Someone once told me that, for something to be considered art, it must withstand multiple interpretations of itself.
Through this lens, the story of Adam and Eve can be considered art. One interpretation suggests that God intended Adam and Eve to remain in paradise, warning them against eating the forbidden fruit. Another interpretation suggests that God wanted Adam and Eve to eat the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil; After all, why was it placed there in the first place?
Adam, to Eve: “Remember how awesome our music was, back in the Garden of Eden?”
Eve: “Yes, I remember…but considering that we didn’t know any music theory rules back then, maybe we were too ignorant to distinguish good from bad music.”
It’s been a few days now since I’ve switched to NST, and I enjoyed playing it a lot. The note layout just makes so much sense for my brain, so much so that the highest g string really irked me, as it broke that pattern. So I’ve tuned the highest string to it’s corresponding fifth (B), but an octave lower.
C2 - G2 - D3 - A3 - E2 - B3
This essentially makes the highest two strings like the highest two strings in regular tuning (B and E), but switched around. That also means that the string tension is just as it should be for those strings if you just swap the gauges. It takes a while to get used to having the last string tuned lower than the previous one, but it’s also a nice way to have other inversions of chords available without having to memorize new fingering patterns.
Before I start new album projects, I like to define some rules or restrictions, sometimes as a challenge or just a way to keep the vibe more consistent (even though I end up breaking said rules from time to time, if it ultimately benefits the music). So for 2024, I’ll see if I can stick to this new tuning for writing some new songs.
I’ve been playing in DAEGBE for years. So a bottom end of fifths. I love messing around with tunings but I rarely drop to C on the bass end as to me it can sound too sloppy. (my playing that is haha)
10-52 works, but there’s a section in the Wiki that goes into suggested gauges:
I’ve used it a bit, in fact I forgot it existed and reinvented it myself before a quick google jogged my memory. This led to me building an electric bouzouki as I didn’t really use the somewhat awkward outer strings, and eventually abandoned it.
To chime in on the broader debate, I’ll first say that my approach to music is always exploratory, and while I’ve played guitar for 28 years, I use it as a tool for writing and creating sounds, not to play music written by others.
I started in standard but shortly after beginning playing somewhat seriously, I started using DADGAD due to my family being folk musicians, and not long after that began playing bouzouki (octave mandolin technically but in Ireland it’s all the same) which is traditionally tuned in fifths (GDAE) but I later modified to GDAD, from the influence of the mighty Andy Irvine.
I messed with many tunings, invented some, and now use Dm (DADFAD) a lot alongside standard. I have quite a few guitars and I’m comfortable with mods and setups so it’s easy for me to dedicate a guitar to a tuning or move it to another. I also keep a stock of various string gauges to better enable this.
I understand theory to a decent degree, but for me non-standard tunings are a way to find new voicings and stumble on ideas and vibes that I wouldn’t have otherwise. I’m not a traditional or technical player, I’m just chasing atmospheres more than anything.
I’ve written songs within minutes of messing with tunings that simply aren’t possible in standard, and that’s validation enough for me. I often find that a period of working exclusively in a different tuning gives me fresh perspective when I move back to standard, too.
I don’t think there’s any reasonable argument against using alternate tunings, all approaches to music are valid in their own way, and anything that breaks a player out of a rut is useful.
I do think that keeping one guitar in standard tuning is good practice though, especially with how good cheap guitars are these days.