Acoustic Tunings

What are some of your guys'/gals' favorite alt. tunings for good ole' acoustic guitar. Stuff along the lines of Elliott Smith.

DADGAD and open G minor (DGDGBbD) are my favourites - I use dropped D too but that hardly counts.

I'm in Open G minor on electric at this moment.

open D on acoustic is killer. nice and low and plaintive.

Is there a page somewhere on this site with a list of alt. tunings? I feel like experimenting around and hopefully finding inspiration from some new tunings.

oh, then you need absolutly have to visit Brad's Page of Steel. not only is there a list of alt. tunings, but there are explainations of their use.
also, tips for string gauge etc.
careful, you may get addicted like us and get a lap steel.

Brads Page of Steel

Edited by Elecktrablue 4/26/2007 - (I fixed your link for you.)

I have to agree with Ricochet and Dogbite! Open G and Open D are two of my favorites. I play around a lot with "Joni Mitchell Tunings", too. Check them out! They're really interesting!

EB, what I'm playing in at the moment is a slightly offbeat special favorite of mine, Open G minor. It's not one of the traditional blues tunings, but you can do lots of fun things with it. Just Open G with the second string tuned down a half step, low to high DGDGBbD. I originally tuned to that when I wanted to play I Wonder As I Wander (an old Appalachian folk Christmas song) that I'd gotten used to singing in G minor. I quickly discovered that Carol of the Bells was ridiculously easy to play in that tuning, also Summertime, Sixteen Tons, Ghost Riders In The Sky, St. James Infirmary Blues and a host of others. My teacher and I came up with a minor key version of The Drifters' On Broadway that I jokingly call Off Broadway. I think it's pretty cool. There's a bunch of other stuff that just rolls off in this tuning, and I used to have a truly bizarre medley strung together. I'll have to work on that, I haven't in years. Listening to the bumper music on John Boy and Billy's Big Show this morning I heard several jazz and funk tunes that would play well in this tuning, but now I've forgotten. I'll have to listen again tomorrow and give them a go sooner, before I forget.

Anyway, Gmin is a whole different animal from Open G. Try it, you'll like it! It's cool for either slide or just plain old fingerpicking without the slide.

Works on the lap steel, too, I was doing that a few days ago before I tried GBDGBD. (Got bogged down in that and haven't made much progress with it.)

Oh, yeah! I am so pleased I found this topic, seeing as I bust a string on Monday playing in BEADF#B. (Actually I didn't get the high E up to B- it snapped at A. First string I've broken in nigh on four and a half years playing, though- so that can't be bad, right?) I love open D to play slide in.... 8) That's a sublime tuning. DADF#AD.

I have to agree with Ricochet and Dogbite! Open G and Open D are two of my favorites. I play around a lot with "Joni Mitchell Tunings", too. Check them out! They're really interesting!

Joni Mitchell. a fav artist of mine. isn't she self taught?
she messed around with ear tuning and came up with alot of her own
for her zither palyign...
that is what I have heard.

she hasn't spoken to me in years.

I like open G and open D - mostly the former, but both are easy enough to add a melody line to a riff with. I prefer open G to open A, and open D to open E because I like the decreased string tension - always feel as if I'm tuning too high in open A or E.

They're pretty similar tunings though....a lot of what you play in open G (or A) can be played almost exactly the same way in open D (or E) - just have to move everything across one fret!

:D :D :D

Vic

Hey Ric, I'm curious - when you play StJIB in open Gm, are you playing mostly slide or fretting the strings? And are you using similar chords to the ones in Easy Songs? (There must be a million variations.....)

I've been working on a version using just 4 chords - Dm, Gm, A (five if you count A7) and Bb, suits my vocal range in that key. If I was going to do it in open Dm would I just change the DADF#AD tuning of open D to DADFAD?

One of these days I'll get a decent version of that song down.....!!!!

:D :D :D

Vic

I think the only sliding I do is on the fifth fret. Or is it the seventh? I don't have my guitar. I do some fretting down around the second and third frets. Anyway, it's fun and sounds pretty cool. I haven't looked for it in the Easy Songs section, but it's easy. :D

Try over at:

http://www.stevemcwilliam.co.uk/guitar/tunings.htm

for a LONG list of different alternate and open tunings for steel string.

Steve :)
http://www.stevemcwilliam.co.uk/guitar/tab.htm
http://www.stevemcwilliam.co.uk/guitar/friendstab.htm
http://www.stevemcwilliam.co.uk/guitar/dadi.htm
http://www.stevemcwilliam.co.uk/guitar/tunings.htm
http://www.youtube.com/user/stevemcbill?feature=results_main
http://fandalism.com/stevemcbill
http://soundcloud.com/steve-mcwilliam

I'm a big fan of Open C (CGCGCE) as well as the aforementioned Open G and Open D.

(Mostly because you don't have to tune any strings up further than a half step) :)