A rundown of guitarists who regularly use multiple tunings in their work (haphazardly biased towards those I happen to listen to): notes, tracks, concepts, etc. Suggestions, expansions, and corrections encouraged!
—13 perennial peg-twisters—
- Joni Mitchell: the world’s most prominent altered tuner
- Nick Drake: intriguing, introverted folksy configurations
- Michael Hedges: hyper-tailored steel-string imagination
- My Bloody Valentine: many-pedalled shoegazing wails
- Sonic Youth: unison drones and avant garde drumsticks
- Gabby Pahinui: the all-time icon of Hawaiian slack-key
- Jimmy Page: prolific borrower of folksy arrangements
- John Martyn: dark, tender singer-songwriting realms
- Erik Mongrain: pristine, balanced, superlow compositions
- Andy McKee: consummate melody-inclined acoustic layouts
- Jon Gomm: mid-track peg-twirling & multi-tasking mayhem
- Ben Howard: slack strums, single strings, and partial capos
- D’Gary: mysteries and puzzles from a Malagasy virtuoso
- Further quirks: Legg, McLaughlin, differential 12-strings…
n.b. I’ve sought out the best sources, but some inaccuracy is inevitable (even if I had time to check each track, the string-set requirements would quickly bankrupt me). Several artists present note-diagnostic nightmares: e.g. MBV’s multi-pedalled drones require roadie notes to know for certain, and we’ll never know exactly what Nick Drake was up in his videoless bedroom sessions. Others, like Malagasy virtuoso D’Gary, prefer to shroud their innovations in mystery (read on…). Feedback welcome!
(‘cp.‘ = capo, ‘+/-‘ = transposition, ‘5>5>5>4>5‘ = fretting pattern)
• Joni Mitchell •
The polymathic Saskatoon songstress deserves her status as the world’s most prominent peg-twister, having used 50+ tunings to fantastic effect over the years. Joni’s EADGBE aversion draws from her lifelong passion for visual art: after all, what painter would stick to the same six colour pots each time?
- D-A-D-Gb-A-D (Open D): Blue on Blue, Amelia (-2), Court & Spark (cp.2), Both Sides Now (cp.4), Cactus Tree (cp.5), Night in the City (cp.5)
- D-A-D-F-A-D (Open Dm): Day After Day, Cara’s Castle, Harlem in Havana, The Pirate of Penance (…apparently all alliterative)
- C-G-D-F-C-E (Coyote): Don Juan’s Reckless Daughter, Coyote, Ladies of the Canyon (cp.2), Shadows and Light (-1)
- C-G-D-F-G-C (Hejira): Hejira, My Secret Place (+1), In France They Kiss On Main Street (+2 & cp.2)
- Ab-Ab-Eb-Ab-C-Eb (Banjo +1): This Flight Tonight, Electricity (cp.4)
- Bb-Bb-Db-F-Ab-Bb (Black Crow): Black Crow
- E-B-D-Gb-A-B (7>3>4>3>2): Dreamland, Song for Sharon (-1)
- More: See the excellent tunings, tabs, & technical tips on Joni’s website, plus a recent NPR interview – and also my full lesson on the roots of her musico-visual imagination (Joni’s stringed canvas).
“Every bass player I tried did the same thing: they’d put up a dark picket fence through my music…I thought, ‘why does it have to go ploddy ploddy ploddy?’ Finally one guy said to me, ‘Joni, you better play with jazz musicians’…”
• Nick Drake •
Largely unheralded in his own lifetime, the English singer-songwriter’s eloquent steel-string style now captivates guitarists the world over. Drake set his divine cluster-chord voicings on old, degraded strings, each twisted to suit his intricate fingerpicking sequences and pensive, soft-spoken vocals.
