Alternate Tunings for Guitar

Seems out of place but the tunings for guitar are so interwoven with chord forms and choices and positions…The modal and droning quality of a piece can be significantly amplified when different tunings. Below I will offer the most common tunings by key. Some exotic ones will be thrown in for experimentation. You can also make up your own. Simply changing one string by a whole step creates a whole new sound. You will have to figure out the fingerings yourself. Remember the power in simple…Alternate tunings allow the interplay of intervals in evocative ways.

D Tunings
Dꜜ A D G B E     Dꜜ A D G  B Dꜜ     Dꜜ A D G B Cꜜ     Dꜜ A D G Aꜜ Dꜜ

Dꜜ A D F#ꜜ Aꜜ Dꜜ (Open D)     Dꜜ A D Fꜜ A D (D Minor)     Dꜜ A D Eꜜ Aꜜ Dꜜ

Dꜜ A Eꜛ G Aꜜ Dꜜ     Dꜜ A Eꜛ F#ꜜ Aꜜ Dꜜ     Dꜜ Dꜜ D Dꜜ Aꜜ Dꜜ

G Tunings
Dꜜ Gꜜ D G B Dꜜ (open G)     Dꜜ Gꜜ D G B E (G6)     dꜜ Gꜜ D G Bbꜜ Dꜜ (Gm)

Dꜜ GꜜD F#ꜜ B Dꜜ (Gmaj7)     

C Tunings
Cꜜ Gꜜ D G B E (Low C)     Cꜜ Gꜜ Cꜜ G C E (Open C)     Cꜜ Gꜜ D Fꜜ Cꜛ E

Em Tunings
E Bꜜ D G Aꜜ Dꜜ     

B Tunings
Bꜜ F#ꜜ D#ꜛ D#ꜜ F#ꜜ Bꜜ

F Tunings
Fꜛ A Cꜜ G Cꜛ Fꜛ

For some of the tunings you can find specific chords on line or in Alternate Tuning books, or expanded chord books. Otherwise discover and remember your own. Some blank chord diagrams paper would be very handy. This is a whole new world of sound that goes very well with healing music because of the multiple drones and intervals that saturate a specific area of focus. Using a capo will allow you to change to all the keys you need .

There is a new tool on the guitar market called the Spider Capo. It allows you to capo any or all of the strings, making it easy to create tunings on the fly. Follow the links at the bottom of the main Chords page.