Open Tuning
The archive contains posts about special open tuning techniques for guitar.
Are you tired of listening to out of tune guitar chords?
Alternate Tunings
All open tunings are alternate tunings, but the reverse is not true. A guitarist makes an opening tuning when the guitar’s strings get tuned to a chord.
Many guitarists tune by comparing the strings to fretted notes. Others use electric tuners. This roughly brings the guitar into equal temperament. The temperament keeps the number of notes workable, but compromises the sound of the chords while doing so.
However, the guitar does not have to be tuned this way. Many guitarists tune the guitar’s strings to a chord by strumming all of the strings while turning the pegheads. Keith Richards does it this way. Likewise, Hawaiian artists, such as Keola Beamer and Ray Kane, also tune without fret references.
When tuned in this manner, the major third of the chord gets lowered when compared to equal temperament. This makes better sounding major thirds and therefore better tuned chords.
Similarly, Gerhard Kubik described how the Memphis bluesman Wolfman Belfour tuned while holding an open E chord in standard tuning. This yielded an E major chord with a lowered third.
Many guitarists find tuning the strings without fret references challenging. Therefore, in the blogs you will learn how to implement open tunings with harmonics.
Crafting tunings, such as open G and D, with harmonics yields very similar results to how Richards, Belfour, Beamer, and Kane tune. Regardless, either way sounds better than traditional tuning methods.
Moreover, tuning with harmonics trains the ear for what to listen for in a well-tuned chord. Thus, guitarists can switch to Richard’s method of tuning once they have mastered tuning with harmonics.
Some posts in this blog archive also discuss micro tuning synths and Supplemented Equal Temperament.
© 2021 Geoffrey Keith
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