1 Alternate Tuning Guide by Bill Sethares New tunings inspire new musical thoughts. Belew is talented... But playing in alternate Alternate tunings let you play voicings and slide tunings is impossible on stage, retuning is a between chord forms that would normally be nightmare... strings break, wiggle and bend out impossible. They give access to nonstandard of tune, necks warp. And the alternative - carry- open strings. Playing familiar fingerings on an ing around five special guitars for five special unfamiliar fretboard is exciting - you never know tuning tunes - is a hassle. Back to EBGDAE. exactly what to expect. And working out familiar But all these "practical" reasons pale com- riffs on an unfamiliar fretboard often suggests pared to psychological inertia. "I've spent years new sound patterns and variations. This book mastering one tuning, why should I try others?" helps you explore alternative ways of making Because there are musical worlds waiting to be music. exploited. Once you have retuned and explored a Why is the standard guitar tuning standard? single alternate tuning, you'll be hooked by the Where did this strange combination of a major unexpected fingerings, the easy drone strings, 3rd and four perfect 4ths come from? There is a the "new" open chords. New tunings are a way to bit of history (view the guitar as a descendant of recapture the wonder you experienced when first the lute), a bit of technology (strings which are finding your way around the fretboard - but now too high and thin tend to break, those which are you can become proficient in a matter of days too low tend to be too soft), and a bit of chance. rather than years! Nevertheless, a standard is a standard, and nearly And the ‘practical’ reasons are becoming everyone who plays knows EBGDAE. It’s only less convincing with the introduction of MIDI a few folk musicians who use different tunings, guitar controllers, which do much more than just and they probably do it because they can’t play allow guitarists to play synthesizers. With the well enough, right? flick of a button you can change the tuning of all Er, well, maybe Leo Kottke knows what six strings; no messy out of tune strings, no he’s doing, and maybe Wm. Ackerman and broken strings, no extra guitars. And the alter- Michael Hedges are good, and maybe Adrian nate tunings themselves are no longer confined 2 by the mechanics of string widths and neck chords with only one finger! tensions. How about a tuning with six bass strings? The instrumental tunings are based on the A tuning that spans six octaves? String configu- tunings of modern and historical instruments rations that were impossible to manufacture with such as the mandolin (augmented for six string wood and gut can now be realized with a little play), the charango, the cittern, the oud, and MIDI magic. numerous others. Players of these instruments The Alternate Tuning Guide shows you may find the tuning and chord charts useful, but how to slip your guitar into all the popular guitarists will find some truly wonderful "alter- alternate tunings, shows you how to finger open nate" ways to tune. and bar chords, how to play representative scales, In the regular tunings, the strings are tuned and graphically displays the notes as they appear uniformly up the fretboard. This allows chord on the fretboard. Each tuning is briefly discussed forms to be moved up and down the fretboard and its strengths and limitations are examined, like a normal bar chord, and also sideways across helping you to get the most from your musical the fretboard. Learn a handful of chord forms in explorations. The Alternate Tuning Guide is a regular tuning, and you'll know hundreds of divided into four main sections, corresponding chords! to the four main types of alternate tunings: open, The special tunings are a miscellaneous instrumental, regular, and "special." collection of tunings most of which were created In the open tunings, the six strings are tuned and/or popularized in recent years by various to form a simple chord. This makes it easy to play singers and songwriters. unusual chordal combinations and interesting Explore these alternate musical universes tonal clusters by utilizing "drone" and "sus- with the Alternate Tuning Guides friendly chord tained" strings. Bottleneck slide and harmonics and scale charts. What are you waiting for... are wonderful in open tunings, because you can retune that guitar now. play full six string chords. And you can play bar 3 Alternate Instrumental Tunings Tunings Guide Balalaika E A D E E A 36 Charango X G C E A E 38 Cittern (1) C F C G C D 40 Cittern (2) C G C G C G 42 Dobro G B D G B D 44 Lefty E B G D A E 46 Overtone C E G A# C D 48 Pentatonic A C D E G A 50 How to Use the Alternate Tuning Guide Regular Tunings Standard Guitar EADGBE 4 Minor Third C D# F# A C D# 54 The Circle of Notes 8 Major Third C E G# C E G# 56 Transposing Chords 9 All Fourths E A D G C F 58 Aug Fourths C F# C F# C F# 60 An Example in Open G 10 Combining Chords 11 Mandoguitar C G D A E B 62 Using Octaves 11 Minor Sixth C G# E C G# E 64 The Four Tricks 12 Major Sixth C A F# D# C A 66 The Stuff Chords are Made Of 12 Special Tunings How to Build Chords and Scales 12 What About Other Tunings? 