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Tuning, though a universal guitaristic experience, rarely gets its dues. Few other instruments give as much freedom to choose a ‘starting canvas’ – unlike a piano, horn, or drum, the guitar can move fluidly between different tunings, opening up fresh geometries and spaces of the imagination at every turn. And, many facets of musical learning are unique to these zones…
The ‘World of Tuning’ explores how we can get the most out of our peg-twisting rituals. Stemming from my Guitar World lesson series, the project examines tuning horizons from multiple musical angles: practical, harmonic, historic, social, scientific, spiritual, and so forth. We take a global view, incorporating ideas from a worldwide variety of string traditions – India, Hawaii, Madagascar, Mali, and beyond…
—RESOURCES—
Menu of Tunings (100+) • Altered-tuned artists • Divine Indian drones • Global instrument tunings • Joni Mitchell’s stringed canvas • Alpha-melodic word-games • James Taylor’s puzzle • Double-siding: capo-harp hacks • Tales & quotes • Megatable: analytics • Glossary: tuning terms • Feedback
Everything here will stay perpetually open-access and 100% ad-free. Mainly, I hope these pages will bring creative joy, and catalyse fresh questioning around what we – and the guitar – are truly capable of.
How can we best utilise our tune-up time? Why don’t we choose our starting notes as we do our chords? What can we find in the guitar’s under-explored microtonal capabilities? And which global traditions offer unique insights?
• Menu of Altered Tunings (100+) •
In-depth database: ‘Palate expander’ of 6-string tunings from around the world – with notes, songs, origin tales, etc (see Tag List):
¡Random Tuning!
Std. | Drop | Open | Interval | Global | Artist | Misc.
All 100+ tunings (click to expand)…
EADGBE (‘Standard’) | Eb Std. (‘Hendrix’) | D Std. (‘Tone Down’) | Db Std. (‘Iommi’) | C Std. (‘Two-Tone Drop’) | B Std. (‘Baritone’) | F Std. (‘Raise’) | G Std. (‘Terz’) | Drop D | Double-Drop D | Drop C (‘Neon’) | Low Drop C | Drop A (‘Slack Thwack’) | Dmaj (‘Vestapol’) | Dmin (‘Bentonia’) | Dsus (‘DADGAD’) | Gmaj (‘Taro Patch’) | Gmin (‘Banjo Minor’) | Gsus (‘Sawmill’) | Cmaj (‘Wide Major’) | Cmin (‘Wide Minor’) | Csus (‘Wide Modal’) | Amaj (‘Spanish’) | Emaj (‘Vestapol’) | Emin (‘Cross-Note’) | Fmaj (‘Low Taro’) | Fmin (‘Low Banjo’) | All Min. 3rds (‘3s’) | All Maj. 3rds (‘4s’) | All Fourths (‘5s’) | All Tritones (‘6s’) | All Fifths (‘7s’) | All Min. 6ths (‘8s’) | AirTap! | Albert Collins’ Fm | Albert King’s F6 | Ali Farka Touré | Alphabet | Atta’s C | Bağlama (‘Saz’) | Banjo | Black Crow | Blown a Wish | Bruce Palmer | Cabbage | Carnatic Drone | Cello (‘Haircut’) | Charango | Coyote | Dracula | Drop DG | Ead-Gad | Equilibrium | Ethereal | Fuji | Funky Avocado | Gambale | Ghost Reveries | Godzilla | Gothic | Haja’s Bb | Hejira | I Only Said | Icarus | Iris | Jack’s Chikari | José González | Kabosy (‘Leonard’s C’) | Karnivool | Keola’s C (‘Wahine’) | Lefty Flip (‘Mirrored’) | Lute (‘Vihuela’) | Magic Farmer | Math Rock F | Mauna Loa C6 | Mesopotamian | Mi-composé (‘Elenga’) | Nashville | New Standard (‘Fripp’s NST’) | One-Tone Drone (‘Ostrich’) | Only Shallow | Orkney | Oud (Arabic) | Oud (Turkish) | Overtone Series | Papa-Papa | Papuan Four-Key | Pink Moon | Place to Be | Rakotomavo | Road | Schizophrenia | Square-Neck Dobro | Teardrop | Ten Years (‘Decade’) | Wind of Change | Yvette’s Dadd9 | Zen Drone (‘Dulcimeric’) | Zigzag Thirds (Maj.) | Zigzag Thirds (Min.)
• Altered-tuned artists: 13 innovators •
Prominent peg-twisters: A haphazard selection of global guitarists who have twirled at their headstocks to great effect…
Joni | Drake | Hedges | Pahinui | Page | Martyn | Mongrain | McKee | Gomm | Howard | D’Gary | Sonic Youth | MBV | More
• Global instruments: intriguing tunings •
Worldwide configurations: Look to global tunings for new inspiration – Indian sitars, Malian koras, Balinese gamelan, etc
Sitar | Kora | Santoor | Hang | Hardingfele | Gamelan | Tabla | Jaltarang | Well-tuned piano | Jaw harp | Palaeolithic flutes | Vocal cords | More
• Tanpuras: 26 divine Indian drones •
Longform drones: Heighten your overtonal awareness and inject psychedelic jam texture – HQ tanpura samples in all keys
Sa-Pa | Sa-ma | Alternates | Role | Mysticism | Origins | Build | Mechanics | Today
• Joni Mitchell’s 6-stringed canvas •
Lesson article: How does Joni’s ‘colour palette’ approach to tuning and songwriting draw from her lifelong passion for painting?
