Alternate tuning guides
Most alternate tuning resources give you a chord dictionary and leave you to memorise it. That misses the point. The reason to retune is that a different tuning makes you hear the instrument differently, and you only get that by finding things out for yourself.
So these aren’t chord dictionaries. Each one is a 16-page player’s guide: how to get into the tuning, what it’s good and bad at, how the neck works, the shapes worth knowing, and full-neck maps marked in intervals so they work in any key. There’s enough to get you playing, and enough to go and explore on your own.
The complete tuning guide bundle
Every guide on this page in one download. Bought separately, the nine cost $26.91. If you’re curious about more than three or four tunings, this is the one to get.
Open tunings and slide
5 guidesA full chord under a straight bar. These are the tunings most slide players reach for, and most of them work just as well fingerstyle.
Open E Tuning
E B E G♯ B E
The classic electric slide tuning, built around the major chord under the bar and the blues moves that get minor lines out of it. Also explains why raising three strings isn’t kind to every guitar.
Open D Tuning
D A D F♯ A D
The same tuning as Open E a whole step lower, and I think it’s the better default. Four strings go down instead of three going up, and a capo at the 2nd fret gives you Open E whenever you need it.
Open G Tuning
D G D G B D
The root on the 5th string, a major triad on top, and a lot of the Delta blues and rock rhythm sound. Covers both slide and fretted chord shapes.
Open C Tuning
C G C G C E
Low, wide and resonant, with a deep C under everything. It suits fingerstyle and acoustic playing as much as slide.
Dobro Tuning
G B D G B D
For lap-style resonator and lap steel. The chords section is built for a straight bar rather than fretted shapes, because that’s how the instrument is played.
Drones and riffs
2 guidesTunings built around low open strings you can let ring under everything else.
DADGAD Tuning
D A D G A D
Neither major nor minor, which is the point. Covers the keys it suits, how to use the open-string drones, and the shapes that keep them ringing.
Drop D Tuning
D A D G B E
Most people use it for one-finger power chords. The low D under ordinary chords in D is the more interesting half. This guide covers both, and when to tune back up.
Rethinking the neck
2 guidesTunings that change how the fretboard is laid out, not just how an open strum sounds. Both reward thinking in intervals rather than shapes.
All Fourths Tuning
E A D G C F
Standard tuning without the kink at the B string. Every string is a fourth apart, so every shape moves across the neck unchanged.
New Standard Tuning
C G D A E G
Mostly fifths, with a wider range than standard in both directions. A very different neck, and a very good one for thinking in intervals.
What’s in each guide
Nine tunings. One download.
Printable PDFs, US Letter. $2.99 each, or all nine for $14.99.
Get the bundle →Want the thinking behind the approach first? Read How to Get the Most Out of Alternate Tunings.