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The universe of alternate tunings is a fascinating subject for a guitarist. Alternate tuning encompasses two areas: microtones and Western tuning. In Western tuning, you find that only 12 notes are used to create almost all of the music you can find today in analog or digital formats. With microtones, you find that the note variation can virtually be limitless. Microtones as a whole include the 12 notes in Western music, the notes in between those 12 notes, as well as every other frequency which can be produced with a musical instrument within the range of human hearing.
For a guitarist, the 12 notes appear on the fret board of a
guitar usually as standard tuning. Its standard tuning that produces the scale
and chord shapes all student of the guitar learn from their first day of
training. I suspect that nearly 90% of
all guitarists never explore alternate tunings or microtones, but instead
always use standard tuning for every one of their compositions. There’s nothing
wrong with composing in standard tuning, but composing in standard tuning has
its limitations and drawbacks.
First of all, it’s too easy to get lazy about learning new
ways to use the guitar. And once you get lazy about anything it’s typical to
fall into boredom because there’s no challenge, and because you’re not being
challenged, you can become frustrated. When you can’t find anything new and
everything kind of sounds the same, it’s hard to come back up because you lose
interest. Now while there might be lots of techniques to learn to make your
playing sound better or different, you never really learn anything new about
the guitar, fret board, or tuning. So the only options available to a guitarist
to get new sounds out of standard tuning is through learning more techniques, different
styles (blues, jazz, Bossa nova, etc.), and using pedals (electronics). Without
these approaches the sound of the guitar will essentially sound and feel the
same.
Alternate tuning techniques offer a great way to open up new
sonic possibilities on the guitar. Many professional self-taught and underrated
guitarists recommend alternate tuning techniques to their students who feel
stagnant about their creativity with the guitar. It’s because alternate tunings
force them to learn new scale and chord shapes as if they were new to the
guitar except the difference is that they have all the training of an
intermediate or advanced player. The moment you change the low “E” string down
to a “C” or tune the second and third strings to the “A” note, you
simultaneously changed the entire structure of the fret board. In the blink of
an eye, all of the scale and chord shapes you learned no longer apply.
One thing I like to do sometimes is remove or change the
sequence of strings on my guitars. For example, I have one guitar that I use to
explore microtonal music, which only has the 4 middle strings of the guitar. On
another guitar I recently acquired I found that the guitar was missing the “D”
string. When I unveiled this guitar I held it for a few minutes and started
playing it. After some minor adjustments to the strings I found several
beginnings to new material that needs further shaping. But my immediate
reaction to why someone was getting rid of it were “This person was only able
to play the guitar one way. They were not able to find the music the guitar
wanted to make, for whatever reason he wasn’t able to hear the guitar,” so
that’s why they were throwing it away. So this guitar only has 5 strings, two
low strings, and three higher strings with a gap between the 3rd and
5th strings. Needless to say I’ve kept it this way and am using it
for further alternate tuning study.
There are terrific little booklets available on- or off-line
that recommend different string settings, so if you find yourself a bit
overwhelmed at first, get a copy of one and try the recommended tunings in the
book. And remember if you find yourself writing new material in an alternate
tuning ALWAYS take notes and write down the tuning you used for that piece. Two
of my favorite alternate tunings are EADAAE for six strings and for 5 strings,
ADGB and E(flat), removing the 6th string. Try them. But if you
collect guitars then you might get to a point where you always use 1 or 2 of
your other guitars specifically for exploring alternate tuning. Now if you’re
determined you’ll have to let your training, your hands, your ears, and your
mind guide you through the new fret board environment. Many guitarists who use
this angle of approach report that a lot of new material pours out of their
guitars every time they change tunings. And I have no doubt that the same will
happen for you. The most wonderful thing about using alternate tuning
techniques is that the guitar can never get old. With alternate tuning
techniques you must be active beyond just playing notes and using various style
techniques, instead you must also reformat the fret board to a given mood or
changes in preference.
In Classical Indian music, the sitar players call this
approach to tuning for mood, times of the year, and song type – ragas. Ragas are
the ultimate alternate tuning system developed over thousands of years. Modern
guitarist can benefit from knowing a little about how ragas are used to give
the artist even more freedom of expression on their chosen instrument. With
alternate tuning you’ll also find that the resonance quality of your guitars
will change dramatically, and in some cases they may even sound like completely
different guitars. Also, harmonies will shift so you might find open strings or
doubled notes adding unusual characteristics to your composing. Even distant
notes sometimes come within reach to give you access to strange scale shapes
that leap rather than step up one note at a time. Through it all if you decide
to try alternate tuning you’ll notice your interest in the guitar will
increase, you’ll think more about the guitar, your ear and pattern recognition
will improve, and you’ll feel like you’re on a path of discovery.
To help get you going in this new field of
creativity, here’s a quick video showing how easy it is to set up a new tuning
and what kind of attitude is best for using this approach to playing the
guitar. I hope you enjoy it.______________________________________________________
Related Music (in alternate tunings):
DirtSlow
Snake
Jaam
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Related Articles:
The Essence of Music: Frequency, Timbre, and the Organization of Sound
Marc
http://stereothesis.com/
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