On Mon, 7 Jan 2002 14:38:45 EST [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > I know what chords mean only in terms of the piano > (i.e., if someone asks me to play a Dm7 on the piano, > I can do it pretty much without thinking), but what does > an "open" tuning on a guitar mean? It seems to mean > more than just "non-standard" -- if so, is there more than > one "closed" way of tuning?
An open tuning is any tuning which is not standard. Generally, an open tuning is tuned to a chord and sounds nice by itself, although Jonatha Brooke has one very weird tuning where she just tunes the bottom string down to C# (C#ADGBE) (C#85545) and it sounds terrible by itself, but allows for some nice bass notes with the chord progressions that she uses for the songs in that tuning. Standard tuning on the guitar is EADGBE (E55545). The musical intervals between all but the 3rd and 2nd strings are fourths - the interval between the 3rd and 2nd strings is a major third. This tuning, when strummed without a chord shape, is not very beautiful by itself - it is not itself a chord - but this tuning seems to provide the most possibilities for playing any song in any key and for modulating between keys. It is even possible (but would be very difficult for the average guitarist) to play Joni's songs with her chords (not the chord shapes, but the tones of her chords) from standard tuning - I saw someone do this here in Vienna at a Joni tribute a few years ago - he played a set of at least 15 of Joni's songs, including Refuge Of The Roads, from standard tuning - sounded just like Joni's guitar! It was very amazing. Gerald Gradwohl - excellent guitarist. > If someone says, e.g., "open D' tuning", does it mean you > tune the strings to play only, say D, F#, A and their octaves? yes, that is basically correct. The actual tuning of "open D tuning" is DADF#AD. Sometimes an open tuning can be very simple - like tuning the E bass string of the guitar down to D. This is called drop-D. If you then tune the top E string down to D, you get a double-drop-D tuning. Any time that the tuning for the guitar is changed from standard, the chord shapes have to be modifed so that you can still get beautiful sounds from the guitar. Once you've tuned the guitar into an open tuning, it seems to me - in my experience - that the musical possibilities become more limited because of the tuning. While it is possible to find many chords that sound more interesting/beautiful from an open tuning, it becomes difficult to modulate to another key because the guitar strings have been fixed into the key of the open tuning (whereas standard tuning is not fixed to any key). > Also, what does a "modal" tuning mean? I don't know. There are instruments which are modal, like the dulcimer. They are fretted such that it is not possible to play a complete chromatic scale. The guitar is not a modal instrument because each fret represents a half step and chromatic scales are possible on every string. I think "modal tuning" must be just another term for open tuning. Marian Vienna
