fair few of the old bluesmen used on their guitars instead of the standard set-up. On 17/03/2023 at 15:15, ezbass said: Play a straight barre anywhere, then play a Amin7 shape and then release it; instant Stones and great for slide. Great, ain't it? Simple, but so effective.
