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This list of guitar tunings supplements the article guitar tunings. In particular, this list contains more examples of open and regular tunings, which are discussed in the article on guitar tunings. In addition, this list also notes dropped tunings.
Major open-tunings give a major chord with the open strings.
Used by Jimmy Page on "In My Time of Dying"" and Jack White on "Seven Nation Army"
Used by Nickelback on "Should've Listened", Devin Townsend in recent years, and Big Wreck on "Albatross".
This open C tuning was used by William Ackerman for his "Townsend Shuffle" and by John Fahey for his tribute to Mississippi John Hurt. This tuning is also commonly used by John Butler on his 12 string guitar. [1]
The English guitar used a repetitive open-C tuning that approximated a major-thirds tuning.[2]
This open-C tuning gives the initial harmonic series when a C-string is struck.[4] The C-C-G-C-E-G tuning uses the harmonic sequence (overtones) of the note C. When an open-note C-string is struck, its harmonic sequence begins with the notes (C,C,G,C,E,G,B♭,C).[3][4] This overtone-series tuning was modified by Mick Ralphs, who used a high C rather than the high G for "Can't get enough" on Bad Company. Ralphs said, "It needs the open C to have that ring," and "it never really sounds right in standard tuning".[5]
Open-D tuning was used by Joni Mitchell for her "Big Yellow Taxi" and by The Allman Brothers for their "Little Martha".[6] Open-D tuning has been called Vestapol tuning.[7]
This alternative Open D tuning (and its downtuned variations) is frequently used by Mark Tremonti guitarist for the bands Creed, Alterbridge and The Tremonti Project. It was also used by Keith Richards on "Jumpin' Jack Flash" and the Stone Roses in "Love Spreads".
C-F-C-F-A-C is the more common of the two. Used by
F-F-C-F-A-C is also used by Dave Mason on "Only You Know and I Know"
Open G was used in rock by Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin in the songs "Dancing Days", "That's The Way" and "Black Country Woman", Keith Richards of The Rolling Stones as well as in Mississippi blues by Son House, Charley Patton, and Robert Johnson, and in "Fearless" by Pink Floyd.[8]
Listing the initial six harmonics of the G note, this open-G tuning was used by Joni Mitchell for "Electricity", "For the Roses", and "Hunter (The Good Samaritan)".[9] It was used by Mick Ralphs for "Hey Hey" on Bad Company's debut album.[5] and on the Meowtain song "Alleyway"
The following open-tunings use a minor third, and give a minor chord with open strings. To avoid the relatively cumbersome designation "open D minor", "open C minor", such tunings are sometimes called "cross-note tunings". The term also expresses the fact that, compared to Major chord open tunings, by fretting the lowered string at the first fret, it is possible to produce a major chord very easily.[13]
Cross-note or open E-minor was used by Bukka White and Skip James.[14]
Cross-note tunings include (low to high):
In modal tunings, the strings are tuned to form a chord which is not definitively minor or major. These tunings may facilitate very easy chords and unique sounds when the open strings are used as drones. Often these tunings form a suspended chord on the open strings. A well known user of modal tunings is Sonic Youth.
In extended chord tunings, the open strings form a seventh, ninth, or eleventh chord.
A compact tuning that fits within one octave and covers the chromatic scale between open strings and the first fret.
In the minor-thirds tuning, every interval between successive strings is a minor third. In the minor-thirds tuning beginning with C, the open strings contain the notes (c, d♯, f♯) of the diminished C chord.[21]
Major-thirds tuning is a regular tuning in which the musical intervals between successive strings are each major thirds.[22][23][24] Unlike all-fourths and all-fifths tuning, major-thirds tuning repeats its octave after three strings, which again simplifies the learning of chords and improvisation.[25]
Neighboring the standard tuning is the major-thirds tuning that has the open strings
A lower major-thirds tuning has the open strings
which "contains two octaves of a C augmented chord".[23]
This tuning is like that of the lowest four strings in standard tuning.[27][28] Jazz musician Stanley Jordan plays guitar in all-fourths tuning; he has stated that all-fourths tuning "simplifies the fingerboard, making it logical".[29]
Between the all-fifths and all-fourths tunings are augmented-fourth tunings, which are also called "diminished-fifths" or "tritone" tunings.[30]
All-fifths tuning is a tuning in intervals of perfect fifths like that of a mandolin, cello or violin; other names include "perfect fifths" and "fifths".[31] It has a wide range, thus it requires an appropriate range of string gauges. A high b' sting is particularly thin and taut, which can be avoided by shifting the scale down by several steps or by a fifth.
