The standard tuning for the guitar, starting with the top string (which is your thickest string), is E, A, D, G, B, E. When you learn guitar chords, the reason that they sound the way they do is because of this tuning. That’s why when your strings are out of tune (either too tight or too loose), your guitar can sound like a train wreck, and people run away from you as you play.
There are alternate tunings for the guitar, the most common of which is called “Dropped D” tuning. To get to Dropped D tuning, simply loosen your top string, E, down a step in the musical alphabet to D.
Sidenote: if you don’t know about the musical alphabet, it’s — A, B, C, D, E, F, G, A, B, C, D, E, F, G with the sounds getting higher as you go forwards. If you look at E in the chain of notes, notice that D comes before E, therefore D is a lower sound, and that’s why they call it “Dropped D,” because it’s literally lower in sound.
There’s also tunings where you take EVERY string and lower it by a step in the musical alphabet, so E becomes D, A becomes G, D becomes C, etc.
Here’s a list of alternate tunings you can experiment with, you’ll need a guitar tuner! Remember the first letter in the series is your TOP string, the thickest string. You’ll have to think about how to get to the letter. If you start with an E, you’ll be going LOWER to get to C, because the alphabet is A, B, C, D, E, F, G. Notice that C is two steps LOWER than E. Give it a try!
Open C: C, G, C, G, C, E
Open D: D, A, D, F#, A, D
Modal D: D, A, D, G, A, D
Open D Minor: D, A, D, F, A, D
Open G: D, G, D, G, B, D
Modal G: D, G, D, G, C, D
Open G Minor: D, G, D, G, A#, D
Open A: E, A, C# E, A, E
The word “open” in this case means that all of your strings are tuned to sound like a nice chord without having to put your fingers down on any of the frets. Modal is a word in music theory that basically means a shift in starting position in the alphabet. So, instead of starting on A, you could rewrite the alphabet like this, F, G, A, B, C, D, E
Much Respect,
The Musician’s Toolbox
It may be said that the French Revolution was the “real” revolution, and that, to be sure, the world was never the same following the events that transpired during the 18th Century. This article will explore the na-
Ha ha! Gotcha!
What are you doing reading this???!!!
Go practice!
Tongue-In-Cheek,
The Musician’s Toolbox
Well, in a nutshell, you’ll need to know your major and minor chords first.
But the most commonly used chords are probably:
G, Em, C, D, Am, F, E, A, and Dm.
Start with those first and then fill in the blanks as you go along.
Of course, you should order the Learn Guitar Chords DVD to learn over 100 of the most commonly used guitar chords!
But, we’re biased.
Much Respect,
The Musician’s Toolbox
Learn to play guitar harmonics and transform your guitar into a zen garden of soothing sounds.
Harmonics are naturally occurring places on the string that when lightly touched split the resonating string into different proportions and produce new sounds. These places along the strings are called “nodes” and they are easy to find because they are mathematically and visually easy to understand.
Learn To Play Guitar Harmonics
Here’s what I mean:
For example. Play your E6 string. (The big, thick one). Now, lightly touch the string right over the 12th fret (don’t actually press it down, just lightly touch it) and pluck the string. You should hear a humming tone, it’s not too bright or jangly, but your guitar string should sound a little more mellow. What you’re hearing is the octave harmonic, you’re hearing the next E up the scale from the lower “open” E string sound.
Guess what? The 12th fret is the halfway point of your string stretched from the bridge to the nut (the two points from which the guitar string vibrates to produce sound). The halfway points (12th fret) on each string will produce the octave harmonic.
There are also “built-in” harmonics on the 1/3rd and 2/3rd’s points of the string. Can you visually divide your E string into thirds? About where would the harmonic node be 1/3rd of the way up the string? If you guessed the 5th fret, you’re smart.
Ok, bla bla bla, just tell me where all the harmonic nodes are!
You can find the tones on the 3rd (difficult to hear, takes practice), 5th, 7th, 9th, 12th, 15th, and 17th frets. There are more, but you’ll have to experiment to find them. Use your ears and listen for sounds on top of sounds.
Remember, just lightly touch the string, don’t press it down into the frets. You should hear glorious tones, not jangly steel strings.
Much Respect,
The Musician’s Toolbox
No one’s going to practice the guitar for you. And there’s no magical button to press that will make you into an enchanted guitar elf with magical guitar elf skills. (Sorry, been playing too many video games). Ahem…
Learn to play your guitar by actually practicing. What a thought. Everyone else will tell you that all you have to do is this “trick” here, or just subscribe to my “I’ll Make You A Guitar Hero In 10 Minutes” blog.
Oh, Please.
That kind of advertising may have worked on our parents, but not us. We know better. Yes, Yes, we KNOW it actually takes work to get good at something. Just look at the Karate Kid. Man, did that guy have it rough for a few months. But you know what, that Crane Kick move was pretty epic, and he got the girl. How?
Practice.
Alright, so, here I am, yelling it from the rooftops, and there’s only one thing left for you to do. Stop surfing the mindless web (except of course for when you read our fabulous blog to get a kick in the, well, motivational area…) and go practice for a half an hour.
You’ll get better if you do.
Much Respect,
The Musician’s Toolbox
