To Each Guitarist an Alternate Tuning

There is a lot of fun to be had for all guitarists in exploring alternate string tunings.  My 7yr old’s guitar to Emaj for example.  Not E standard, but the guitar was set to play an Emaj when the guitar had all strings open.  The band called the Black Crowes taught me that.  They also do things like tune to a Gmaj chord.  This basically makes it so that it is easier for him to sound good.

I have yet to meet someone who tunes their guitar like how I tune mine.  I tune to what might be called F standard.  Below is E standard tuning which should be familiar to any guitarist (borrowed from Google images):

Whenever I talk about guitar, however, I use this chart with the same notes but upside down.  Thus, this fret board would say that for E standard, tuning is:

E              fattest string,

A             2^nd fattest string,

D             3^rd fattest string,

G             3^rd thinnest string,

B             2^nd thinnest string,

E              thinnest sting

However, when I play, I like to jam tuned to what might be called F standard.  Explained here:

F              fattest string

B flat      2^nd fattest string,

E flat      3^rd fattest string,

A flat     3^rd thinnest string,

C             2^nd thinnest string,

F              thinnest string.

I play a lot of jazz, and when I play rock or metal, I usually never try to duplicate what the artists are doing.  What I do is jam to the music I hear.  Much jazz and metal are in the key of E flat.  This is not a problem for a well trained jazz guitarist, yet I would still call it a hindrance.  The hindrance is that E standard tuning prevents is that it subtracts from the glory and ease of open strings, especially when jamming.  Please notice, that when tuning to F, 3 important open string flats, B flat, E flat, and A flat, that are very common in jazz gain much easy accessibility.  That is the goal!  So, try it.

12th Hopping Wires: Root, flat 3, flat 6, 2, and in 4s

12:1 Except for the 4^th and 5^th strings this pattern of intervals is true at any place on the guitar.

12:2

The root is always played with the index finger in this exercise.

The 2^nd note, a flat 3 interval, is always played with the pinky finger in this exercise.  A flat 3 is three half steps higher from the root on the same string.  A half step is a distance of 1 fret.

The 3^rd note is a flat 6 interval in comparison to the root note, and it is reached by skipping to the next thinnest string, but 3 frets higher than the given root note.  It is to be played with the pinky finger.  For instance, on the 1^st string, if the 12^th fret is played as a root, then the flat 6 is played on the 2^nd string at the 15^th fret, where the 1^st string is the fattest string.

The 4^th note of the repeatable pattern is a 2 interval.  It is played with the ring finger on the same string as the root, but a whole step up from the root.  A whole step is an interval that is 2 frets apart, as opposed to a half-step which is only one fret apart.

12:3  Thus, it is such that a pattern is formed.  This pattern if played at the 12^th fret on string 1 and 2, the two fattest strings, is: (12^th fret, index, 1^st string), (15^th fret, pinky, 1^st string), (15^th fret, pinky, 2^nd string), and (14^th fret, ring, 1^st string)

12:4  The aim is through repeating exercises like this one many times, speed, fluidity and outright finesse will be developed.

12:5  Whether you are positioned at the 12^th fret, the 7^th fret, the 5^th fret, or the 1^st fret, or any other fret for that matter; or if you use the 1^st and 2^nd string, the 2^nd and 3^rd string, 3^rd and 4^th string, or the 5^th and 6^th string, the pattern remains the same.  The index finger will play the lowest note with respect to tonality, and that will be the root note.  The root note is the same as the key that you are in.

Note:  When making the lesson name, the numbering system used reflects each note of the system with respect to the major scale, where “1,” is the root note of the Ionian Major scale, and all Ionian notes are considered to be major, instead of flat or sharp.  Thus, a lesson may be of a different scalar mode, but that will be disregarded in favor of Ionian labeling, such that though the Ionian major scale has no minor 3^rd, or “no flat 3,” if there a flat 3 in the lesson, this flat 3 will be labeled as such where major 3 is just simply a 3 interval.  For example in the key of G, the note B is the major third.  In G, if a B flat is used, then B flat is flat 3.