What are your favorite alternate tunings and why?

[Dustinfurlow]

Just as the title says!

Looking to try something new.

[Johnny K]

Open D

Add a capo @ 2nd fret and you get Open E, and can play Little Martha.

2 for one!

Why? It's a tuning that sounds to me more soulful than Open G.

[islandguitar]

Hey Dustin!

I've been "stuck" in CGCGCD tuning (capoed) for a little bit!! LOL! Also looking to branch out a bit as there are so many alternate tuning possibilities.
I came into this tuning via getting to know Al Petteway's "Broken Mist". I actually confirmed with him via email that this is the tuning for that song.
Some videos on line show this tune and the chord grips he works with for starters.

Also, DGDGBE (capoed).........this came from looking at Tommy E's "Antonella's Birthday ( one you don't see too often). While I don't play that tune, I've had several originals in this tuning and one currently that I've just finished called "Playground Melody" which I hope to record fairly soon.

Although I have a bunch of my own tunes in standard or dropped D, these two and of course DADGAD seem to bring out chord/ melodies I look for and fit with my picking patterns.

Thanks for the thread.......interesting to see more responses!
Fred

[Tahitijack]

Taro Patch tuning which is also known as open G. I only play slack key songs in this tuning so it's on my Taylors Koa. Aloha.

[Dru Edwards]

DADGAD for that Celtic / Nova Scotia feeling
Open Dm for that dark mood.

[David Eastwood]

Open D for me - DADF#AD. It suits my noodling tendencies, and is kind to my aging fingers if I go a while without playing.

Open G (DGBGBD) and Open C (CGCGCE) are close favourites, and make the occasional appearance. I'd love to DADGAD, but have never really found a voice there.

[TBman]

I like dadgad, cgdgcd, cgcgcd and cgdgad. I also like a few tunes in dad#fad.

For no particular reason except for the tunes themselves.

I've been in dadgad for quite a while and now lately back into cgdgcd. I'm getting into Stephen Wake's music and he does a lot in cgdgcd.

[RodB]

I like to use Drop D a lot, DADGAD, Open G sometimes, and DGDGBE.

A partial capo can be interesting. I use a 5-string capo to give a pseudo Drop E and really like the combination of DGDGBE with the 5-string capo. You might find that one interesting...

[Bikewer]

The only one I use is open “G” for playing slide...On my 4-string cigar-box resonator.
G works well for me as I can sing in that key.

[Dustinfurlow]

Thank you for all the responses guys!! Keep em coming

[ezcawi]

To contrast the drop-X tunings from other posts, I like FACGCE and FACFCF. I found them through learning some Don Ross songs, and they both have a nice twang and some interesting moveable chord positions.

[RGWelch]

Originally Posted by Johnny K

Open D

Add a capo @ 2nd fret and you get Open E, and can play Little Martha.

2 for one!

Why? It's a tuning that sounds to me more soulful than Open G.

I think the original Little Martha was in E-flat, so you could capo on first fret also. But I just play it in open D. Also, can easily go from standard tuning to drop D, to double drop D, to open D with songs to play in each tuning is fun and productive. I'm looking for more things to play in double drop D, so far I have Blackwater and Going to California. I know Neil Young used it some, but haven't learned any of those yet.

[blews]

Open G for sure.....love it - great for slide - can get bluesy with it and melodic as well.....love the alternating picking options compared to Open D.....

[Mycroft]

Mostly Open G (low bass, 515135), Open D (151351) and Open C (151513). One thing tht I like is that anything learned on one can be moved over one or two strings and played in another. I first started in Open G, in part because of songs that I liked and in part because it is the easiest to move too from standard, given you leave the 2nd, 3rd and 4th strings untouched, and of the other three, two are both dropped from E to D. Then I learned Open D. Open C came last, due to wanting to learn the Stones version of "You Gotta Move." (Although Fred McDowell played it originally in Open D, which I picked up. I suspect that Keith changed it to better suit Jaggers voice) I've since picked up a few other things in Open C - Bruce Cockburns "Foxglove," our own Howard Emersons "And Why Not...," some Peter Case stuff. I also do a few variations on the big 3, such as Open C6 for Zep's "Bron-Yr-Aur," Open Dm.

Of the three, I like Open D the best. It feels darker, blusier, while Open C feels pretty upbeat and peppy. Open G somewhere in between the two. And the other reason is that Open D gives the most inversion variations at any given fret, which means that you can vary the character of any given chord more ways by varying the octave of the notes of the triad, and by how they are stacked.

Of course, High bass Open G, or Dobro tuning (135135), gives even more inversions, but there is no way that I would use that on a regular guitar, given the need to tune both the 5th and 6th strings up 1 and 1 1/2 steps respectively. I do also play lap-style, and have used it on my old Silvertone with a nut riser. But I do not use it on my Weissenborns or the old Kay. The Dunn is designed for Open D (even has that and the suggested gauges written on the inside), while the longer neck Kay is tuned down to Open C from Open D (151351) and the Rayco Baritone, with a 30" scale, is in Open A (Also 151351. Capo at the 5th fret and you are in Open D)

Have fun.

[philjs]

Originally Posted by Dustinfurlow

Looking to try something new.

Have you considered partial capos? I took lessons in the early '90s from Don Ross and did the whole "change-your-tuning-for-every-piece" thing for awhile but I got tired of breaking strings (and really suck at tuning on the fly) so decided to concentrate on Dsus4 (DADGAD) tuning, since I was coming to fingerstyle guitar from the Celtic side of things. But for the past 10 or so years I've drifted away from Celtic fingerstyle and have come back to writing contemporary acoustic music...using partial capos to achieve a pretty broad selection of "tunings" without having to tune a single string.

For example, take any capo capable of capoing only the 4 outside strings (some clamp-type capos can do this, eg. PW Dual or Tri-action, but I modify Shubb radius version banjo capos by adding rubber behind the neck to keep the capo from tipping up off the outside string which allow me to fret above, and open strings, behind the capo and move quickly from one side of the capo to the other) and put it on the outer 4 strings on the 3rd fret on a DADGAD-tuned guitar and you get DAFBbCF, a pretty nice Dm (sort of) chord. Move it up to the 4th fret and you've got DAF#BC#F#, in other words, a D major chord.

Experiment with using it on either side (bass or treble) at a variety of frets...it's pretty amazing the "tuning" variations that you can come up with. Experiment, too, with an Esus4 capo, in either Esus4 or A positions at the 2nd, 3rd or 5th frets, or cut the tip off a Shubb 5-string "drop-D" capo so that it only capos the inner 4 strings. The possibilities, just in DADGAD alone, are nearly endless...I've recently begun using then in Dsus2 tuning (DADEAE) as well...a whole new world!

For more info on the capos I use in DADGAD, see the PDF "DADGAD and Using Partial Capos" on my website...hopefully it'll give you some insight and ideas.

Phil