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I was wondering what different tunings might be good for soloing, or just exploring new sounds. I have an extra guitar to experiment on so I thought I would ask. Thanks |
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It really depends on the style you're going for. If you like the resonance possibilities of using open strings, you'll want to select a tuning that highlights some in-scale notes that can be part of your solo. If you like to play a lot of chords, you'll want to select a tuning where simply strumming the open strings produces a chord you like. That way a single-finger bar chord shape can be transposed up and down the neck. This works especially well for slide playing. Another consideration is do you want a higher pitched tuning or lower pitched tuning? Higher pitches can help you achieve some piercing highs but you might break a string. A lower tuning gives your bends more range. A great way to get started with alternate tunings is to learn a song you like that uses an alternate tuning and start improvising over it. Suite: Judy Blue Eyes by Crosby, Stills & Nash is a nice one, IMO. Wikipedia has a decent list of alternate guitar tunings. They are organized by category. Browse around and try some of them out. |
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Keith Richards exploited open tunings throughout his long career. I'm pretty sure he never really knew the music theory all that well, but he just kept experimenting - trying to put available fingers in various spots, then seeing what worked. His well-known tuning is the Open G. He removes the 6th string for a few reasons: (1) "you don't need it", (2) it puts the G in the bass (5th string), (3) it's a bit easier to play, which is important because it takes a lot of strength and endurance to bar so much. A key property of this tuning: the 2nd/3rd/4th strings are identical to standard tuning. Songs like Start Me Up, Brown Sugar, Can't You Hear Me Knockin' are great places to start - they'll unlock all the key ideas. He also used open-E tuning (check out Vanderbilly.com for a nice video lesson on Gimme Shelter). That just raises the 5th and 4th one step (2 frets) and the 3rd a half-step (1 fret) to form an E chord with all strings open. Delta blues are often played in open-A, which is G, but all up one step. The 6th string is usually retained, as it factors into various riffs and turnarounds. Open D is also used (open E, but dropped a step). In this idiom, an important use of open tunings is for slide playing. Most blues guys use a slide on the little finger, so they can go back and forth between fingering and sliding. George Thorogood often uses open tunings, bringing them into the rock space (borrowing heavily from the blues and folks like Bo Diddley). Jimmy Page used a ton of open tunings, including some pretty weird ones. In a lot of cases, only a few strings are played. One of the beauties of open tunings is the ability to let strings "drone" - keeping a common note - often the root note of the key - ringing as various chords are "suggested" by fretting one or so strings on various frets. In general, open tunings allow a very active, rhythmic style, where the pick hand can just keep on chuggin'. One final tuning that's pretty obscure, but really cool: B#9. I learned it from Chuck Cannon in Nashville. From the 6th string down, it's: B F# B F# B C#. To play a major chord, bar all and add one finger two steps up from the bar on the little ("E") string. This tuning is excellent for droning type feels. The song "Outside" is an example of a song using the B#9 tuning (in this case, capoed at the 3rd fret, so it's in the key of D): http://www.myspace.com/emap Here's my most commonly used tunings, in order:
I've been playing for years, but when I really dug into Open-G (mainly through Stones songs) I had the same sort of experience that Keef describes in his book "Life" -- it really opened up whole new spaces to play in! |
