Estimated reading time 3 minutes
Table of Contents
Introduction
“What is the point of different alternate guitar tunings?” Alternate tunings change both how the instrument sounds and how it feels as you play it. They say that cloths make the man. Likewise, how the guitar gets tuned can make the guitarist. Read more to find out some of the advantages of alternate tunings.
This article uses musical terms. For definitions, see the Glossary at the end of the post.
What Is the Point of Different Alternate Guitar Tunings #1: New Playing Options
What is the point of different alternate guitar tunings? Why do some guitarists use alternate tunings instead of standard tuning (EADGBE)? Three words: overcoming writer’s block.
- Alternate tunings can open up new areas of inspiration in terms of chords and scales.
- When you play in an alternate tuning, it makes you use different chord shapes and scale patterns from standard tuning.
- This forces you to play differently, which in turn can help you break out of any musical patterns you’re stuck in.
The unique fingering of each alternate tuning you use will help get the creative flow going, inspiring new ideas for both songs and improvisation.
What Is the Point of Different Alternate Guitar Tunings #2: Micro-Tuning
What is the point of different alternate guitar tunings? Alternate tunings have another benefit: they allow you to micro-tune the guitar, particularly in open tunings.
- Many blues and rock guitarists tune their guitars so that their chords sound better than equal tempered chords.
- Likewise, this micro-tuning will allow you to fine tune the pitch of your open strings.
- This in turn will enhance the sound of your guitar’s chords.
These tunings can even be tailored to the style of music you’re trying to make, whether it’s blues, rock, folk, country, or Hawaiian. For more information on how to micro-tune your alternate tunings:
What Is the Point of Different Alternate Guitar Tunings #3: Cool Chord Voicings
What is the point of different alternate guitar tunings? Even if you don’t micro-tune your open tunings (leaving it in equal temperament), your chords will still sound different than the chords in standard tuning.
- Why? Because the voicings of the chords in alternate tunings create unique distributions of notes that gives you a wealth of harmonic textures.
- Also, they can extend the range of the instrument downward. For example, Drop D tunes the sixth string down to D, making it so you can have huge sounding D major chords.
- Likewise, Open C tuning not only gives you a C major chord when you play the open strings, but it also allows you to play notes lower than the usual E on the sixth string.
If you’re in a rut with your playing, different chord voicings will give you additional harmonic textures to play around with.
Summary
Here’s some final thoughts on What Is the Point of Different Alternate Guitar Tunings?
- Alternate tunings will make playing on the instrument sound and feel different.
- This in turn will help you come up with fresh ideas when improvising and writing songs.
- In addition, you can enhance the sound of an alternate tuning by micro-tuning your open strings.
Have fun jamming!
Related Posts
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- How to Play and Tune Parlor Guitar Style
- Tune Like an Authentic Bluegrass Banjo Player
- Intonation and Supplemented Equal Temperament
- How to Use an Extremely Accurate Guitar Strobe Tuner: to Make Your Guitar Sound Awesome
© 2023 Geoffrey Keith
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Glossary
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