- E-A-D-G-B-E (Standard): River Man (cp.3), Time Has Told Me (cp.3), Things Behind The Sun (cp.4), Day is Done (cp.5), Horn (-1), Leaving Me Behind (possibly -2 & cp.2)
- B-E-B-E-B-E (Carnatic Drone): From the Morning (cp.1), Time of No Reply (cp.3), Man in a Shed (cp.3), Harvest Breed (cp.4), At the Chime of a City Clock (cp.4), Northern Sky (cp.4), Fly (cp.4)
- C-G-C-F-C-E (Pink Moon): Hazey Jane II, Pink Moon (cp.2), Hazey Jane I (cp.2), Parasite (cp.3), Which Will (-1), Hanging on a Star (-1)
- E-A-D-E-B-E (Road): Voice from the Mountain (cp.1), Road (cp.2)
- E-A-D-Gb-B-E (Lute): Cello Song (cp.6), Thoughts of Mary Jane (cp.6)
- C-G-C-F-G-E (Place to Be): Place To Be (cp.5)
- More: see Chris Healey’s tabs/tunings, and my tuning pages above – plus an illustrative BBC doc, and the heart-wrenching letter written to him by his sister Gabrielle three decades after his death
“I never felt magic crazy as this – I never saw moons, knew the meaning of the sea – I never held emotion in the palm of my hand – Or felt sweet breezes in the top of a tree…”
• Michael Hedges •
Probably the closest thing to a ‘Hendrix of the acoustic’, Hedges revolutionised the world of solo steel-string (…like Jimi, you can pretty much divide his instrument’s history into the ‘pre-‘ and ‘post-‘ eras). His energetic style relied on highly individualised tunings, with most tracks having their very own.
- D-A-D-G-A-D (Open Dsus): Ragamuffin
- B-A-D-G-A-D (Funky Avocado): The Funky Avocado
- C-F-C-G-A-E (Magic Farmer): The Magic Farmer
- D-A-D-G-B-D (Double Drop D): Running Blind
- A-E-B-D-E-A (Hejira -3): India
- C-C-D-G-A-D (12>2>5>2>5): Aerial Boundaries
- Db-Ab-Db-Gb-Ab-B (7>5>5>2>3): Jitterboogie
- D-A-D-G-C-C (7>5>5>5>0): Ritual Dance
- D-A-D-G-C-D (7>5>5>5>2): Baby Toes
- D-A-D-G-B-B (7>5>5>4>0): I’m Coming Home
- D-A-D-D-G-B (7>5>0>5>4): Ursa Major
- D-A-D-E-A-B (7>5>2>5>2): Jealous Tunnel/About Face
- D-A-E-E-A-A (7>7>0>5>0): All Along the Watchtower
- D-A-C-G-C-E (7>3>7>5>4): Layover
- C-G-D-G-A-C (7>7>5>2>3): Bensusan
- C-G-D-G-A-A (7>7>5>2>0): Holiday
- C-G-C-F-G-B (7>5>5>2>4): Aura Muunta
- C-G-D-G-A-D (7>7>5>2>5): I Want You
- A-B-E-Gb-A-D (14>5>2>3>5): Hot Type
- A-A-D-G-B-D (12>5>5>4>3): The 2nd Law
- More: the long-running Rootwitch site, string gauging info on Muzines, short video lesson by David Brewster – and John Stropes’ acclaimed transcription work Rhythm, Sonority, Silence
“Music has no form, but the guitar does…You can’t ‘make’ your music good. You can’t ‘try’ to be good. You can try to be present, and…to remain open: so what is going to speak to you can speak through you…”
• My Bloody Valentine •
Kevin Shields, Bilinda Butcher, and their shoegazing companions summoned dissonant, low-wailing cascades using a variety of electric tunings, spanning well-known alternate layouts to highly unorthodox droning configurations (and, often, multi-guitar combinations). May the chaos warm you…
- E-A-D-G-B-E (Standard): e.g. What You Want, Feed Me With Your Kiss, You Made Me Realise, Nothing Much to Lose, Emptiness Inside, Honey Power, When You Sleep (-1), New You (cp.2), Slow (cp.10) – and probably Only Tomorrow
- Gb-Gb-Gb-Gb-Db-Gb (Bruce Palmer +2): Soon (another Db?)
