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We're joined by Don Ross to talk about some new tunings that you can use to inspire some creativity. Don Ross is an award-winning fingerstyle guitar player who specializes in playing in open and altered tunings. Try one of these tunings out and see if it adds some new life to your guitar playing.
C Minor 11 Tuning
C G Eb F Bb D
To put your guitar in this tuning, you'll need to tune your low E string down to a C, your A string down to a G, your D string up to an Eb, your G string down to an F, your B string down to a Bb, and your high E string down to a D. This tuning gives you a C minor chord on the lowest three strings and a Bb major chord on the top three strings. Playing all six strings at once gives you a C minor 11 chord.
DADEAE Tuning
D A D E A E
For this tuning, we'll tune the low E string down to a D, the A string will stay the same, the D string will stay the same, the G string will be tuned down to an E, the B string down to an A, and the high E string will stay the same. This tuning is similar to the popular DADGAD tuning, except that it's more focused on an A chord instead of a D chord.
Open F Major Tuning
F A C F C F
For this last tuning, we'll be putting the guitar under a fair bit of tension. However, we're specifically only tuning up strings that can handle it. Tune your low E string up to an F, your A string will stay the same, tune your D string down to a C, your G string down to an F, your B string up to a C, and your high E string up to an F. This tuning is easy to understand because when playing all the strings at once you're just playing an open F major chord.
Try these tunings out for yourself and see if one sticks. Using different tunings is a great way to breathe some fresh air into the guitar and possibly inspire some new musical ideas.
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