Alternate tunings

Hey everyone.


Anyone have any alternate tunings to offer? I almost always play in standard tuning (E,A,D,G,B,E) with the occasional exception of dropped-D tuning. Hence, I'm curious about any good alternate tunings, especially for chord arrangements/song-writing ideas.


Let's see what you guys can come up with. Moreover, if you actually can provide examples of chord arrangements/fingering/scales that follow the alternate tuning, that'd be really cool.

Have you heard Prince Charming by Metallica? If you have heard the starting riff ( maybe even the whole song ) is played 1/2 step down is tuning.

Yeah, but down-tuning is not really alternate tuning, in my opinion. Most metal acts tune down a half step. By alternate tuning, I mean something significantly different.

i personally love the tuning Joni Mitchell used in "this flight tonight"

The tuning for this is based on an open G ( DGDGBD ) but with the
bottom string tuned right down to a very low, flappy G, so the
actual tuning is GGDGBD.
Joni herself uses this notation - she writes normal tuning as :

E 5 5 5 4 5

i.e tune bottom string to an E, then play 5th fret and tune next
string to this, 5th fret, 5th fret, 4th fret, 5th fret.

Get the idea ?

So the tuning for this song is :


G 12 7 5 4 3

Cool, does that require any double strings? For example, I know some tuning requires like a double set of high E strings or whatever to prevent tension from becoming to slack/tight.

Michael Hedges used a lot of alternate tunings... He covered All Along the Watchtower using D, A, E, E, A, A.

Tune E down to D, A stays the same, D up to E, G down to E, B down to A, e down to A --- the D and G strings will be the same and the B and e strings will be the same. This tuning can be interesting.

He also uses C, G, D, G, A, C --- C, G, D, G, B, D --- D, A, D, E, A, B --- etc.

Buy his album Taproot. You won't be disappointed. I especially suggest listening to the songs Point B, Chava's Song, The Naked Stalk, and Ritual Dance off that album. You'll see what can be done with alternate tunings. Also try to download his All Along The Watchtower. It's a great solo acoustic guitar arrangement.

http://www.stropes.com/cgi-bin/database/listing.cgi?type=Performer&term=Michael+Hedges

Anything in there has got to be interesting, or give you some ideas.

nope - no double strings required