Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Monkeyfinger664 on January 12, 2009 at 7:51am

That's funny. I've had this conversation with a guitar buddy of mine. He loved to use alternate tunings. I can't stand it. But I'm more of a lead player. I need to count on my scale shapes in a hurry. If I adjust the tuning, then I'm scrambling during the solos.

Permalink Reply by Clarence Dember on January 24, 2009 at 9:33am

Feels like the tuning for "Break the chain" by Fleetwood Mack! It's got to be! Cool!

Permalink Reply by Ken Westervelt on February 10, 2009 at 11:32am

My voice loves D tunings, either open or just tuning everything down a step. Opeth's "Ghost Reveries" is almost completely written in open D minor, for instance...

Permalink Reply by Clarence Dember on January 24, 2009 at 12:00am

I understand why it would vex lead guitarists. Makes perfect sense!
Cla

Permalink Reply by Clarence Dember on January 24, 2009 at 2:51am

Instead of 55545 to tune by fret for eadgbe you go 75345 to tune for dadfad. If I can play anything to that I'll upload it to consciousness continuum on ning.com

Permalink Reply by Clarence Dember on January 25, 2009 at 5:07pm

I like 75754. It's the tuning Bruce Cockburn used to play "Foxglove".
You have to step down the Bass E 2 steps to keep from tuning the D and G strings higher than their designed open pitch. Use your pitch pipe to guide you in observing that limit.

Permalink Reply by Ken Westervelt on February 10, 2009 at 11:34am

I've never seen numbers being used to denote new tunings. Fascinating. But shouldn't you need to add the first note to *really* set which tuning it is?

Permalink Reply by Clarence Dember on February 23, 2009 at 8:50am

If you have a circular chromatic pitch pipe, you can determine the notes in your open tuning by matching the pitch. From there you can find what notes are being made further on the fret board with melody or chords.

Permalink Reply by Clarence Dember on February 23, 2009 at 4:04am

Alternate tunings have to be tuned from the standard pitch of each string or a lower pitch than the standard pitch for each string. This is the main rule to protect the bridge from excessive string tension. Some guitars are best left in the standard tuning simply because the action is optimized for that amount of torque on the neck. In slack key the strings buzz on the frets. My Ovation Adamas has this characteristic, but not the Martin D35.