Welcome to our collection of alternate guitar tunings. Enjoy!

Personally, I'm not a fan of alternate guitar tunings. It's a hassle re-tuning a guitar for each song or piece! Some like to have a zillion guitars, each tuned in its own specific way. But since I'm lazy and don't really want to learn a gazillion different fretboard layouts, I just stick to the standard tuning.

Another reason I don't like them is that strings' tensions are calculated and optimized for standard tuning: you want to be careful with that neck, right?!

And if your guitar has a truss-rod, when you change string tension you need to redo your guitar setup (or have it done for you -expensive!!!) all over again. Unless you don't mind having intonation problems, that is. You need to readjust the bridge saddles to correct intonation -the works!

Personally, I find this loss of time and money -or playing out of tune- absolutely intolerable. So my conclusion is that alternate tunings are simply not worth it... Besides, there's so much to do with the standard tuning that hasn't been done yet...

...unless you want to play one of those Led Zeppelin classics or such: so I've put together a list of alternate guitar tunings for you anyway. Enjoy!

All tunings are shown starting on the 6th string (lowest) and ending with the 1st (highest). In tunings that require you to tighten the strings, it might be smart using a light string gauge.

Open tunings use only the root, third and fifth of a major or minor triad (3 part chord). All tunings are major unless otherwise stated.

A:

E3-A3-C♯4-E4-A4-E5

E3-A3-C♯4-E4-A4-C♯5

E3-A3-E4-A4-C♯5-E5 -used for slide guitar

C:

C3-G3-C4-G4-C5-E5

D:

D3-A3-D4-F♯4-A4-D5

D3-A3-D4-A4-D5-D5

D minor:

D3-A3-D4-F4-A4-D5

E:

E3-B3-E4-G♯4-B4-E5

F:

F3-A3-C4-F4-C5-F5

F#:

F♯3-A♯3-C♯4-F♯4-C♯5-F♯5
G:

D3-G3-D4-G4-B4-D5

G3-B3-D4-G4-B4-D5

More Alternate Guitar Tunings soon!

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Attention Guitarists!

Watch out for an original in-depth analysis of the fretboard that will be published here soon. Subscribe to our blog to stay up to date- just click on the RSS button...

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Guitar Fretboard Articles:

1. Guitar Fretboard in Depth: Go back from Alternate Guitar Tunings to the section overview.

2.Guitar Notes: A view along the Fretboard, and other important points

3. Fretboard Diagram- string by string: still looking along the fretboard, at scales and modes this time

4. Guitar Tuning and the Fretboard: a view across the fretboard

5. The Guitar Fretboard Chart explained afresh -also for Bass players