14 Table of Chord Intervals 13 Admiral C G D G B C 70 Cross Index of Tunings 14 Buzzard C F C G A# F 72 Table of Scale Intervals 15 Drop D D A D G B E 74 Face C G D G A D 76 Alphabetical List by Tuning 15 Four & Twenty D A D D A D 78 Open Tunings Hot Type A B E F# A D 80 Layover D A C G C E 82 Open C C G C G C E 18 Magic Farmer C F C G A E 84 Pelican D A D E A D 86 Open D D A D F# A D 20 Modal D D A D G A D 22 Processional D G D F A A# 88 Open D Minor D A D F A D 24 Slow Motion D G D F C D 90 Open G D G D G B D 26 Spirit C# A C# G# A E 92 Modal G D G D G C D 28 Tarboulton C A# C F A# F 94 Toulouse E C D F A D 96 Open G Minor D G D G A# D 30 Open A E A C# E A E 32 Triqueen D G D F# A B 98 4 Type of Tuning The Standard Tuning This page is intended to orient you to the presentation in the rest of the book. First, (down below) you see how the notes are laid out on the fretboard. The musical staff on the right shows how the strings are tuned. Corresponding MIDI note numbers are shown for those using a MIDI guitar controller. "Retune" shows how many half steps each step needs to be retuned from the standard tuning, and "fret" tells what fret to place your finger on in order to align the sounds - thus you place your finger on the 5th fret of the 6th string in order to make the two sound the same note. In other words, this shows how to tune the guitar. Then there are some small fretboards that show how to finger a few simple scales, and finally, a full page is devoted to cool chords that you can easily play in the tuning. Of course, you already know all this - for the standard tuning - but what about for other tunings? Read on... Standard Tuning 5 6 How to use the Alternate Tuning Guide retune your axe. Name of Tuning Those who can read music can read the notes directly from the musical staves and tune to The familiar EADGBE tuning is called the whatever other instrument is at hand. Standard tuning. Some tunings are named for the If a piano or other keyboard is nearby, the chord that is sounded when the open strings are note names can be used to tune the strings using played (Open G, D Minor). Some are named the following correspondance between keys of from an instrument that tunes in that same way the piano and notes. (charango, dobro, cittern). Some are named for the structural relationship among the strings (the All Fourths, Minor Sixth). Others are named after a song which uses the tuning (Admiral, Four and Twenty). Everything needs a name. Type of Tuning The row labelled “Retune” shows how far each string must be changed from the standard The tunings are divided into sections by the tuning. A zero means that the string is the same way the strings are organized: as in Standard. Plus numbers indicate that the ** In the open tunings, the open strings are tuned string must be tuned up while negative numbers to form a simple chord. mean the string must be tuned down. ** In the instrumental tunings, the strings are tuned to imitate an instrument. The “Fret” row tells where to fret in order to ** In the regular tunings, the strings ascend match the tone of the next string up. For example, uniformly from low to high. in Standard tuning you first fix the low E. Then, ** The special tunings are all those that don’t fit placing your finger at the 5th fret of the sixth into the above categories. string gives the note for the open 5th string. Similarly, Comments ** Press fret 5 of the 5th string to get the note for the 4th string. Often there are peculiarities or special fea- ** Press fret 5 of the 4th string to get the note for tures of the tuning that deserve comment. Each the 3rd string. tuning is different, each sounds unique, and each ** Press fret 4 of the 3rd string to get the note for has its own feel. the 2nd string. ** Press fret 5 of the 2nd string to get the note for Tuning and Retuning Instructions the 1st string. And you’re done. The major stumbling block for most guitar players (in terms of using alternate tunings) is the Other tunings use different frets, but the initial reluctance to retune the guitar. Remember procedure is identical. To get into the Open G how hard it was to tune to the Standard tuning tuning, for instance, note that the “Fret” row when you first started playing? Well... there’s reads 5 7 5 4 3. First, fix the low string at a D. good news. It's actually easier to tune to many of Then, the alternate tunings (especially the open tunings) ** Press fret 5 of the 6th string to get the note for than to tune to the Standard. the 5th string. The tuning information is all you need to ** Press fret 7 of the 5th string to get the note for 7 the 4th string. Thus the G major scale ** Press fret 5 of the 4th string to get the note for the 3rd string. ** Press fret 4 of the 3rd string to get the note for the 2nd string. ** Press fret 3 of the 2nd string to get the note for the 1st string. Voila! becomes the A major scale If you are using a MIDI guitar controller, then you will need to reassign the output of the controller or the input of the sound module, depending on your equipment. The MIDI note numbers are given for each string so that you can easily reprogram the controller or sound module. The details of the procedure vary depending on the manufacturer, so you will need to refer to Chord Charts your owners manual (shudder). If you are using a pitch to MIDI converter, The second page of each tuning contains you have two options. One is to retune the strings about 30 chords. These chords were chosen to as described above. The other option is to leave give a balance between open position and bar the controller in Standard tuning and to retune chords, between major, minor, and 7th chords, the sound module. The advantage of retuning the and to emphasize the strengths of the tuning. strings is that you can still mix the guitar sound The numbers on the tiny fretboards indicate with the synthesized sound. The advantage of a suggested fingering for the chord where retuning electronically is that you can switch 1 - first finger between tunings instantly with a patch or pro- 2 - second finger gram change command to your sound module. 