- 2 days ago
This lesson introduces three alternate tunings to expand your acoustic guitar horizons. Follow along as we explore the possibilities of each tuning, starting with CGCFCD, and see how they can inspire your fingerstyle playing and songwriting.
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00:20Hi, I'm Jamie with Guitarist magazine. If you're an acoustic guitarist, especially if you play a
00:26lot of fingerstyle, one of the easiest ways to open up new sound worlds is to try alternate
00:30tunings. We all know standard tuning, of course. Dadgad is also familiar to many, many guitarists,
00:37not least because of the associations with Led Zeppelin and things like that. But of course,
00:43there is a whole wealth of other ones you can try that are, you know, as time-honored, if not
00:48more
00:49than the ones we use every day. So here at Guitarist magazine, we were pondering on this,
00:55when Louise Patricia Crane, who's an excellent Northern Irish artist who sort of works in a sort
01:03of folk prog sound world, got in touch and said she was looking for some extra inspiration for new
01:12songs and could we recommend any tunings? And in actual fact, what we decided to do was to drop a
01:21line to Martin Simpson, who is one of the world's best fingerstyle acoustic guitarists. And Martin
01:26very kindly volunteered three tunings that he likes to play alongside the classic Dadgad and
01:33the standard tuning. And so, you know, confession to make, none of the three tunings that Martin
01:42suggested were ones that I tried before, even though they are quite well known, like the Orkney
01:47tuning you'll hear in this video, it is a standard among folk players. And I've, as a fingerstyle
01:54acoustic guitarist, I've kind of gravitated towards Dadgad like many people. So having recommended
02:00these to Louise Patricia Crane, we thought we'd make a video on the three recommended tunings to
02:06try to open your, to expand your horizons with alternate tunings that came from Martin Simpson. And
02:11this is what we're going to go through today. As mentioned, I've not played these before. So what
02:16you'll see is me reacting to the possibilities of these tunings with some initial ideas and some
02:22initial thoughts on them. And hopefully these will inspire you to have a go at them as well. Maybe if
02:28my comments kind of spark off some ideas or my playing does, it'd be really great to hear in the
02:34comments if you like what you're hearing, if you play in these tunings all the time, if these are your
02:39go-to's, or if you've never played them before, it'd be great to hear whether you like them or not.
02:44So we're going to go through them one at a time and let's see what we discover. So let's have
02:50it
02:50without further ado, our three tunings to try to open up your acoustic horizons.
03:24Okay, so this is the first tuning to try today. It's CGC FCD. So you can think of this as
03:29a Csus
03:30Ad9 chord when you strum it openly. Although for players who use Dadgett a lot, you might find it
03:37easier to think of it as the first four strings are Dadgad but a step down. And because you've got
03:44that contrast with the other strings, you get a different kind of overall vibe to it, if you like.
03:50Obviously, for Dadgad players, there are some easy access points here on the first four strings,
03:55the bottom four strings. But you've got that different tonality on the upper strings that
04:02creates different textures and vibes here. So I'll play a little bit on it just to show how you can
04:11play Dadgad-like things. But it brings something a bit more summery and a bit more sort of
04:16hopeful than Dadgad, which can be quite moody sometimes.
04:42Yeah, it's a little bit rural and folky. And overall, the only thing that I find having sort of tried
04:49this for a little bit now is that if you do play Dadgad a lot, which I do, its similarity
04:55is a
04:55double-edged sword. Because on the one hand, you can find some shapes straight away to start working
04:59with. You will also find your fingers going to familiar places and hitting notes that you didn't
05:04want. So it's probably a good contrast to get into. And I'm totally not surprised that this is a
05:12suggestion that Martin Simpson has made. He's known as an absolutely superb Dadgad player. This is like
05:17a sibling to Dadgad, if you like, that gives you a more upbeat, open, sunlit sort of feel. Plenty of
05:27minor sounds in there to explore as well. But the first thing you'll notice is that kind of openness
05:35and sort of optimism to it. So if you're looking for, let's say you play in Dadgad a lot and
05:42you're
05:43looking for something that takes you in that direction a bit more, this is a really good
05:46tuning to try. You can do nice little rundowns here with that sort of, what in standard tuning
05:51would be like an A7 shape.
