In-depth ‘taster menu’ of 100+ guitar tunings from around the globe. You’re probably yet to find your all-time favourite…
• What’s on the menu? •
The guitar offers incredible freedom to choose our ‘starting canvas’. Unlike a piano, horn, or drum, guitars can move fluidly between different tunings, opening up fresh geometries and spaces of the imagination at every turn. Why not choose your starting notes as you would your chords? The only way to genuinely know what you like best is to look outwards…
Try the layout of the Renaissance lute, Arabic oud, Indian sitar, Turkish bağlama, Andean charango, or Malagasy kabosy, and experience the geometric regularity of ‘interval‘ tunings. Sample the superlow, symmetric, overtonal, and cryptographic – and look to Joni, Drake, Hedges, Page, and other peg-twisting heroes of the past and present. Explore vibratory maths and liberatory tuning politics, and see how these themes have intertwined over time. And let me know what to add!
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Enter notes, names, artists, adjectives, songs, sequences, intervals, moods, etc. Also see the Full Tag List:
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—TUNINGS MENU—
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—ALL TUNINGS—
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.)
—By category—
Standard | Drop | Open | Interval | Global | Artist | Misc.
• Standard Tunings •
Direct transpositions of the familiar ‘5-5-5-4-5’ pattern, as explored by guitar traditions of the past and present:
- EADGBE (‘Standard’) | E-A-D-G-B-E | The Renaissance roots of ‘55545’, and a collection of the first ever guitar recordings…
- Eb Standard (‘Hendrix’) | Eb-Ab-Db-Gb-Bb-Eb (all -1) | Made famous by Jimi himself, ‘half-step lower’ leads to wilder bends…
- D Standard (‘Tone Drop’) | D-G-C-F-A-D (all -2) | Tone down your timbre by dropping two semitones slacker and deeper…
- Db Standard (‘Iommi’) | Db-Gb-B-E-Ab-Db (all -3) | Beloved by Black Sabbath, it also suits the bends and C# root of the sitar…
- C Standard (‘Two-Tone Drop’) | C-F-Bb-Eb-G-C (all -4) | Go ‘two tones down’ to open up access to lower-key, quieter realms…
- B Standard (‘Baritone’) | B-E-A-D-Gb-B (all -5) | Scandinavian ‘ragna-rok’, acoustic jazz fingerstyle, low-growling electric slide…
- F Standard (‘Raise’) | F-Bb-Eb-Ab-C-F (all +1) | Wind all your strings a little tauter to ramp up the power and volume…
- G Standard (‘Terz’) | G-C-F-Bb-D-G (all +3) | A small, cute, guitar-like lute, which once had Europe swooning…
• Drop Tunings •
Fast access to explore in looser, lower realms – tunings focused on slackening the 6str (/1str too):
- Drop D | D-A-D-G-B-E • 7>5>5>4>5 | Probably the first altered tuning you ever learned: build up from a power-chord bass…
- Double Drop D (‘DDD’) | D-A-D-G-B-D • 7>5>5>4>3 | Lower both the extremities for some handy two-sided slackness…
- Drop C (‘Neon’) | C-A-D-G-B-E • 9>5>5>4>5 | Bass-dropped jazz-funk flexibilities, beloved by John Mayer & co…
- Low Drop C | C-G-C-F-A-D • 7>5>5>4>5 | Loosen everything by two semitones, then drop the 6str by two more…
- Drop A (‘Slack Thwack’) | A-A-D-G-B-E • 12>5>5>4>5 | Open up most of the bass guitar register with superlow double-octaves…
• Open Tunings •
Essential three-note maj, min, and sus4 open tunings – covering classic open, slide, folk, & blues configurations:
- Open D (‘Vestapol’) | D-A-D-F#-A-D • 7>5>4>3>5 | An all-time great slide configuration, matching our familiar Emaj shape…
- Open Dm (‘Bentonia’) | D-A-D-F-A-D • 7>5>3>4>5 | Haunting minor blues, named for Skip James’ Mississippi hometown…