- D-A-D-D-A-D (Papa-Papa): Sometimes (tape sped +0.5)
- D-A-D-G-B-E (Drop D): She Found Now (-1)
- F-C-F-Bb-Bb-G (Blown a Wish): Blown A Wish (cp.1)
- E-B-E-Ab-B-E (Open E): Come in Alone (cp.2)
- E-A-B-G-G-E (Only Said): I Only Said
- E-A-D-G-B-Db (5>5>5>4>2): Sueisfine
- Ab-Ab-Eb-Bb-Bb-Eb (12>7>7>0>5): Wonder 2
- More: the heroic compilation efforts of Reddit user mbvtunings4u, and further discussion on the Simple Machines forum – and a good sonic breakdown of To Here Knows When by Omar Muñoz Cremers
“I always had a fascination with ‘that’ sound. It’s a mixture of the idea that something could be going wrong, along with the idea of bending constrained, Westernized music out of tune…I wasn’t copying an idea, and it just came from somewhere inside me, it felt like a birth of something…”
• Sonic Youth •
Thurston Moore, Lee Ranaldo, and Kim Gordon – all of whom play guitar – each tend away from EADGBE. The avant-garde fusioneers mined a dizzying range of tunings in their three decades together, often mixing unisons and cascading drone-tones in restrung, range-narrowed arrangements.
- E-A-D-G-B-E (Standard): both guitar layers on Hotwire My Heart, Mildred Pierce, some of Lee’s parts on Confusion is Sex album (I Wanna Be Yr Dog, Shaking Hell, Making the Nature Scene) – and seemingly all the axes on their first EP (Sonic Youth)
- C-G-D-G-C-D (Orkney): As highlighted by reader Andy Latham, Thurston often visits the Orkney layout – e.g. most of Murray Street, much of Sonic Nurse, and some of Rather Ripped
- Gb-Gb-Gb-Gb-E-B (0>12>0>[-2]>7): Thurston & Lee’s parts on lots of Bad Moon Rising album (Intro, Brave Men Run, Society is a Hole, Death Valley ’69, Halloween) and Evol (Star Power, Death to our Friends), and also Pipeline/Kill Time, Kool Thing, 100%, Waist, Saucer-Like – and Thurston’s guitar only on Mary-Christ, Catholic Block, Tuff Gnarl, Shoot, Sweet Shine, Becuz, Panty Lies, I Love You Golden Blue, etc (n.b. from the Sonic Youth Tuning Tutorial: “often used by Thurston nowadays on older songs…such as Burning Spear, She is Not Alone, and The World Looks Red“)
- C-G-D-G-B-B (7>7>5>4>0): countless Thurston parts, e.g. Karen Koltrane, Heather Angel, Teenage Buddhist Daydream, Sympathy For The Strawberry, Wildflower Soul, and most of the Psychic Hearts & Chelsea Light Moving projects
- E-G-D-G-E-D (3>7>5>[-3]>10): Thurston on Dirty Boots, Tunic, Titanium Exposure, Wish Fulfillment, Chapel Hill, JC, Purr, Skink, Screaming Skull, Bone, Little Trouble Girl, Diamond Sea
- G-G-D-D-Eb-Eb (0>7>0>1>0): both Thurston & Lee for Kill Yr Idols EP (Kill Yr Idols, Brother James, Early American)
- F-G-C-F-A-Gb (2>17>5>4>[-3]): super-slack tuning used by Thurston on most of NYC Ghosts & Flowers: including with a small metal file placed under the strings (Small Flowers Crack Concrete), and in conjunction with a bike horn (Lightnin’)
- C-C-x-x-Eb-Eb: for Marilyn Moore and Eric’s Trip (-1), Thurston sets up with just four strings – albeit low, heavy ones
- (n.b. Described in Burning Spear, “Thurston wedges a drumstick under [12fr], and beats it with a second stick. Lee apparently uses an electric drill through a wah pedal on the original song…[but] live, he seems to just attack his guitar with drumsticks…”. Similar techniques used on Early American): and also see the ‘third-bridge’ guitarists in my Double-siding article)
- More: the excellent fan-compiled Sonic Youth Tunings site – see their song list, sourcing notes, and member-individualised tutorials – and also some informative string-gauge chat on the GearPage forum
“Most people can’t tell now who wrote what. I like that blurring of identities within the band – because it becomes a unified thing, that can’t be related to other forms of historical poetry.”
