How to Tune Your Guitar, Step 3: Alternate Tunings

Other posts in this series about tuning the guitar:
How to Tune Your Guitar, Step 1: Using a Tuner
How to Tune Your Guitar, Step 2: Tuning the Guitar to Itself
This is a blog post about how to tune your guitar to alternate tunings. You can skip this post if you're not planning on using a non-standard tuning (I.e. anything other than EADGBE).

If you've come this far and read the first two posts about tuning (and if you haven't, check out the links above), you should have a decent understanding of how to tune the guitar. You know now how to use a tuner. You know how to tune the guitar to itself. Now let's talk alternate tunings.

Many Different Alternate Tunings

There are a variety of tunings available to us as guitarists. We aren't stuck only playing EADGBE. I'll list a few of the more popular tunings below, and then I'll give you some ways to tune to them.

DADGBE: Commonly known as "Drop D" tuning, this is one of the most popular alternate tunings. One distinct advantage of playing in Drop D is that power chords require only one finger. That makes this tuning popular for genres like hard rock and heavy metal.

Examples of songs in DADGBE: "Freak" by Silverchair, "Dear Prudence" by the Beatles

EbAbDbGbBbEb (sometimes written as D#G#C#F#A#D#):

This tuning is basically standing tuning dropped down a fret (semi-tone) in pitch. Some bands use this tuning rather than standard tuning. Why? In some cases the singer may find it easier to hit the correct pitches when the tuning of the guitar is lowered a little (I have on occasion tuned down for a performance when my voice wasn't feeling 100%)

Examples of songs in EbAbDbGbBbEb: "Sweet Child O' Mine" by Guns 'n Roses, "More than Words" by Extreme

DADF#AD: Often known as "Open D" tuning because the open strings are just the notes of a D major chord. You can get some very pretty sounding chords using a tuning like this, with very little effort from the fretting hand.

Examples of songs in DADF#AD: "Big Yellow Taxi" by Joni Mitchell, "Place to Be" by Nick Drake

[Some of my examples of songs I found on Infogalactic, a wikipedia-like database, which you can check out here: Infogalactic.]

How to tune to an alternate tuning

Tuning to an alternate tuning is not that difficult with a tuner (if you don't have a tuner, we'll talk about that in a moment). In the case of drop D (DADGBE), for example, you simply tune your low-E string (6th string, closest to head) down to D, and the other five strings tune as normal (to ADGBE).
With other tunings, follow a similar procedure, but keep the following thing in mind:

You usually tune up or down in pitch depending on which takes less time and effort

In other words, for DADF#AD tuning, compare it to EADGBE:

E to D (lower)
A to A (same)
D to D (same)
G to F# (lower)
B to A (lower)
E to D (lower)

Two of the strings are the same, the others are all tuned lower, and definitely not higher. Why? Because tuning up to a D from an E would break the string (strings don't like being tuned too tightly). In general, we tune down, but there are exceptions, like EBEG#BE (which is an open E tuning):

E to E (same)
A to B (higher)
D to E (higher)
G to G# (higher)
B to B (same)
E to E (same)

In this case, we tune them all higher or leave them the same, but again, it makes sense if you think about it. Tuning those same strings down would take a lot more time and effort.

All of this makes more sense if you know the order of notes and are familiar with the notes on the fretboard (and it really helps if you've read step 1 and step of How to Tune Your Guitar). But in general, just remember this:

With alternate tunings, we usually tune down, unless it's much easier and less-time consuming to tune up.

As with all tuning, when in doubt, tune down to the pitch, and if it sounds weird, you probably tuned the wrong way.

Tuning without a tuner

If you don't have a tuner, you can follow a similar procedure to the one we outlined in step 2 (How to Tune Your Guitar, Step 2: Tuning the Guitar to Itself). But now you need to think a little harder. If you're tuning a string to a D instead of an E, you're tuning even lower, so now you need to think about what the fretboard would look like with the new, alternate tuning.

Huh??? Allow me to give an example. If you're tuning to open D tuning (DADF#AD), you're changing 4 strings: both E strings, the G string, and the B string. So for the E strings (which are getting tuned to D), when you're done you should have an A note on the 7th fret of your 1st and 6th strings. When tuned to E, the A is on the 5th fret. Make sense?

If you think carefully as you tune, it shouldn't be much harder to tune to an alternate tuning without a tuner than it is to tune to EADGBE without one.

If you've already read my first two posts about tuning (the ones linked at the top of this post), you can ignore the rest of this post below. If you haven't...

Two important things to keep in mind while tuning:

1) STRINGS CAN BREAK IF YOU TUNE THEM TOO TIGHTLY
Listen carefully: make sure you don't tighten the string too much, because doing so might break a string. If a string is supposed to be tuned to an E, but you accidentally try to tune it to the A above that E, you run the risk of breaking the string. Strings don't like being too tight, so tune carefully.

Not sure which way to tune? When in doubt, tune down (loosen the string) until you're confident you're going the wrong way, then tune it back up. If you've loosened it too far, you'll figure it out eventually - the string will get very loose and will sound very strange.

2) Always end by tuning up!

When tuning down a string that is sharp, always make sure to tune slightly lower than the actual pitch, and then tune up to the correct pitch. Why? If you end by loosening the string, the string can still be a bit loose in the head-stock of the guitar (where the tuning pegs are), and the string can un-tune from that pitch slightly. Always end by tuning up!