- Open Dsus (‘DADGAD’) | D-A-D-G-A-D • 7>5>5>2>5 | Davey Graham’s Moroccan adventures spark an A-list altered tuning…
- Open G (‘Taro Patch’) | D-G-D-G-B-D • 5>7>5>4>3 | Hyper-versatile global imaginings, mirroring a Standard-tuned Amaj…
- Open Gm (‘Banjo Minor’) | D-G-D-G-Bb-D • 5>7>5>3>4 | Cross-note resonances, descended from a 5-string tradition…
- Open Gsus (‘Sawmill’) | D-G-D-G-C-D • 5>7>5>5>2 | Martin Simpson’s modal geometries, drawn from old-time banjo…
- Open C (‘Wide Major’) | C-G-C-G-C-E • 7>5>7>5>4 | Grow your guitar’s range with some uber-flexible drone-symmetry…
- Open Cm (‘Wide Minor’) | C-G-C-G-C-Eb • 7>5>7>5>3 | An expansive canvas for low-wound improv, used by few…
- Open Csus (‘Wide Modal’) | C-G-C-G-C-F • 7>5>7>5>5 | A broad stack of 5ths and 4ths, suitable for many styles…
- Open E (‘Vestapol’) | E-B-E-G#-B-E • 7>5>4>3>5 | Electric sliding horizons, nicknamed for an old Crimean folk song…
- Open Em (‘Cross-note’) | E-B-E-G-B-E • 7>5>3>4>5 | Matching the contours of an Emin chord, making for Hellhoundish blues…
- Open F (‘Low Taro’) | C-F-C-F-A-C • 5>7>5>4>3 | A super-slack transposition of Open G, put to use in Hawaii and beyond…
- Open Fm (‘Low Banjo’) | C-F-C-F-Ab-C • 5>7>5>3>4 | A rare, deep-wavering minor species, ideal for haunting inversions…
- Open A (‘Spanish’) | E-A-E-A-C#-E • 5>7>5>4>3 | The electric counterpart of Open G, used for countless axe classics…
• Interval Tunings •
Intervallic (a.k.a. ‘regular’) tunings – all adjacent strings are separated by the same number of semitones:
- All Minor 3rds (‘Diminished’) | G-Bb-Db-E-G-Bb • 3>3>3>3>3 | Jumping in narrow threes will clarify your octave-slicing abilities…
- All Major 3rds (‘Augmented’) | E-Ab-C-E-Ab-C • 4>4>4>4>4 | Splitting the octave up into three jumps of four frets each…
- All Perfect 4ths (‘Regular’) | E-A-D-G-C-F • 5>5>5>5>5 | Simplify the fretboard’s geometry by eradicating the 3>2str ‘kink’…
- All Tritones (‘Symmetric’) | C-Gb-C-Gb-C-Gb • 6>6>6>6>6 | No, it was never banned as ‘the Devil’s interval’ – listen to why…
- All Perfect 5ths (‘Quintal’) | A-E-B-F#-C#-G# • 7>7>7>7>7 | Walk upwards through the first half of the cycle of 5ths…
- All Minor 6ths (‘Aug. Flip’) | F-Db-A-F-Db-A • 8>8>8>8>8 | Go ‘inverse augmented’ with ultra-wide eight-fret jumps…
• Global Tunings •
Tunings gathered from around the world – India, Iran, Mali, Turkey, Congo, Ecuador, Hawaii, Madagascar, PNG, & further afield:
- Ali Farka Touré | G-A-D-G-B-E • 2>5>5>4>5 | A bass-raiser made famous by Mali’s master of the Islamic folk-blues…
- Atta’s C | C-G-E-G-C-E • 7>9>3>5>4 | Some call Leland ‘Atta’ Isaac’s layout the ‘holy grail’ of Hawaiian harmony…
- Bağlama/Saz | G-G-D-D-A-A • 0>7>0>7>0 | Double-course Anatolian lutes with frets made of fishing line…
- Carnatic (‘Drake’s Drone’) | B-E-B-E-B-E • 5>7>5>7>5 | Nothing but B & E tones, explored by Prasanna in South India…
- Charango | G-G-C-E-A-E • 0>5>4>5>7 | Learn about the liberatory tuning politics of this cute Andean lute…
- Haja’s Bb | Bb-F-C-F-Bb-C • 7>7>5>5>2 | Deep-wound electric resonances from a modern Malagasy innovator…
- Jack’s Chikari | Ḋ-Ḋ-D-G-B-E • 0>0>5>4>5 | A sitar-like re-stringing by fellow Indo-Strat searcher Jack Jennings…
- Kabosy | C-G-D-G-B-D • 7>7>5>4>3 | Transglobal links from Madagascar’s DIY box-lute tradition…
- Mauna Loa C6 | C-G-C-G-A-E • 7>5>7>2>7 | Balanced slack-key stabilities, named for Hawaii’s eternal volcano…
- Mi-composé (‘Elenga’) | E-A-Ḋ-G-B-E • 5>(5)>(5)>4>5 | The wild life of ‘Jhimmy the Hawaiian’ in 1950s Congo…
- Orkney | C-G-D-G-C-D • 7>7>5>5>2 | Multi-continental convergences from Steve Baughman…
- Oud (Arabic) | E-A-Db-Gb-B-E • 5>4>5>5>5 | Syrian variants of a guitar ancestor, similarly stacking 4ths…