• Gabby Pahinui •
Before becoming an all-time icon of Hawaiian kī hō’alu (‘slack-key’), Pahinui left school young to shine shoes on the streets of 1920s Honolulu. Also a singer and slide master, his work underpinned the 1970s ‘Hawaiian Renaissance’ – as did the famous all-weekend jam sessions hosted at his home in Waimanalo.
- C-G-E-G-B-E (‘Gabby’s Hi’ilawe‘): a ‘Wahine‘ tuning (i.e. maj. 7th-focused), sometimes titled after its use on his signature song (Hi’ilawe: the track that, in the words of fellow island legend Keola Beamer, “launched the modern slack-key era in 1946”) – also Nanea Ko Maka I Ka Le’ale’a, Keali’i’s Mele, Leaping Loli, Aia Hiki Mai/Haili Po Ika Lehua, Noho Au A Kupa, Po La’ila’i, Vaya Con Dios, Ka Moa’e, Lei Ohu, Lihue, Kaua’i Beauty
- C-G-E-G-A-E (‘Gabby’s C‘): close variant of Hi’ilawe tuning, and also a form of ‘C Mauna Loa‘ (another variant, also used by Pahinui’s bands, has the 4str down a tone to C rather than up a tone to E) – Gabby’s parts on Hi Ho’alu, I’m A Livin’ on a Easy, Ke Oni Nei Ka Huila, Po Mahina, Pua Kukui, Makee ‘Ailana, Pua Lililehua, Pua Tubarose, Leahi, Lei No Ka`iulani (several on 12-string, some capoed)
- F-C-E-G-C-E (‘Gabby’s F‘): another Wahine tuning, used in several transpositions – e.g. on his Slack-Key Medley (Nani Wale Līhu’e, Ka ‘I’iwi Polena, Silver Threads Among the Gold), and also the farewell melody Isa Lei/Aloha ‘Oe
- D-G-D-G-B-D (‘Taro Patch’ G): a.k.a. Open G – not used so widely by Pahinui despite its general slack-key popularity, but turns up a half-step down on versions of Manuela Boy, ‘Ahulili, Lei Nani, Lihu’e, Wai Hu’ihu’i O Ke Aniani, and the hula medley Mauna Loa/Moana Chimes/Pua Be-Still (the ‘Wahine tweak’ of D-G-D-F#-B-D is used too, e.g. on Ka Ua Noe)
- (n.b. As noted by George Winston, Pahinui “sometimes tuned [his C-key tunings] down to the keys of B, Bb, A, Ab, or even…G, and [also up to] C#” (partly because “in the early years…capos were not available”). Gabby’s band – which variously featured other slack-key legends including Sonny Chillingworth, Leland ‘Atta’ Isaacs, and Pahinui’s sons Cyril and Bla – often combined similar-but-distinct tunings across different guitars.)
- More: George Winston’s fantastic slack-key resources, including a detailed Technical Essay, Tunings List, and Gabby’s historical importance – a topic also explored in a 1979 KHON TV documentary
“The families used to get together, backyard jam and party! Invite family and friends, and start creating music – in this way, the youngsters could look on and listen to the old hands, and learn almost by osmosis…” (Gabby’s son Cyril: another slack-key legend)
• Jimmy Page •
A riff-writing colossus on both the electric and acoustic, Page played each axe ‘like itself’ – rather than as an imitation of the other. Known to have borrowed liberally from various blues and folk fingerpickers, he explored several classic alternates in Zeppelin and beyond. Twist downwards, then turn it up!