06:11It's quite nice. It makes you sort of think of people sort of threshing wheat in the 19th century or
06:16something like that, which is, you know, not an unhandy thing for folk music. And yeah, we
06:22definitely recommend giving this one a try, especially as an easy step off from Dadgad.
06:28The only things to watch is, as I say, you'll be tripped up by the similarity as much as you
06:33will be
06:33helped by it. Something else we'll quickly just tack on the end here, which I'm going to do with all
06:37the tunings today is, how does it sound when you capo it up or capo it if you're one of
06:43our audience
06:44from across the pond. One thing I like to do in Dadgad is to put the capo on the fourth
06:51fret
06:52and then see how it sounds there. Second fret is also a good place to do these things. It just
06:57takes it up to a different register and gives a different vibe, even if you're playing exactly
07:01the same thing. So let's have a little go at that with that little pattern I was playing then.
07:30Obviously you might want to sort of bed in, tweak the tuning, sweeten it a little bit
07:34with the the capo one every time you move it. It does tend to sort of make things drift a
07:39little
07:39bit. Let's try it down at the second fret as well, which is another good spot
07:43to try with Dadgad, so it'll probably work quite well here.
08:18Okay, so that's probably got the most Dadgad-like feel because obviously the bottom four strings
08:22were a step down from Dadgad. We've now, with the capo, moved them a step up. You've still got the
08:26difference with the other strings, so you might want to try that if you want an even easier stepping
08:31off point from Dadgad into a new tuning to try. Anyway, so that's our first tuning.
09:05So for the next tuning, we're travelling north, at least if you live in the British Isles,
09:08that is, to the so-called Orkney tuning, which is CGD GCD. So it's an interesting one. Another
09:15one suggested, as mentioned, by Martin Simpson, who uses this a fair amount. And it's interesting
09:20because it's slightly more ambiguous in terms of major and minor. It's quite open-sounding. It
09:26doesn't impose itself too much, less so arguably than Dadgad, on the mood of the piece. And it lets
09:35those sort of sudden changes of weather, if you know what I mean, in terms of mood, happen within
09:39the piece quite naturally. So fooling around with it for a little bit, it's less accessible to a Dadgad
09:47player immediately than the previous tuning we showed. The shapes that you'll find working are
09:54a little bit different. But I think this is really one that would reward, you know, a bit of time
10:02spent
10:02cracking the code, because there are some really stunning sort of sounds that suddenly leap out,
10:07these sort of dramatic shifts in emphasis and mood, that make it kind of really appropriate for
10:13it's the Celtic part of its name, the Orkney connection, as it were. And there's just something
10:21very nice about it for the fingerstyle player. So one thing that was quite interesting is, is that
10:31you can go in with something quite major sounding quite pretty. So
10:34yeah, that's all not very much tension in that but a lot of sweetness.
10:46But then if you just switch, you can switch mood on a kind of on a half penny piece if
10:51you like,
10:51and it's nice for getting those instant contrasts. So you can go to this quite solemn and Celtic.
11:06And then back to the sweetness.
11:17It's kind of grand and solemn at the same time with with happiness in there as well. It's I can
11:24see
11:24why there's a connection to the sort of Orkney Islands. There's something of the landscaper not to
11:31be too highfalutin about it, something of that drama of the landscape that you see up there,
11:37and the music that emerges from it. So yeah, it's definitely one to try if you like to
11:45have quite a flexible tuning that has the potential to really generate some drama when you want it to.
11:52So that's the Orkney tuning. Give it a try. It's really cool.
11:56Before we move on, we'll do like we did with the last one. We'll put a capo on so you
12:00can see how it sounds higher up the fretboard.
12:03And yeah, again, it's always a useful thing to do with any new tuning because you might find it really
12:08comes to life in your fingers when you move it up a bit.
12:10So let's try the fourth fret cap on the fourth fret. And by the way, I do prefer to have
12:15my capo this way, this way up previous videos, lots of people commented that normally you'd apply it with this
12:22kind of handle sticking up and for various reasons, I just kind of like it that way around.
12:26So that's in case you were wondering, that's why I do it that way. So here we go capo on
12:30the fourth fret.
12:43So you tried a bit of drama for some sort of some sort of magical lighter feel to it, sort
12:50of flowing and silvery, if you will.
12:53Let's take it down to the second fret.
12:55And this is in Dadgad, this is a go to for me, definitely.
13:01It's a good sort of compromise between the sort of drama of uncapode and the sort of lightness and airiness
13:12of the fourth fret.