- Oud (Turkish) | E-A-B-E-A-D • 5>2>5>5>5 | An alternate layout from the world of the fretless Islamic lute…
- Papuan Four-Key | F-Bb-C-F-A-C • 5>2>5>4>3 | Fresh narrowness from an astonishingly diverse island…
- Rakotomavo | Bb-F-C-G-C-E • 7>7>7>5>4 | Modern fusions of jazz and the Malagasy valiha tube zither…
- Keola’s C (‘Wahine’) | C-G-D-G-B-E • 7>7>5>4>5 | Keola Beamer’s melodious mix of 5ths, 4ths, and 3rds…
- Zen Drone (‘Dulcimeric’) | D-A-D-A-A-D • 7>5>7>0>5 | Immediate geometries from P.T. Sudo, a genuine guitar monk…
• Artist/Track Tunings •
Tunings associated with specific guitarists, compositions, or performances:
- AirTap | F-A-C-F-C-F • 4>3>5>7>5 | Fostered to facilitate the viral virtuosity of Erik Mongrain’s lap-tapping style…
- Albert Collins Fm | F-C-F-Ab-C-F • 7>5>3>4>5 | Take a high-wound blues walk with the jovial owner of a 100ft amp cable…
- Albert King F6 | C-F-C-F-A-D • 5>7>5>4>5 | Favoured by the Mississippi colossus towards the end of his legendary life…
- Black Crow | Bb-Bb-Db-F-A-Bb • 12>3>4>3>2 | Deep-sided double-octave designs drawn from Joni’s drumless funk…
- Blown a Wish | F-C-F-Bb-Bb–G • 7>5>5>0>9 | MBV’s odd DADGAD tweak, with a glorious variety of horizontal intervals…
- Bruce Palmer (‘Judy Blue Eyes’) | E-E-E-E-B-E • 0>12>0>7>5 | The multi-chapter history of Woodstock’s greatest love song…
- Cello (‘Haircut’) | C-G-D-A-B-E • 7>7>7>2>5 | Expand your low-end capacities with Pavement’s stacking of perfect 5ths…
- Coyote | C-G-D-F-C-E • 7>7>3>7>4 | Joni’s graphic tale of flirtation is built on a close-clustered major sequence…
- Dracula | C-G-C-F-Bb-D • 7>5>5>5>4 | Robust interval pairs from Don Ross, set in a neat descending order…
- Equilibrium | G-A-D-E-A-E • 14>5>2>5>7 | Architectural low balance by Erik Mongrain, well-scattered with balanced 5ths…
- Ethereal | D-A-C#-F#-C#-D • 7>4>5>7>1 | Electric fretboard tapping from Ichika Nito, with divergent parallel octaves…
- Fripp’s New Standard (‘Crafty’) | C-G-D-A-E-G • 7>7>7>7>3 | An ultra-wide system for clarifying your melodic motions…
- Funky Avocado | B-A-D-G-A-D • 10>5>5>2>5 | Bass-buzzing funk from Michael Hedges, jammed over a local disco…
- Gambale | A-D-G-C-E-A • 5>5>5>(4)>5 | Like a 6-3str capo at 12fr, unearthed via synth patches by Frank Gambale…
- Ghost Reveries | D-A-D-F-A-E • 7>5>3>4>7 | Good enough for the Swedes who claim to be the ‘world’s most evil band’…
- Godzilla | Db-Ab-Eb-E-B-E • 7>7>1>7>5 | Don Ross’ tantalising blend of bassy slackness and high-end clarity…
- Gothic | Eb-G-D-A-Bb-C • 4>7>7>1>2 | Ichika Nito’s complex chordal canvas places different tones on each string…
- Hejira | C-G-D-F-G-C • 7>7>3>2>5 | Stretching to divine arpeggiations, from helping Joni’s ‘run with honour’…
- I Only Said | E-A-B-G-G-E • 5>2>8>0>9 | Kevin Shields’ vast shifts present phase-friendly unison possibilities…
- Iris | B-D-D-D-D-D • 3>12>0>12>0 | John Rzeznik’s odd-wound power ballad balances purity with dissonance…
- José González | D-A-D-F#-B-E • 7>5>4>5>5 | Lute-like nylon-string magic from the low-fi Swedish songwriter…
- Karnivool | B-F#-B-G-B-E • 7>5>8>4>5 | Australia’s low-tuning prog explorers place a power chord in the deep…
- Magic Farmer | C-F-C-G-A-E • 5>7>7>2>7 | Michael Hedges’ pensive arrangement for calmer harmonic relationships…
- Road | E-A-D-E-B-E • 5>5>2>7>5 | Nick Drake’s concise 3str-drop, ideal for multi-rooted fingerpicking sequences…
- Only Shallow | E-B-E-Gb-B-E • 7>5>2>5>5 | MBV’s iconic shoegaze drones offer a narrow-centred suspension…
- One-Tone Drone (‘Ostrich’) | D-D-D-D-D-D • 12>0>0>12>0 | Bury your head in the layered octaves of only a single tone…