- D-A-D-G-A-D (Open Dsus): Kashmir, Midnight Moonlight, Black Mountain Side (-1: probably to match the tabla‘s C# tuning), and White Summer (n.b. the latter two tunes are close imitations of Bert Jansch’s Blackwater Side and Davey Graham’s She Moved Thru’ the Bizarre/Blue Raga)
- D-G-D-G-B-D (Open G): Traveling Riverside Blues, Dancing Days, Black Country Woman, That’s the Way (-1), Bron-Y-Aur Stomp (-2), When The Levee Breaks (-2)
- D-A-D-G-B-E (Drop D): Moby Dick, Ten Years Gone
- D-A-D-G-B-D (Double Drop D): Going To California
- E-A-E-A-Db-E (Open A): In My Time of Dying
- C-G-C-E-G-C (Open D -2): Hats Off To Roy Harper
- C-A-C-G-C-E (9>3>7>5>4): Friends, Bron-Yr-Aur, Poor Tom
- D-G-C-G-C-D (5>5>7>5>2): Rain Song
- More: see my fellow Guitar World instructor Andy Alendort‘s analysis of Page’s alterations – also check out SkippedOnShuffle, MLein97 on Reddit, the LZ forum, and an overview of Zeppelin’s reinterpretations
“I wanted Zeppelin to be a marriage of blues, hard rock, and acoustic music, topped with heavy choruses – a combination that had never been done before. Lots of light and shade…”
• John Martyn •
The late songwriter once remarked that he liked his chords “broken and shattered, tattered and torn a bit”. His guitar style – which, like his life, mixed exquisite beauty with the dark and chaotic – blended folk fingerpicking ideas from the British Isles with jazz, rock, electronics, and much more.
- E-A-D-G-B-E (Standard): a reasonable scattering of tracks – e.g. The Easy Blues, Sandy Grey, Don’t Think Twice, Cocaine, Back to Stay, Sweet Honesty, Golden Girl, Windin’ Boy (cp.4), Fishin’ Blues (cp.5)
- D-A-D-D-A-D (Papa-Papa): London Conversation, Ballad of an Elder Woman, Sing a Song of Summer, Goin’ Down to Memphis, Stormbringer, Traffic-Light Lady, Sunday’s Child, Road to Ruin, Day at the Sea (cp.5), Run Honey Run (cp.9), Who’s Grown Up Now (cp.10)
- D-A-D-G-A-D (Open Dsus): Bless The Weather, Man in the Station, When it’s Dark, Lay It All Down, Fine Lines, Make No Mistake, Spencer the Rover, Knuckeldy Crunch and Slipplidee-Slee
- C-G-C-G-C-E (Open C): Go Easy, Small Hours, Go Out and Get It, Just Now, Singin’ in the Rain
- D-G-D-G-B-D (Open G): Tree Green, Woodstock, and probably Over the Hill (cp.5)
- D-A-D-Gb-A-D (Open D): Fairy Tale Lullaby, John the Baptist, This Time (cp.10)
- D-A-D-G-B-E (Drop D): May You Never, Don’t Want to Know
- B-A-D-G-A-D (Funky Avocado): Head and Heart
- D-D-D-D-A-D (Bruce Palmer): The Gardeners
- D-A-D-G-C-E (Dracula +2): Go Down Easy
- More: see the tunings list on the JM site, plus a 1975 fingerpicking overview – and on his human complexities: biographer Graeme Thompson, and the captivating 2004 BBC doc Johnny Too Bad
“I often thought of faking my own death, and watching the record companies fucking drum up all the shit they can…It’s creepy, ghoulish and strange; this lionisation is too late when you’re dead. If they’d dug [Nick Drake] enough then, he’d still be here now…”
• Erik Mongrain •
The low-strung Montreal virtuoso stands out for his refined sense of composition as much as his eye-catching technique, rarely letting the hands lead the head. Even so: as a teenager, witnessing Mongrain play live instantly redefined my perception of just how impressive a steel-string soloist could be.
- F-A-C-F-C-F (AirTap): AirTap!, PercussienFa (both lap-tapped)
- G-A-D-E-A-E (Equilibrium): Equilibrium
- D-A-D-G-A-D (Open Dsus): The Silent Fool
- Gb-A-B-Gb-A-Db (15>2>7>3>4): Forward
- F-F-D-G-Bb-Bb (12>9>7>3>0): Confusion n.8, I Am Not
- Bb-Bb-D-F-G-D (12>4>3>2>7): A Ripple Effect, La Dernière Pluie
- Bb-A-D-F-A-D (11>5>3>4>5): Maelstrom, Mais Quand?, Géométrie D’une Erreur
- B-Gb-D-Gb-A-Db (7>8>4>3>4): Aftermath, Alone In The Mist, Pandora’s Box
- B-Gb-D-Gb-Db-Db (7>8>4>7>0): Raindigger
- More: See the near-complete list made by Mongrain himself (& pristine tabs) – and hear about his creative evolution via good written features in Interviewtion and Total Music. Also see the full AirTap and Equilibrium tuning pages for more on their workings.
