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.