- Pink Moon | C-G-C-F-C-E • 7>5>5>7>4 | Unearthing the ambiguous moods in Nick Drake’s solo songwriting…
- Place to Be | C-G-C-F-G-E • 7>5>5>2>9 | A wide-spread major layout from Nick Drake’s fast-strummed folk…
- Schizophrenia | F#-F#-G-G-A-A • 0>13>0>2>0 | A highly unorthodox tone-trio, designed to disorient the familiar…
- Teardrop | D-A-D-A-B-E • 7>5>7>2>5 | José González acoustifies a heart-beating Bristolian trip-hop anthem…
- Wind of Change | D-D-D-A-D-F# • 0>12>7>5>4 | Low D-drones, pinched from George Harrison by Peter Frampton…
- Yvette’s Dadd9 | D-A-D-F#-A-E • 7>5>4>3>7 | An ascent-narrowing interval stack explored by Yvette Young & co…
• Miscellaneous Tunings •
Various sources, ideas, & quirks – historical, experimental, instrument-based, non-melodic, oddball, etc:
- Alphabet | A-B-C-D-E-F • 14>1>2>2>1 | An Aeolian-toned meta-signifier for the ambiguities of the everyday alphabet…
- Banjo / Overtones | G-G-D-G-B-D • 0>7>5>4>3 | An alternate form of Open G, mirroring the natural harmonic series…
- Cabbage | C-A-Bb-A-G-E • 9>1>11>10>9 | A delicious alphamelodic layout, with chordal crunch and deep-set roots…
- Square-Neck Dobro | G-B-D-G-B-D • 4>3>5>4>3 | Looping major triads, used on dobros, banjos, and Russian guitars…
- Drop DG | D-G-D-G-B-E • 5>7>5>4>5 | Take the 6+5str down by two semitones, reaching most of an Open G…
- Fuji | Bb-G-D-G-G-D • 9>7>5>0>7 | A mountain-shaped landscape, left undated online by an anonymous creator…
- Icarus | D-A-D-G-B-C • 7>5>5>4>1 | Folksy reconfigurations, coloured by the clash of a high-end minor second…
- Mesopotamian | B-A-G-D-A-D • 10>10>7>7>5 | Captivating for sure, but not actually the tuning of the Tigris River…
- Lefty Flip (‘Mirrored’) | E-B-G-D-A-E • 7>(8)>7>7>7 | Find new perspectives by flipping round our familiar order…
- Lute / Vihuela | E-A-D-F#-B-E • 5>5>4>5>5 | Travel back through guitar history by re-shuffling the ‘kink’ of Standard…
- Math Rock F | F-A-C-G-C-E • 4>3>7>5>4 | A gently undulating major voicing made from subtle tension shifts…
- Nashville | Ė-Ȧ-Ḋ-Ġ-B-E • 5>5>5>(4)>5 | The classic four-string octave-jumper has a storied studio history…
- Overtone Series | G-B-D-F-G-A • 4>3>3>2>2 | Soak up a six-string summary of nature’s fundamental resonance…
- Papa-Papa | D-A-D-D-A-D • 7>5>0>7>5 | Palindromic verticality with a double-drone set right at the heart…
- Ten Years | D-E-C-A-D-E • 2>8>9>5>2 | A widened middle between narrow outer jumps, with uneven tensions…
- Ead-Gad | E-A-D-G-A-D • 5>5>5>2>5 | Slacken only the highest two to stumble upon fresh harmonic clusters…
- Zigzag 3rds (Minor) | F-Ab-C-Eb-G-Bb • 3>4>3>4>3 | Demystifying the mathematical tomes of Dr. Costas Kyritsis…
- Zigzag 3rds (Major) | F-A-C-E-G-B • 4>3>4>3>4 | An alternate layout for rationalising the geometry of chords…
— Also see my Tunings Megatable —
Search the Altered Tunings Menu (100+): type in notes, artists, adjectives, intervals, sequences, etc. Also see Tag List:
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—TUNINGS MENU—
-ALL- (100) | 2-note (6) | 3-note (28) | 4-note (26) | 5-note (30) | 6-note (8) | 7th: Dom (7) | 7th: Maj (12) | 7th: Min (21) | A-listers (10) | Alliterative (16) | Drone (4) | Drop (6) | Global (20) | Instrument (12) | Interval (6) | Narrow (12) | Non-taut (63) | Odd jumps (10) | Oddball (17) | Power-bass (26) | Re-entrant (7) | Slack-key (5) | Slide (12) | Standard (11) | Superlow (15) | Suspended (22) | Triad: Maj (11) | Triad: Min (7) | Twists: 1 (7) | Twists: 2 (12) | Twists: 3 (16) | Twists: 4 (20) | Twists: 5 (20) | Twists: 6 (24) | Wide (24)
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!
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