“Sometimes I just fiddle with the tuners, and try to find a new arrangement of open notes that feel right to the moment – or I can just listen to someone else’s tune…and experiment…or make a variation out of it. There is more than one way to find new color!”
• Andy McKee •
The Kansas native shot to online stardom in YouTube’s earliest days (…way back in 2006), captivating viewers with his incredible blend of body percussion, natural harmonics, and two-handed tapping. McKee, who also plays harp guitar, remains a master of melody-led instrumental writing.
- E-C-D-G-A-D (8>2>5>2>5): Keys to the Hovercar (cp.3), For My Father (cp.3), Rylynn (p/cp.3: only 6-3str)
- C-G-D-G-A-D (7>7>5>2>5): All Laid Back & Stuff, I’ll See You Again
- B-G-D-G-A-D (8>7>5>2>5): She (cp.5), Never Grow Old
- E-B-D-G-B-D (7>3>5>4>3): Dependent Arising (p/cp.5: only 6-3str)
- D-A-D-G-B-E (Drop D): Common Ground
- D-A-D-Gb-A-E (Yvette’s Dadd9): Dreamcatcher
- C-G-C-G-A-E (C Mauna Loa): A Sphere
- D-A-D-G-A-D (Open Dsus): Drifting
- C-G-D-G-B-E (Keola’s C): Ouray
- D-G-D-G-A-D (5>7>5>2>5): Africa (cp.2)
- D-A-E-F-A-E (7>7>1>4>7): Practice is Perfect
- C-G-Eb-F-Bb-D (7>8>2>5>4): Samus’ Stardrive
- C-G-D-G-B-C (7>7>5>4>1): When She Cries
- n.b. some songs now have alternate baritone setups – and his diatonic harp guitar tunings include (low-high): E-A-B-C-D-G|E-A-D-G-B-E (The Friend I Never Met), F-A-B-C-D-G|E-A-E-F-G-E (Gates of Gnomeria), and G-A-B-C-D-G|E-A-D-G-B-E (Into the Ocean)
- More: see Andy’s tuning-focused video lesson for TotalGuitar, and an Ultimate Guitar interview discussing some of his favourites – also a seemingly precise tracks/tunings list on Scribd
“It can be easy to become self-absorbed as a musician. If you ultimately find yourself with a lot of people listening…remember your responsibility as an entertainer: life is difficult, and we are the ones that make it easier for everyone.”
• Jon Gomm •
The Leeds legend once turned down a place at Oxford Uni to focus on fingerstyle, choosing to cut his teeth in small clubs and bars instead. Today, he is renowned for pushing the outer limits of multilayered playing – even installing banjo-style ‘hip-shot’ pegs to enable fluid mid-song retunes.
