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May 20, 2011

Wiping the slate clean with alternate guitar tunings

If you're a guitar player, one great way to get new ideas going is to put your guitar into a different tuning. Suddenly, the slate is "wiped clean" — all your habitual chords and progressions are gone, and you have to approach the fretboard with "beginner's mind" once again.

You find new shapes and new sounds that open up exciting new songwriting possibilities. And with a capo, you can move those new sounds into other keys, as well.

Some popular tunings (listed from bass to treble) are:

- DADGAD
- DADF#AD (open D)*
- DGDGBD (open G)*
- DGDGAD (open G variation)
- CGCGCE (open C)
- EAEAC#E (open A)*
(* Also good for slide)

One great way to ease into alternate tunings is with "Drop D": DADGBE (drop the low E string to D). It's easy on your strings, and it's easy to use. For one thing, a "power" chord is now just a barre across strings 4, 5, and 6.

(If you have two guitars, use one for playing alternate tunings and one for standard tuning — you'll break fewer strings from retuning all the time.)

Posted by richard at May 20, 2011 09:56 PM