3 - ring finger 4 - pinky The Fretboard Small circles above the fretboard indicate that the string can be played open (unfretted). The note names appear differently on the You should always play chords in the most fretboard depending on how the guitar is tuned. comfortable way. Since everyones hands are The stylized fretboard is handy when you wish to different, and everyones experience differs, feel pick out particular notes (for a melody line, free to either use or ignore the suggested finger- perhaps) or when you wish to make up your own ings. Even the experts can’t always agree. The chords and scales. “A” type bar chord, for instance, is fingered in different ways in different books. Scales A few scales are given for each tuning. The darkened circles are the roots (starting notes) of the scale. Scales can be transposed just like chords. For instance, to play an A major scale in the Open G tuning, shift the whole pattern of the G major scale up two steps. 8 How to use the Alternate Tuning Guide Some chords have a number to the right of the fretboard, indicating that the chord should be placed up the fretboard at this fret. Thus the A minor 7 chord from the Open G tuning chart is fingered as shown. The circle of notes describes the order of notes on the fretboard of the guitar. For example, The next sections show how to easily transform the A string (string 5) begins with an A note. these 30 chord forms into a nearly unlimited Playing up one fret moves the A to an A# (move number of useful chords using four simple musi- clockwise around the circle). cal tricks. The Circle of Notes A surprising number of useful insights about the musical universe are displayed in the circle of notes, which is like a clock face in which the hours of the day are replaced by the note names Up another fret is a B. Up one more is a C. C C# D D# E F F# G G# A A# B (pronounce C# as Sea sharp). These names are arbitrary. Any set of symbols would do - twelve numbers, twelve geometric figures, twelve months, twelve apostles, the twelve signs of the zodiac. For sanities sake, we stick with the tradi- tional names. But beware; tradition gives some notes two names C# is also called Db D# is also called Eb F# is also called Gb G# is also called Ab A# is also called Bb 9 Transposing Chords around and around the circle of notes, until you run out of frets. The circle of notes works for chords as well. Play an A minor chord in open position After the twelfth fret, the chords start repeating, Moving all the notes up one fret should give an since the circle of notes is only twelve notes long. A# minor chord Subchords Often, you can remove notes from a chord form to make it play easier, sound different, or even sound better. For example, the B minor chord above contains all the notes of the B minor chord that beginners learn Oops... it sounds terrible. What went wrong? We forgot about the two open strings. In order to move all the strings (including the open strings) up, use the first finger like the nut (the notched bar at the end of the fretboard). Thus it’s actually played as a bar chord with the first finger stretched across the fretboard. Thus the notes of the simplified B minor chord are a subset of the notes of this barred chord, and the simplified version is called a subchord. The B minor also contains other subchords that you may have noticed Now it’s smooth playing. Up another fret is a B minor. Up another is a C minor. In a very real way, all of these chords “come from” or “grow out of” a single chord form, the open position A minor. Similarly, other chord This pattern continues all the way up the fretboard, forms lead to whole families of playable chords 10 How to use the Alternate Tuning Guide via transposition (following the circle of notes) and the process of finding subchords (withhold- ing certain tones from a chord). The most impor- tant things to remember when using chord charts to play in alternate tunings is that each chord in the chart represents a whole family of related chords. An Example in Open G Tuning Starting at C, A is 3 steps counterclockwise and To see how these ideas work in an unfamil- 9 steps clockwise. Thus A will be either 3 frets iar setting, and to get you started playing in down from C or nine frets up from C, or both. alternate tunings, retune to the Open G tuning Since it’s impossible to move the chord down, (DGDGBD) by lowering the first, fifth and sixth move it up nine frets to the A major chord strings two steps apiece. Notice that strings 1 and 6 are tuned to octaves of the 4th string. Tune them down until they sound right. Similarly, string 5 needs to go down until it matches the 3rd string. It really is quite painless, and when you’re done, strumming all six open strings sounds a beautiful G major chord. If you have problems retuning, check out the section on retuning again. Just as in the earlier example in standard Ready? Suppose you want to play a song tuning which used the open position A minor that uses the chords G, D, and A major. In the chord to find B minor chords, the open strings chord chart there are three different G majors must be moved into bar chord form and the other (more on this later) and one D. But no A! fingers must readjust to maintain the finger pat- Let’s find some A major chords. First, take tern. stock of the chordal resources. There are G, C, Starting at D, A is 5 steps counterclockwise and D major chords shown, and 7 steps clockwise, indicating that the open position D chord must be moved either down 5 or up 7 frets. Since it is again impossible to move down, move up. which suggests that we should be able to find at least three different A major chords by transpo- sition. The circle of notes shows that A is two But wait... I don’t have that many fingers! steps clockwise from G. Consequently, an A The open D major chord already uses all four chord should be two frets higher than G. fingers. If we try to bar with the first finger and to play the complete chord, then we run out of fingers. Thus there is no way to play a full six string A major chord at the 7th fret. But we can