- C-F-C-F-Ab-C (Open Fm): Ain’t Nobody
- C-G-C-F-G-C (Open Dsus -2): High and Dry – ‘DADGAD’ also mentioned in a MusicRadar interview
- Bb-F-C-F-A-C (Kabosy -2): Orville (The Secret of Learning to Fly is Forgetting to Hit the Ground)
- Eb-G-Bb-F-G-Bb (4>3>7>2>3): Passionflower
- A-E-B-E-G-B (7>7>5>3>4): Telepathy, MusicRadar demo (-1)
- Db-F-C-F-Ab-C (4>7>5>3>4): Everything
- B-Gb-D-Gb-B-Db (7>8>4>5>2): Universal Biology
- G-D-Bb-F-G-C (7>8>7>2>5): The Ghost Inside You
- A-G-C-E-A-C (10>5>4>5>3): Dance of the Last Rhino
- Ab-Eb-D-G-A-C (7>11>5>2>3): Topeka (p/cp.3: excluding 6str)
- (n.b. for his mid-track peg-twisters – e.g. Passionflower, Telepathy, Topeka – the tunings above are just the ‘starting points’: e.g. Topeka‘s 1+2str are soon raised by a tone as part of the main melody…)
- More: read Jon discuss his videos, along with his pristine tabs, and string gauge notes, and a fret hand tapping instructional – and also my GW lesson on percussive ideas
“‘Be yourself’ is the most vague advice ever. But that’s what you have to do. Don’t be brash if you’re not brash. Don’t feel some need to speak clearly and boldly – this isn’t a fucking management leadership seminar. Be yourself! Be shy if you’re shy. If you’re nervous, be nervous. Don’t try to hide…”
• Ben Howard •
Rumoured to have once turned down a promising support slot to catch the surf, the Devon-raised singer-songwriter’s introspective, stripped-down sound draws inspiration from Joni, Jimi, and John Martyn. His ‘pick-and-go’ right hand style, mixing strums and single strings, sometimes employs a partial capo.
- C-G-C-G-G-C (Zen Drone -2): many, including The Wolves (cp.3), The Fear (cp.3), 7 Bottles (cp.3), Old Pine (cp.5), Three Tree Town (cp.5). Often part-capoed with 6str excluded, e.g. Everything (p/cp.3) and Diamonds (p/cp.7) – or 1-2str excluded, e.g. Further Away, I Will Be Blessed, and Under the Same Sun (all p/cp.5)
- D-A-D-G-A-D (Open Dsus): some recent tracks: In Dreams, Am I in Your Light, Wildest Moments, and most of Noonday Dream
- E-A-D-G-B-E (Standard): seemingly only Wouldn’t Be a Lie (cp.3)
- E-A-D-G-A-D (Yad-Gad): Keep Your Head Up
- C-F-C-G-G-C (5>7>7>0>5): Soldiers, Video Games, Follaton Wood (cp.3), A Hand to Hold (cp.5), Black Flies (p/cp.3: exclude 6str)
- C-F-C-G-F-C (5>7>7>[-2]>7): Gracious, Promise (both cp.2)
- More: an excellent Reddit-compiled tunings list – also see his RH demo for TotalGuitar, along with a recent interview in Guitar World, and an endearing pre-fame feature in Surf Europe magazine
“We’d get residencies in the local pubs. It was just an excuse to have a free tab at the bar, and then at some point people started chucking me a few quid for it. There was no game plan to any of it…”
• D’Gary •
Madagascar’s multi-tuned guitarists will leave you speechless. Ernest ‘D’Gary’ Randrianasolo – one of the island’s finest modern masters – mixes Bara tribal melodies with ideas from the marovany (box zither), lokanga (bowl violin), and tsapika (a jerky, energetic fusion of Malagasy folk and South African pop-rock).
- This time, I’m not going to just reveal the tunings. D’Gary – like plenty of other playfully competitive guitarists around the world – prefers to guard his designs (so, I guess what I’m saying is that I’d rather irritate you than him…although I’m still working them out anyway). In his words, “I have about 23 tunings…but I’ve hidden them so far” – while Henry Kaiser, who recorded with D’Gary in the early 90s, recounts that he was using “any one of eleven open tunings”.
- However, D’Gary has also stated that “during festivals, there is too much tuning to do – so I only use two”. These appear to be: E-A-D-G-B-E (Standard): a natural choice for virtuosic versatility – and E-G-D-G-B-D (3>7>5>4>3): a hybrid of Standard (6,4,3,2str) and Open G (5,1str) which also turns up in European classical guitar and elsewhere.
- In D’Gary’s own words: “My source came from the lokanga Bara [box violin] and the avoria [funeral ceremonies]…I thought that the Bara tribe’s tradition was going to die, because there are a lot of things disappearing…”. He adds that “the rhythm…comes from the footsteps of the malaso [cow robbers] who run away…one really has to experience the life of the people being constantly attacked by malaso in order to play the style I do”. Hear his amazing range in action on Malagasy Guitar (1992), Mbo Loza (1997), and Akata Meso (2001):
- This short bullet point isn’t really the place to ruminate on broader tuning metaphysics in too much depth (I’ve done quite enough of that in this project already) – but still, it’s worth mentioning some of the strange questions thrown up by this sort of case. Does anyone have the ‘right’ to keep their tunings secret? Or, to flip it round: why should we feel any entitlement for an artist to explain themselves, rather than just leaving us with puzzles to solve instead? And which broader facets of musical learning might best be left for students to solve themselves?