13:13So second fret.
13:38Immediately, I really like that. So again, whenever you have a new tuning, do try it with the capo in
13:44different positions because you might find it just unlocks a song where the mood matches the tuning, matches the register
13:52that you're playing in.
13:53And I really recommend that as a means to get inspiration or to dial in a tune to sound exactly
13:59as you want it.
14:15Okay, on to our third tuning. So this one's only one note different from the Orkney tuning.
14:20Instead of C, G, D, G, C, D, G, C, D, it's C, G, C, G, C, D.
14:24So the D turns into a C.
14:27The result, however, is a somewhat more optimistic sounding tuning altogether.
14:33And it suits sort of lively jigs and reels and things like that, I would say, or just that sort
14:40of nice feisty Celtic celebratory sound.
14:45So here's the tuning with just the open strings.
15:08Instantly, you can hear that sort of Martin Simpson style, finger style sound.
15:12There's a richness there and a sweetness.
15:15You could sort of let those strings ring out, as always, with these kind of tunings.
15:22Or you can pick up the pace a little bit, which is what I just did in the piece that
15:25I played.
15:26And that was just something I figured out how to do.
15:29It's a little bit similar to something I play often in Dadgad.
15:33So this one, strangely enough, feels a little bit more accessible than the Orkney tuning.
15:39It has that more kind of possibly optimistic feel or slightly more upbeat feel to it.
15:48You could most certainly try some stuff that was a bit slower on it.
15:59There's all of those Celtic Scottish kind of ballads in there.
16:02You can immediately sort of sense the possibilities there.
16:17And as always, you can do the deviations into the minor there, just to introduce a little bit of darkness,
16:22a little bit of shadow.
16:25But it feels like kind of a bit more vibrant somehow and like it wants to keep on ringing even
16:32more so than the Orkney tuning.
16:34But I mean, that's purely a subjective thing, me seeing here.
16:38They're both classic, well-used alternate tunings.
16:42What we're going to do now is just, as always with these tunings, I'm going to put the capo on
16:49at the fourth fret.
16:50And just to hear how it sounds, so you get a feel for what the sort of vibe of it
16:55is a little bit higher up the fretboard.
17:15Yeah, it's interesting that going high with some of the tunings sounded like a bit too much.
17:21Like this one, I think it's probably a bit too piccolo-like, whereas with the Orkney tuning, it felt it
17:27brought a bit of airiness to it.
17:29Again, these are all just subjective impressions.
17:33Let's come back down to the second fret, which is always a good Goldilocks option.
17:38.
18:19Straight away there, you've always got, with moving the capo around, you've always got this trade-off between the drama
18:25of the un-capo guitar, the sort of gravity of the big sort of rolling bass strings kind of throbbing
18:36away,
18:38and the sort of nimbleness of taking the whole thing higher to the fourth fret, and sometimes that sounds a
18:43little bit too flimsy,
18:45and then you can go to the second fret if you want that ideal midpoint between that sort of lightness
18:49and enough oomph.
18:51And I think here, this is probably, again, where I would tend to play it on this second fret here,
18:55just as an immediate impression on there.
18:58So that's our three tunings.
19:01You've got certain things which feel like they hold in common.
19:06There's certainly a lot of folk music seems to leap out with each of them,
19:10and, you know, that's a centuries-old tradition's kind of ringing in your ears when you hear these tunings.
19:18But each of them has a slightly different emphasis, and I think it's really important not to be afraid to
19:23try these things,
19:24because getting your head around them enough to start playing some interesting patterns is quite a short process, really.
19:31I mean, you could start writing on these straight away and within an afternoon have something really nice and polished
19:37or, you know, three or four ideas quite quickly.
19:42And really, with acoustic guitar, because you haven't got all the kind of options that electric guitarists have with, you
19:51know, amp tones, distortion and things like that,
19:53I mean, you could, but if we're just playing acoustically, purely acoustically, there's no reason on earth why you shouldn't
20:02start playing around with alternate tunings,
20:04and it really opens up the range of the instrument and gives you a fresh palette of ideas to work
20:09from.
20:09So give these ones a try.
20:10They come straight from the recommendation of one of the best fingerstyle players on the planet, Martin Simpson, as mentioned
20:17at the start of the video.
20:18And if you've enjoyed this video, hit like and subscribe, and we'll see you next time.