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  #1  
Old 09-02-2021, 01:35 PM
AH Acoustic AH Acoustic is offline
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Lightbulb Altered / drop tunings suggestions?

Hi all,

I have been experimenting with altered tunings somewhat, and am curious to hear of tuning suggestions.

I do have interest in DADGAD, and thanks to members mention, have Doug Young's book.

I do realize that there are constraints to work around string gauges, and am hoping to stay with stock gauges rather than building custom orders from Stringjoy.

I discovered one tuning used by Ben Howard, for example, CGCGGC, which sounds stripped down yet harmonic...

Thanks for sharing,

a.h.
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Old 09-02-2021, 03:36 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by AH Acoustic View Post
Hi all,

I have been experimenting with altered tunings somewhat, and am curious to hear of tuning suggestions.

I do have interest in DADGAD, and thanks to members mention, have Doug Young's book.

I do realize that there are constraints to work around string gauges, and am hoping to stay with stock gauges rather than building custom orders from Stringjoy.

I discovered one tuning used by Ben Howard, for example, CGCGGC, which sounds stripped down yet harmonic...

Thanks for sharing,

a.h.
Hi AH…
I have explored all sorts of alternate tunings and never strung with anything but factory sets of strings.

For CGCGCD I buy one weight heavier, and on short scale guitars, beyond Dropped D…the same.

The exception is my Bashkin OM - fanned fret - Myrtlewood/Italian Spruce. I don't even need to change string weights, because the low strings are all long-scale.

I started students with Dropped D, the Double Dropped D, then we tuned the 2nd string to "A" for DADGAD.

Then we explored Open D (D-A-D-F#-A-D), open D minor (D-A-D-D-A-D) then Open G (D-G-D-G-B-D) and Open G minor (D-G-D-G-Bb-D). We did the open tunings as both strumming, and slide.

Open tunings (strings tuned to a chord) are great strumming keys, and moderately good fingerstyle keys.

That's just a kind of logical path I took students down who already had a solid understanding of standard tuning, and they were proficient with three note inversions and barre chords.




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Old 09-02-2021, 04:09 PM
tbeltrans tbeltrans is offline
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Grab this FREE book. It has everything you need...

https://sethares.engr.wisc.edu/alter...alltunings.pdf

Tony
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Old 09-02-2021, 04:51 PM
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Perhaps learn to play some altered tuning tunes you like a lot. If you want to noodle around in some different tunings to see if you come up with an original tune you might start with a modal tuning (DADGAD most common one) and some open tunings (say open C or open G).

Problem with a repertoire in a few different tunings is a lot of retuning the guitar from tune to tune. That can get to be a little much to keep that repertoire intact.
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Old 09-02-2021, 05:04 PM
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I'm regularly in DADGAD, CGDGAD AND CGDGCD (Orkney tuning). If I'm playing something that's dropped D I will tune the guitar to CGCFAD and capo if I feel like it.

Another tuning that is nice is DADF#AD.

My only problem that I have run into using these tunings is that most of the time the arrangements rely on simple 2 and 3 note chords without a lot of barres so my fretting hand has gone down hill a bit. Now I'm re-learning a few tunes that have barres and I'm like a newbie
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Old 09-02-2021, 07:16 PM
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In addition to the ones mentioned, I also have enjoyed DGDGBE tuning and have composed in that for some time now.
If you feel you'll enjoy CGCGCD ( with capo or not), Al Petteway's "Broken Mist" is done in this tuning. I believe he has an instruction on the Dream Guitars web site that might assist with learning it. Also he's got at least one UTube track on that song as well. That tune opened up a lot of doors for me with my own creations.
Enjoy!
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Old 09-03-2021, 01:09 AM
Andyrondack Andyrondack is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by AH Acoustic View Post
Hi all,

I have been experimenting with altered tunings somewhat, and am curious to hear of tuning suggestions.

I do have interest in DADGAD, and thanks to members mention, have Doug Young's book.

I do realize that there are constraints to work around string gauges, and am hoping to stay with stock gauges rather than building custom orders from Stringjoy.

I discovered one tuning used by Ben Howard, for example, CGCGGC, which sounds stripped down yet harmonic...

Thanks for sharing,


a.h.
I am learning my way around cgdgad, intervals are very similar to playing in drop d which I am familiar with but still with that open tuning sound. Strings are a bit floppy with 12's so I tune up one semi tone.

Last edited by Andyrondack; 09-04-2021 at 03:34 AM.
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Old 09-04-2021, 05:26 PM
AidenCook AidenCook is offline
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Been playing around with DACGCE- it's the tune used in for of my favourite fingerstyle pieces (see below); it has a beautiful, almost haunting open sound.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-3GVc22gXQ
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Old 09-04-2021, 07:04 PM
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Originally Posted by AidenCook View Post
Been playing around with DACGCE- it's the tune used in for of my favourite fingerstyle pieces (see below); it has a beautiful, almost haunting open sound.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-3GVc22gXQ
Interesting sound.
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Old 09-05-2021, 06:54 AM
Andy Howell Andy Howell is offline
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I play almost always solo stuff in alternate tunings.

DADGAD you know — more versatile than people think.

CGCGCD (C sus 4) — a great tuning for traditional stuff but also some up-tempo blusier stuff.

CGCFCD (C sus 2 sus 9) Only one tone dropped (3rd G to F) but for me a flatter an more neutral sounding tuning _ pretty easy to move from DADGAD to this.

DGDGCD (Gsus 4) More harmonically interesting to me than Open G — s a variant you tune bottom string down to C.

Using them live I can pretty quickly change tunings if I have the set list planned.
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Old 09-06-2021, 09:03 AM
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I dabble with one occasionally I was actually at this symposium



Here is the song he mentions

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Old 09-09-2021, 10:09 PM
AH Acoustic AH Acoustic is offline
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Everyone who has responded:

Thank you for sharing your insights.

My strings are getting a workout from shifting tuning to try some of these out.

At the moment, I'm trying out the CGCGCD tuning shared on Al Petteway's 'Broken Mist' for a while to see what sparks.

I like that the tuning can be shifted major or minor very easily, and the suspension inherent in the string intervals.

All of your responses are very much appreciated!

-a.h.
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  #13  
Old 09-10-2021, 02:44 AM
JonPR JonPR is offline
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If you want a real rabbit-hole of alternative tunings, no one beats Joni Mitchell:
https://jonimitchell.com/music/tuningpatterns.cfm

These Martin Carthy videos are worth watching too:

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Old 09-10-2021, 06:00 AM
Norsepicker Norsepicker is offline
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Something else you can try with CGCGCD tuning is getting the sound of classical Indian music. A lot of the lot music is played ascending and descending on the first string as well as other strings, and the bass strings work nicely to give a drone effect.
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Old 09-10-2021, 08:25 AM
FrankHudson FrankHudson is offline
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A tuning I thought I "discovered" CGDGBE (droping the low E to C, A string to G) is one I still use from time to time.

Turns out, it was a known and used alt tuning I just hadn't heard of. Nice low tones from the bass strings, and by moving which of the bass strings you strike as the root or lowest note, you have some easy choices in the keys of (or off the forms of, if you are capoing) C and G like one has in E and A in standard.
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