Alternate Tuning Guide

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Let's be realistic for a moment. Despite all of it's wonderful characteristics, the guitar has a few shortcomings. One of the most obvious is the way the guitar is laid out - there are chords that we know should sound great, but are impossible to play, since human fingers just can't stretch far enough to reach the proper notes.

Luckily, there are ways to overcome this problem. By changing the tuning of one or several strings of a guitar, we can play combinations of notes that we previously couldn't. Many of these "alternate tunings" have been explored extensively by ambitious musicians (Joni Mitchell claims to have played in 51 different guitar tunings during her career). These alternate tunings open up a whole new world for guitarists willing to look beyond the standard E A D G B E tuning.

Learning to play guitar in many of these new tunings can be an overwhelming task. If you thought learning guitar was tricky enough in standard tuning, you're in for a REAL challenge! Guitarists will have to completely re-learn how to play chords for each new tuning they undertake. For this reason, many guitarists tend to explore one alternate tuning for an extended period, before they turn their attention to another.

Each of the following links will lead to pages designed to teach the basics of a new tuning. Included are tips on getting your guitar into the proper tuning, tabs of songs in that tuning, and links to other resources for that tuning around the web. Enjoy, and watch for more tunings to be added to the list regularly.

Tunings Featured

Drop D Tuning - D A D G B E
Although this tuning has been around for a long time, the Seattle grunge movement in the early 1990's brought about it's popularity. Drop D tuning was used extensively by bands like Nirvana, partly because it made playing power chords with one finger possible.

DADGAD Tuning - D A D G A D
There is a whole subculture of guitarists who play exclusively in DADGAD tuning, as it lends itself well to certain types of styles (celtic music, for example). But, DADGAD has also been explored by Jimmy Page and other rock guitarists.

Open D Tuning - D A D F# A D
When the open strings are strummed in this tuning, the sound of a D major chord is produced. This has made this tuning a favorite of slide players, who can simply lay their slide straight across one fret to play chords.

Open G Tuning - D G D G B D
Keith Richards has always loved this one, and has written many classic Rolling Stones riffs in open G. Many slide players also prefer open G, which is tuned to a G major chord.

Open C Tuning - C G C G C E
Slightly more obscure, open C is tuned to a C major chord, and utilizes a very low sixth string to give the guitar a big, full sound.

Low C Tuning - C D G G A D
Another somewhat unusual tuning, low C tuning is more often used in Celtic music. You can create some very unique sounds with this one.