Early sparks | Hejira | Dulcimers | Joni’s paintings | This Flight Tonight
• ‘Alpha-melodics’: well-tuned words •
Linguistic layouts: What do spelling-derived tunings reveal? Beautiful BAGDAD, crunchy CABbAGE, dissonant DECADE…
Alphabet-melody | Guitar games | Challenge | Examples | Global word-music
• Tuning tales, quotes, & musings •
Direct insights: A slap-dash selection, from mosquito romance and wolf-howl illusions to death-legends of the Norwegian fiddle
Guitarists | Global traditions | Science & nature | Microtonalism | Misc.
• Glossary: tuning terms & definitions •
Conceptual clarity: Solidify your vibratory understanding with plain-term definitions, analogies, audio clips, & more
e.g. Anti-Pythagorean | Beau Geste effect | Binaural beats | Consonance | Hz | Imperfect root | Inharmonicity | Lefty involution | Magic temperament | Maqam | Meantone | Nada brahma | Non-octave scale | Overtone | Paucitonality | Pitch | Raga | Tetrachord | Tritave | Tuning | Undertone | Wolf fifth | Xenharmonic
• Megatable: hidden interrelations •
Comparison spreadsheet: Analysing all 100+ Menu tunings – intervals, tensions, Hz, etc. Please peer-review my DIY science!
Megatable | Basic dimensions | Generative fields | Other calculations
• Feedback: ideas & corrections •
Submit feedback: Help ‘tune’ the World of Tuning – send in your ideas, suggestions, corrections, etc (all credited!)
Also hit me up for online lessons!
• [‘Double-siding’: a DIY harp-capo hack] •
Dark sides of the strings: Tune to DADGAD, capo at 11fr, and pluck on ‘both sides of the bar’ for some ethereal 12-string magic
Accidental discovery | Two-sided fretboards | DADGAD cp.11 | Capo/tuning combos | Third bridge guitar | Global instruments | Questions
• [James Taylor’s string-stretching puzzle] •
Tuning puzzle: Can we accurately reach his microtonal ‘stretch’ without a tuner? And what is ‘inharmonicity’ all about?
Stretched tunings | What is inharmonicity? | The puzzle | Solution: basic beating | Solution: beat pairing | Evaluation | Practicals | More
[…coming soon…]
Click to preview soon-to-come extras: ear tuning, overtone scales, microtonal setups, social, spiritual, scientific dimensions, etc…
• [Tuning by ear: the best methods] •
Self-reliance: How to mix chords, melodies, harmonics, & fretmatches – and warm up your ears, hands, & musical mind
Why tune by ear? | Overview | Fret-matching | Melodic phrases | Chordal checks | Natural harmonics | Combinations | Considerations | More
• [Overtonal scales: invisible geometries] •
Natural harmonic sequences: Uncovering the hidden patterns of the ‘fretless fretboard’ via my ‘overtonal scale explorer’
Invisible fretboards | Techniques | Exploration methods | Overtonal scale sequencer | Discoveries | Global natural harmonics | Expanding the search
• [Microtonal guitar: the infinite spaces] •
Off-grid intervals: How can we harness the guitar’s expansive microtonal capabilities? Between the frets, around the world…
What is microtonality? | Necessary imperfection | Stretching | Sweetening | Going fretless | n-edo | Çoğulu’s designs | Quarter-tones | Overtones | Raga sruti | Meantone | Freestyle | In the studio | Ear training | More
• [Tuning: the ‘impatient meditation’] •
Multimedia essay: Examining tuning from multiple perspectives: Vedic myth to modern neuroscience via anti-colonial Andean folk
Tuning through time | Hawaii to the Himalayas | Nada brahma | Ritual dimensions | Global tuning metaphysics | What’s the point? | More
Open-access, ad-free pledge: This was mainly a labour of love/obsession – and it’s not really ‘my’ knowledge anyway (…I’m basically just the messenger/database admin). If you want to support me, hit me up for online lessons (Passion projects don’t, as yet, pay all the bills!)
• George Howlett | Rāga Junglism •
— rāga: ‘that which colours the mind’ —
(Dedicated to Nigel Tufnel: a true tuning connoisseur)
Search the Altered Tunings Menu (100+): type in notes, artists, adjectives, intervals, sequences, etc. Also see Tag List:
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—TUNINGS MENU—
Menu of Tunings (100+) • Altered-tuned artists • Divine Indian drones • Global instrument tunings • Joni Mitchell’s stringed canvas • Alpha-melodic word games • James Taylor’s ‘stretched’ puzzle • Double-siding: capo-harp hacks • Tales & quotes • Megatable: analytics • Glossary: tuning terms • Feedback
George Howlett is a London-based musician, writer, and teacher (guitars, sitar, tabla, & santoor). Above all I seek to enthuse fellow sonic searchers, interconnecting fresh vibrations with the voices, cultures, and passions behind them. See Home & Writings, and hit me up for Online Lessons!
everything here will remain ad-free and open access