Open Tunings

One Winged Angel

It is not difficult to play in other keys with open tunings. It is actually very easy, especially if your guitar is tuned to an open Major chord and you play all Major chords in the song by using a simple barre. This is what many players do. But this is why these tunings tend to sound very similar on many songs.

Now some players are very different. Keith Richards is famous for playing in open G. But he seldom plays simple barres. He actually plays fairly complicated rhythms. It is almost impossible to truly get Keith's guitar down with standard tuning. Even if you get the chords, it doesn't sound the same.

I heard the newest Staind song a few days ago. Mike Mushok (lead guitarist) uses a down and open tuning (tunes guitar down and also tunes bass strings to an open tuning). Now, I am not trying to be critical, but as soon as I heard this song I KNEW he was using this same tuning again. And although this is a new song with probably a completely new chord progression, it sounded just like their first album. I liked their first album, but after awhile you want to hear something a little different.

This is the biggest disadvantage. This is what you hear with so many groups today. They are all using the same down tuning/open tuning.

And it all sounds very similar. I could not listen to an album with ten songs that all sound the same. Boring. And not very creative as well.

But that is just my opinion, which means nothing. These groups are very popular, so obviously many people enjoy this sound very much.

So, play how you feel. It doesn't matter what others think. Play music that you enjoy.

Just felt like throwing in a comment on this. Many songs on Dylan's Blood on the Track album is played with open E/D tuning. (D-A-D-F#-A-D or E-B-E-G#-B-E). However he seldom uses just simple barres - E is played 054000 (or 054300) The A is 020120, B is played x02120 etc. Try it out - sounds a million times more interesting than 000000, 555555, 777777!

I guess this has been discussed at length somewhere else (I know there is a forum for open tunigs here but I haven't really been there yet) but I couldn't resist advertising a little - BOTT being one of my definitive all times favourite albums. :)

Lars

Here's a page with some non-barre chords and turnarounds in Open G: http://www.bobbrozman.com/tip_opentune2.html