Description
This next trick that I'm going to show you in this lesson is called Nashville Tuning, but it's not really a tuning, although it is a drastically different sound.
Notice that I'm just playing normal chords down here in the open position, so what's going on?! If you analyzed this with a tuner, you'd see that all my strings are still the same letter names as before, only they're higher octaves.
You can buy sets of strings like this, but I was always told that it originally came from taking only the high strings from 12-string acoustic guitar. I don't know if you've ever seen one of those, but the 12-string guitar basically has the same regular six strings as you do. Then it also has a really high double of the low 4 strings and then the top 2 strings has a unison double, which gives it that huge chorus'y sound that you may be familiar with.
For the Nashville tuning we've taken only the high strings from this set and put on a regular 6-string acoustic. That means we now have no bass strings and you get this super pretty angelic sound out of your regular chords. Of course this trick can also be used with any of the open tunings we've explored and it can be a ton of fun to mess around with.
Playing scales, riffs and things like that can get super confusing, because of the octave displacement, but for anything chord related this is a goldmine. Since you most likely don't have a high strung guitar handy at the moment, I'll just do a quick little demo.
I hope this tutorial and this whole chapter has made you realize that while standard tuning is by far the most practical and versatile, there's a ton of inspiration and cool vocabulary to be explored within the world of open tunings. And you don't need to worry about mastering all of these tunings right away. Just think of them as creative tools you can use whenever you need to find some new ideas. And whether you pick one of the common ones or make up your very own tuning, they're there whenever you need them.
Lesson Info
