List of guitar tunings
→ Used by Nickelback on "Should've Listened", Devin Townsend in recent years, and Big Wreck on "Albatross".
David Wilcox also recorded his most famous songs, "Eye of the Hurricane" and "Rusty Old American Dream", both from How Did You Find Me Here, in this tuning, as well as "New World", "Show the Way", "Hold It Up to the Light", and his cover of "It's the Same Old Song" from Big Horizon, and "Mango" from East Asheville Hardware.
[5] Open-D tuning is used by Joni Mitchell for her "Big Yellow Taxi",[6] Nick Drake for "Place To Be", Alt-J for "Interlude 2", Boys Like Girls for "Thunder", Adrianne Lenker for "anything", Harry Styles for Matilda, David Wilcox for "Wildberry Pie", "Mighty Ocean", "Kindness", and "Never Enough", and by Soko for "No More Home, No More Love".
It was also used by Keith Richards on "Jumpin' Jack Flash" and the Stone Roses in "Love Spreads".
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, some songs by Alter Bridge (including down-tuned and minor variations on "In Loving Memory", "Watch Over You", "Wonderful Life", "Words Darker Than Their Wings", "Cradle to the Grave", and "Dying Light"), and in "Fearless" by Pink Floyd.
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)".
These tunings may facilitate very easy chords and unique sounds when the open strings are used as drones.
A compact tuning that fits within one octave and covers the chromatic scale between open strings and the first fret.
It has a wider range than standard tuning, and its perfect-fifth intervals facilitate quartal and quintal harmony.
Used by Soundgarden (E-E-e-e-e'-e') on the song "Mind Riot", and by Lou Reed in the Velvet Underground.
Nine Inch Nails uses a variation of this tuning (D-D-d-d-d-d) on the song “God Break Down the Door”.
Some lower tunings may call for a baritone guitar to more easily maintain high string tension and a rich tone.
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.
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.
DADGAD was developed by Davey Graham in the early 1960s when he was travelling in Morocco, to more easily play along with Oud music.
Due to this popularity it is sometimes referred to as "Celtic" tuning, although this is misleading given its origin and its primary early use in a quite different field of music.
Neighboring tunings D-A-d-e-a-e' and C-G-c-d-g-a have been used by Martin Carthy, and D-A-d-a-a-d' was used by Dave Wakeling on the English Beat's 1983 "Save It For Later" and by My Bloody Valentine on the song "Sometimes" from Loveless (1991).
The hybrid tuning with the 3rd string lowered a half-step to create a larger power chord, Also used by Karnivool.
Mi-composé is a tuning commonly used for rhythm guitar in African popular music forms such as soukous and makossa.
Tuning used by Grizzly Bear guitarist Daniel Rossen in "Sleeping Ute", the opening song of their album Shields.
This tuning was made by songwriter/composer Mr.Tom (Rawding) during the creation of an original indie folk instrumental "When You Stand By Me".
Promoted by Harvey Reid for use in combination with a partial capo, as a system which is easier for children to learn.
Used on the majority of Converge songs since Jane Doe Another tuning used by Converge, notably used on the title track from Axe to Fall Used on the Kristian Dunn of El Ten Eleven A combination of Drop Ab and Drop Db, Used by Mike Mushok on many songs, especially from Dysfunction and Break the Cycle.
To enable an adjustable microtonal tuning, there exist guitars with frets that can be moved across the fingerboard.
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: 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, or music inspired by this style, such as "Pavanna" and "Bicycle Tune" by John Renbourn.
Today, five-string guitars are common in Brazil, where they are known as guitarra baiana and are typically tuned in 5ths.
[66] 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.
Baritone 7-string guitars are available which features a longer scale-length allowing it to be tuned to a lower range.