- (D’Gary isn’t the only one to shroud their innovations in mystery: Eddie Van Halen famously claimed to have turned his back to the audience in the band’s early days, so as to hide his tapping techniques (n.b. direct evidence for this is scant: he may well have, but, like most rock stars, was prone to self-mythologisation). And Jimmy Page told Guitar Player in 1977 that he had his “own [altered tunings]…I’d rather keep those to myself” (which, to me, seems a little out-of-step with his liberal borrowing of altered-tuned compositions by other artists…).
- More: Ian Anderson’s brilliant Malagasy Guitar overview, and Danny Carnahan‘s short series – and also see my Malagasy-themed tuning pages: Kabosy, Haja’s Bb, Rakotomavo (=Orkney -2)
“[When I was 16], my father died…there was a big traditional ceremony...for everyone to cry and sing…it is called ‘tany faty’ [crying for the dead]. That was the first time I experienced the traditional life of my ancestors. I found myself waking up with all these new styles of music.”
• Other notable quirks •
A decidedly non-exhaustive assortment of interesting tuning oddities…
—Kelly Joe Phelps—
The soulful acoustic virtuoso sometimes tunes the adjacent pairs of his 12-string to ring with different notes – e.g. on See That My Grave is Kept Clean, the 5str and 4str pairs are both tuned to D+A – and on Roll Away the Stone the whole guitar is tuned (6>1str) as C+G|G+D|C+G|E+B|G+D|C+G (more on his intriguing tunings here):
—Adrian Legg—
Much as fretboard tapping was around long before Van Halen (e.g. ukulele virtuoso Roy Smeck in the 1930s), mid-song peg-twirling has a long-established lineage too. Jon Gomm is currently taking the art form to astonishing new heights – but others have also experimented in this direction. Notably, eclectic British fingerpicker Adrian Legg has been putting the technique to mellow use for decades:
—John McLaughlin—
After leaving the Miles Davis group responsible for Bitches Brew, In a Silent Way, and Big Fun, the global explorer turned further East for fresh inspiration. One offshoot of this was the ‘Shakti guitar’: a modified steel string with hollowed-out frets and a sitar-like set of ‘sympathetic strings’, running under the main six and tuned to the scale of the piece (also see my 2020 interview with McLaughlin):
—The Beatles—
The Scouse songsters often repitched their guitar parts in post-production, e.g. slowing them down a semitone (I’m Only Sleeping, Yellow Submarine) or whole tone (Strawberry Fields Forever, Rain), or even a full octave (Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da) – or raising them up a semitone (She Said, She Said) or whole tone (Revolution). And here’s what Hey Jude sounds like when lowered & slowed by ~20% (to me, much better than the original!):
—Robert Johnson—
Although known to have used forms of Open G, Open D, and Open Dm, debate has raged around exactly how fast the Delta blues legend’s records should be played. Many contend that we may be around a semitone off in some direction, while some claim (to me, with little evidence) that we’ve been playing his LPs up to 20% too fast (see this excellent overview from Elijah Wald). I doubt we’ll ever know – but I’m glad for the controversy, as it’s thrown up some fresh questions about how we listen to lost artists. After all, if you connect more with the slower versions, then what is ‘authentic’ about confining yourself to the ‘correct’ ones? I wonder what Johnson would think of it all…
—Machine Head—
The California metallers usually tune to ‘Db Standard + 40 cents‘ (=40% of a semitone). Other heavy groups like Van Halen and Black Sabbath have also tuned ‘between keys’ for multiple tracks…although it’s not always clear how conscious a choice this may have been. (And no, there’s nothing special about 432Hz – but go ahead and nudge flat for variety’s sake if you like…)