All-fifths tuning has been approximated by the New Standard Tuning (NST) of King Crimson's Robert Fripp. It has a wider range than standard tuning, and its perfect-fifth intervals facilitate quartal and quintal harmony.
Ostrich tuning is a tuning where all strings are tuned to the same note over two or three octaves,[32] creating an intense, chorused drone and interesting fingering potential.
Drop tunings lower the sixth string, dropping the lowest E string of the standard tuning. Some drop tunings also lower the fifth string (A note in standard tuning). A drop one tuning lowers the pitch by one full step.
Some of these may require a baritone guitar due to the string tension required for extremely low notes. Others can be achieved using a capo and/or a partial capo.
What matters for the purposes of fingering is the relative relationship among the strings. For example, a dropped B tuning has all strings tuned to different notes than a standard tuning, but the strings have the same relationship to each other as a drop D tuning (where only the 6th string differs from standard tuning), and as a result the fingerings are nearly the same as for standard tuning.
Many of the terms below are ambiguous in whether only the 6th string is tuned down (a "drop N" tuning in the standard key of E), or all strings are tuned down, with the 6th tuned down more than the others (usually a "drop 1" tuning in some other key). For example, a "drop C tuning" usually refers to a "drop 1" tuning in the key of D, i.e. the 6th string is tuned down two whole steps and all others down one whole step. This is equivalent to a standard drop D tuning with all strings turned down a whole step. However, another "drop C tuning" is a "drop 2" tuning in the key of E, i.e. the 6th string is tuned down two whole steps and the others left alone. The former uses standard drop D fingerings, like all "drop 1" tunings, while the latter requires its own fingerings because of the different relative relationship of the 6th string to the others.
Other variant drop tunings tune two different strings differently. Tuning both the 1st and 6th strings down the same amount is common enough to warrant its own name (see "double-dropped tunings" below). However, there are other possibilities. For example, the Foo Fighters song "Stacked Actors" uses a tuning AADGBE with the 6th string retuned to form an octave on A. This involves dropping the 6th string down a perfect fifth. This is sometimes called a "dropped A" tuning because the lowest string is tuned down to A; but it is different from either the "dropped A" variant of drop D (drop 1 in the key of B) or the less common "dropped A" used by Black Label Society, Mastodon and Periphery (drop a 4th in the key of D).
These tunings are derived by systematic increases or decreases to standard tuning.
Derived from standard EADGBE, all the strings are tuned lower by the same interval, thus providing the same chord positions transposed to a lower key. Lower Tunings are popular among rock and heavy metal bands. The reason for tuning down below standard pitch is usually either to accommodate a singer's vocal range or to get a deeper/heavier sound.[33]
From standard EADGBE, all the strings are tuned up by the same interval. String tension will be higher. Typically requires thinner gauge strings, particularly the first string which could be as thin as six thousandths of an inch (about the thickness of a single human hair). A capo is typically preferred over these tunings, as they do not increase neck strain, etc. The advantage of these tunings is that they allow an extended upper note range versus a capo used with standard tuning which limits the number of notes that can be played; in some cases, instruo B♭ or E♭ (such as saxophones, which were frequently encountered in early rock and roll music) are more easily played when the accompanying guitar plays chords in the higher tuning. If standard gauge strings are used, the result is often a "brighter" or "tighter" sound; this was a common practice for some bluegrass bands in the 1950s, notably Flatt & Scruggs.
Similar to the dropped tunings, except that both the 1st and 6th strings are dropped one full step.
Often vocalized as "Dad-Gad", DADGAD is common in Celtic music. In rock music, has been used in Led Zeppelin's "Kashmir".[8] Pierre Bensusan is another noted exponent of this tuning. The post-metal group Russian Circles also employ this tuning, and also plays it in the form of all the notes becoming a half-step down: D♭-A♭-d♭-g♭-a♭-d♭'.
Three down-tuned variations are used by the band Sevendust: A drop C variation, or C-G-c-f-g-c'. (used on the song "Unraveling"), a drop B variation, or B'-F♯-B-e-f♯-b, and a drop A# variation, or A♯'-F-A♯-d♯-f-a♯. Neighboring tunings D-A-d-e-a-e' and C-G-c-d-g-a have been used by Martin Carthy. Also D-A-d-a-a-d', was used by Dave Wakeling on the English Beat's 1983 "Save It For Later".
