Can you help me w/ alternate tunings?

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pavement

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Hi guys-

Can anyone share with me some alternate tunings & open tunings? Like open G, etc, etc...

I just want to try something different than E - A - D - G - B - E and drop-D... maybe it will spark a little creativity... who knows!!

I'm not very good at reading music, so if you could let me know which note to tune each string to that would be very much appreciated.

If this info is already out here somewhere, I apologize, please just direct me to it.

Thanks!

pavement
 
I don't know too much about alternate tunings, except tuning down to B-E-A-D-G-B, but you'll need thicker strings (and I think this can cause bad intonation).
Also I think static-x tunes down to C.
Don't know if this helps at all.
 
Alternate Tunings

Have you tried dropping both "E" Strings to "D"?

Like... D-B-G-D-A-D

or Open G tuning.... D-B-G-D-G-D (Lower 5th string to "G".

Have fun;

Dom Franco
 
heres a tuning that Jack Bruce and Joe Walsh used sometimes , drop the low e to d. leave the a alone,
leave the d alone, raise the g to a, drop the b to a
and drop the high e to d which leaves you with
dadaad as your tuning, you will find you can do some interesting stuff with this tuning.
 
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Thanks!

Thanks everyone for the great input! I have tried several of these tunings already and am feeling like I'm completey new to the guitar again. It's definitely a GOOD thing... I'm not totally bored trying to come up with something new.

Are a lot of these tunings used so one can bar across frets easily?

There was LOTS of great info @ www.guitarplayer.com, thanks effedupstrat!
 
I've been doing a lot of lately stuff with just the A tuned down to a G. ie E G D G B E

pretty fun
 
Try tuning the G-string up to an A. Really simple, but something about it being right in the middle of the guitar totally changes everything. You end up getting a lot of cool add9 chords from normal chord shapes.

For examples of great songs that use this tuning, check out Adrian Belew's first two albums, Lone Rhino and Twang Bar King.

Ryan
 
Although nobody has said so, open tunings are needed if you play slide. I'm not much up on current players, but Ry Cooder uses open D (D-A-D-F#-A-D) and the G tuning you already have. I use open E, which is open D raised up a full step, and open Em (E-B-E-G-B-E). Other cool ones are D6 (D-A-D-F#-B-D) for Bob Wills licks (!) and E7 (E-D-E-G#-B-E) which is killer on lap steel. Runnin On Faith, on Clapton's Unplugged album, is open G: if you know the chord progression the licks fall right into place (OK, Clapton still does it better). Finally, if you use heavier strings on the bottom you can use open C (C-G-C-G-C-E) which is similar to a lot of early Leo Kottke (but he tunes to C#). At least you can fool yourself.
John
 
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