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  #1  
Old 01-05-2002, 03:50 PM
Muggy Muggy is offline
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Default Alternate tunings

Hello folks,

Who uses them and witch ones do you use?

I Keep one guitar tuned to open E all the time.When I get in a rut I go to it.It's good for blusey stuff.
The Black Crows use it quite a bit.

I fool around with DADGAD some.Stephen Stills uses it for Tree Top Flyer.
Thats about all I am familiar with.Anybody got some others they use?
Muggy
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  #2  
Old 01-05-2002, 07:02 PM
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I use

DADGAD
Drop D (DADGBE)
CGCGCE (This one's fun)

That's about as adventurous as I get. Except One of the Doyle Dykes Songs I "Try" to play is in DADF#BE.

Last edited by bnjp; 01-05-2002 at 07:06 PM.
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  #3  
Old 01-06-2002, 02:03 AM
jazzer jazzer is offline
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There's an article at www.acousticguitar.com on Joni Mitchell's tunings, she's the queen of tunings, according to this article she's never played (until recently) in standard tuning. One of my favorites of hers is CGDGBD, which is the tuning in which she plays a very cool song called "Cold Blue Steel and Sweet Fire". You could call that tuning C maj9 (if you wanted to). In high school I absconded w/ a book for a while that belonged to a friend of mine that had 3-4 of her albums in it, w/ all the tunings. Another one that's wild is GGDGBD, with the lowest string being tuned all the way down an octave below the G on the A string - get ready for some rattling, she uses this on some tune on the album "Blue", can't remember which song. Also check the postings re: Nashville high string tuning.
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Old 01-06-2002, 09:05 AM
Muggy Muggy is offline
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Jazzer,

That sounds interesting.I'm not real familiar with Joni Mitchell but sounds like I should be.

Muggy
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Old 01-06-2002, 04:05 PM
Aruthas Aruthas is offline
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I would recommand to eveybody interested in Joni Mitchell to take a look at this site: Joni Mitchell Discussion List. Lots of relevant information, tons of guitar tabs with tuning indications. My favorite albums of hers:
  • Don Juan's reckless daughter
  • Blue
  • Shadows and Lights (live)
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Old 01-08-2002, 12:10 AM
jazzer jazzer is offline
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Thanks, Aruthus, cool site - hey, another Joni fan. I haven't heard any of her stuff the last 15 years, quit listening after "Don Juan" (well, I did see her on that tour w/ Michael Brecker, Pat Metheny, Jaco, etc. - man, what a band!)
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Old 01-08-2002, 05:49 PM
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Speaking of alternate tunings, Neil Young uses them quite a bit. If you play a lot of Neil (as I do) and interested in a great resource for his different tunings as well as lyrics and chords, try www.hyperrust.org.

His tuning info is here (You'll find links to the songs on the right):
http://hyperrust.org/Music/?Tuning
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Old 01-11-2002, 12:00 AM
Muggy Muggy is offline
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Golfman,
I skimmed over the Neil Young site and it packed with info.It will take a while to digest.I dont play much N.Young,now I know why,alternate tunings,I have found that alot of people use them,much more than I thought.Maybe thats why I have had a hard time trying to play by ear sometimes.I can get the basic notes, then, I go bonkers.
Muggy
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Old 01-11-2002, 03:28 PM
MJH MJH is offline
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Maybe a simple question here, but, how do you know what the chord structures are. I'm pretty good with basic chords, but would like to try some thing else. I know that the GooGoo Dolls play a lot of alternate tunings and watching him play it looks like the structure is very simple, but I can't figure it out - by the way, I am talking about the soong "Iris."

Any help would be appreciated.

MJH
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  #10  
Old 01-11-2002, 04:12 PM
Aruthas Aruthas is offline
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MJH,

John Rzeznik (the Goo Goo Doll's front man) writes a regular article in the Guitar World Acoustic magazine about alternate tunings. Lucky for you, this month (#49) he covers Iris and you are right: the chord structure is really simple once you use his weird BDDDDD tuning.

How to figure out the chord structure? I see two ways. The first is by deduction. If you take the "standard" G chord 320003 (GBDGBG) and raise the low E string to F# (2 half-steps), then every note played on the first string must now be shifted 2 frets toward the nut to keep the same sound. Our G becomes 120003 for the same voicing (GBDGBG).

The second way involves actually knowing enough musical theory so you can use the new tuning to create different voicings for your chords, which I would expect is the real goal here. Lowering the low E to D (2 half-steps), you can have a G chord with the 020003 fingering (DBDGBG), since D is G chord's fifth and thus fits the chord nicely, but it will sound different now.
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Old 01-14-2002, 06:06 AM
axememan axememan is offline
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open 'e'..open 'g'...dropped 'd'...tune half a step down......thts about it
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Old 01-14-2002, 08:10 PM
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Default open tuning

Re: Goo goo dolls tuning. Wow. I'll have to try that.
LK
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  #13  
Old 01-15-2002, 09:44 AM
fretsandstrings
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DADGBD (double dropped D?) tuning--"Black Water" by the Doobies.
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  #14  
Old 01-23-2002, 06:30 PM
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CGCGCD............open c tuning... try that out, i like it just as much as e...oh and eacgce... i like the sound of that one too.

tony
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  #15  
Old 01-23-2002, 11:08 PM
CatchtheCat CatchtheCat is offline
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I use the following:
DADGBE
CGCGCE
DADF#AD
DGDGBD
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