Nicknamed - "Papa-Papa". DADDAD is common in folk music (Irish, Scottish), and for the execution of a rhythm guitar in "heavy" (alternative music) on 6 th on the third string at the same time. To reach the tuning from DADGAD, Open D or Open D Minor, the G string is dropped to D so that the 3rd and 4th strings are tuned to the same pitch. DADDAD tuning is sometimes used on Dobro guitars for rock and blues. Notable users of this tuning include Billy McLaughlin, John Butler, and João Silva, guitarist of the well-acclaimed Portuguese punk band, LEAF.
Essentially a cello tuning with the deeper four strings in fifths and the two highest strings in standard guitar tuning. Used by Foo Fighters on the song "Weenie Beenie"
Hybrid tuning between drop B-tuning and E-standard. Used by the band Karnivool for many of their songs.
Mi-composé is a tuning commonly used for rhythm guitar in African popular music forms such as soukous and makossa.[34] It is similar to the standard guitar tuning, except that the d string is raised an entire octave. This is accomplished by replacing the d string with an e' string and tuning it to d'.
Tuning used by Johnny Rzeznik of the Goo Goo Dolls on the song "Iris".
The open strings of a guitar can be tuned to microtonal intervals, however microtonal scales cannot be played on a conventional guitar because the frets only allow for a chromatic scale of twelve equally spaced pitches, each a semitone apart. It is possible to play microtonal scales on a fretless guitar, to convert a fretted guitar into a fretless, or to make a custom neck with a specific microtonal fret spacing.
Guitars can also be refretted to a microtonal scale.[35] On many refretted microtonal guitars, the frets are split, so that the tuning of each string is independent from the others. To enable an adjustable microtonal tuning, there exist guitars with frets that can be moved across the fingerboard.[36][37]
Extended techniques such as the 3rd bridge technique, slide guitar and prepared guitar techniques can be used to produce microtonality without severe modification to the instrument.
In his on-line guide to alternative tunings for six-string guitars, William Sethares mentions several that are inspired by instruments other than guitars, for example, balalaika (E-A-D-E-E-A), cittern C-G-C-G-C-G, and Dobro G-B-D-G-B-D.
Other tunings are inspired by guitars that do not have six strings.
Five string guitars are common in Brazil, where they are known as guitarra baiana and are typically tuned in 5ths. Schecter Guitar Research produced a production model 5 string guitar called the Celloblaster in 1998.[38] A five-string tuning may be necessary in a pinch when a string breaks on a standard six-string (usually the high E) and no replacement is immediately available.
Some basic five-string tunings include:
Similar to five-string bass guitar tuning, seven-string tuning allows for the extra string a fourth lower than the original sixth string. This allows for the note range of B standard tuning without transposing E standard guitar chords down two and a half steps down. Baritone 7-string guitars are available which features a longer scale-length allowing it to be tuned to a lower range.
The open C tuning for 7-string guitar was Devin Townsend's preferred tuning for the extreme metal band Strapping Young Lad (GCGCGCE).
These tunings have the added low 7th string tuned one full step lower allowing for chord structures similar to six-string drop tunings.
A continuation of the 7-string, adding another string a perfect fourth lower than the seven strings low B. The eight string guitars additional low F♯ string is just a whole step up from a bass guitars low E string. While luthiers have been building these instruments previously, mass-produced Eight-string electric guitars are a relatively recent innovation. Ibanez was first to offer a production eight-string guitar in March 2007.[40] Many other companies now produce mass-market eight-string models, yet these guitars remain relatively uncommon.
A continuation of the eight string, adding a string lower or higher.
A continuation of the nine string, adding another lower string to the standard or high A tuning.
On table steel guitar and pedal steel guitar, the most common tunings are the extended-chord C6 tuning and E9 tuning, sometimes known as the Texas and Nashville tunings respectively. On a multiple-neck instrument, the near neck will normally be some form of C6, and the next closest neck E9.
Necks with 12 or more strings can be used with universal tunings which combine the features of C6 and E9. On a 12 string pedal steel guitar, all 12 strings are tuned and played individually, not as 6 double courses as on the 12 string guitar.
On lap steel guitar there is often only one six-string neck. C6 tuning is popular for these instruments, as are open G, E6, and E7 tuning.
This tuning may also be used with a capo at the third fret to match the common lute pitch: G-c-f-a-d'-g'. This tuning also matches standard vihuela tuning and is often employed in classical guitar transcriptions of music written for those instruments, such as, for instance, "La Canción Del Emperador" and "Diferencias Sobre Guardame Las Vacas" by Renaissance composer Luis de Narváez.
Megadeth, Slayer, Grammy Award for Best Metal Performance, California, Iron Maiden
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