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As new students pick up a guitar, one of the first
things they learn is how to tune their instrument. The
accepted tuning, known as standard tuning, is EADGBE
and serves most guitarists quite well. In fact, standard
tuning has been in use practically since the guitar
was converted from a five-string to a six-string instrument
in the 17th century.
But why is standard tuning standard? Why is this combination
of major 3rds and perfect 4ths that define EADGBE superior
to other tunings? Or, is it really superior? Maybe it
is just a combination of factors having no bearing on
modern instruments. In fact, the guitar's lute lineage
and the relatively limited tensile strength of 17th
century strings probably has more to do with standard
tuning's dominance than any alleged magic musical formula.
Alternate tunings are simply any tuning of the guitar's
strings to something other than EADGBE. Why would a
player choose to leave the safety and comfort of standard
tuning? After all, a serious musician can spend a lifetime
exploring standard tuning and never master it. With
a wealth of teachers, teaching materials, and a common
musical language shared with other guitarists, alternate
tunings seem like reinventing the wheel to some players.
Still others find absolute freedom and wonder in alternate
tunings.
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Robert Johnson played many of his songs in alternate
tunings ranging from open A, open E, open G, open
Em, and even a "mystery" tuning that
no one knows for sure.
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In the U.S., alternate tunings rose in popularity with
the rise of the blues in the 1920s. The most popular
tuning in blues circles was open G, or DGDGBD. Open
G tuning may have been adapted from standard banjo tuning,
but there are two other commonly accepted theories as
well. First, in open G tuning, you can play a major
chord by holding one finger across all the strings.
That is, playing the open strings results in a G chord
and pressing all six strings down at the 5th fret results
in a C chord. The ease of playing 12-bar blues progressions
may have added to open G's popularity. Second, the reduced
tension of the strings (three are tuned down in this
tuning) may have made cheap guitars more playable. Another
common blues tunings is open E minor (EBEGBE), which
could be fretted to a major chord by raising the G to
G#. To this day, many blues player, especially those
using slide techniques, choose one of these tunings.
In many ways, innovation in alternate tunings jumped
back across the Atlantic Ocean in the 1950s. With the
folk craze in the United States, British players began
to explore their own heritage as well. Scottish and
Irish music is rooted in the open intervals and drones
that some alternate tunings provide. Those tunings quickly
became part of the arsenal for players exploring Celtic
forms. Likewise, other guitarists found that more complex
arrangements using chords that feature close intervals
and suspensions were easily played in alternate tunings.
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