Did you know that musicians can use their guitar tuners to put their instruments into non-standard tunings? That’s right — you don’t always have to tune to EADGBE. In fact, using guitar tuners to switch up your tuning is a great way to expand your horizons, hone your ear, and have even more fun playing.
Here are a few cool tunings you should use guitar tuners to check out!
Dad Gad
The “Dad Gad” tuning is DADGAD — so it’s pretty easy to remember. Low E goes down to D, B is tuned down a whole step to A, and the high E is tuned down to D as well. After using guitar tuners to put your strings into the Dad Gad tuning, you’ll be able to play some of the most joyous major chords and some of the most haunting minor chord voicings.
Open G
Another favorite way for musicians to screw around with their guitar tuners is Open G. This involves leaving the A, D, and G strings unchanged, while lowering E to a D, A to a G, and the high E to a D. In this tuning, you can play any major chord just by barring the fret! For a good idea of how this sounds, check out the opening riff of the “Honky Tonk Women,” by the Rolling Stones.
Drop D
This is perhaps the most famous and popular alternate tuning. It’s also so easy that you don’t even need guitar tuners to get there. Just strum the first three strings while lowering the E until it sounds like you’re playing a power chord and you’re there. The reason it sounds like you’re playing a D power chord is because, well, you are. That’s one of the main reasons why so many rock musicians use it — because barring the first three strings produces a power chord — making a lot of fingerings easier.
Online guitar shops have tons of awesome accessories for guitars, pieces of sound equipment, and other musical instruments for sale, but you don’t need to look farther than your gig bag for a cool way to diversify your sound. Guitar tuners are for more than tuning to EADGBE, so why not take advantage of that?
If you have any questions about playing around with guitar tuners, feel free to ask in the comments. More.