Glued? Try to tune your guitar to open "me"
We all know Dolly Parton. Singer, songwriter, performer, actress and brilliant businesswoman.
Always dressed to the nines, no hair out of place, perfect makeup and lipstick, and painted nails…long painted nails!
Have you ever seen Dolly play the guitar? If so, have you ever wondered how she can sit down with a guitar and play it without those long claw-like fingernails getting in the way?
Sure, it’s possible to play the guitar with long fingernails, classical guitarists do it all the time. But with Dolly, we’re talking about daggers, spikes that can do some real damage!
For her it is simple. She plays with one finger.
It sounds impossible to those of us who struggle to contort our fingers in every conceivable way to form complex guitar chords, but for her it’s easy.
He does this by tuning his guitar to an open chord. Most often his is tuned to an open E chord.
By tuning the guitar to an open chord, you can strum it without fingering it and play a full chord, in this case an E.
Then by placing a finger on any fret and locking those notes, you’re playing another whole chord.
Let’s first look at how to tune your guitar to an open E tuning.
6th string (E) – leave as normal
Fifth String (A): Tune this string down to a B. Do this by playing the note on the seventh fret of the sixth string and tuning the fifth string to match.
Fourth string (D): Tune this string up to an E. Do this by playing the sixth string or the first string and tuning the fourth string to match. In this case, the fourth string will now become an “eighth” of the first or sixth string.
3rd String (G) – Tune this string down to a G#. Do this by playing the note at the fourth fret of the fourth string (after it has already been tuned higher) and matching the third string to it.
2nd string (B) – leave as normal
1st string (E) – leave as normal
Now strum all 6 strings on the guitar. You are now playing an open E chord!
Do you want to play an A chord in this tuning? Simply place your first finger on all the strings at the fifth fret and strum.
Do you want to play a G chord? Just sweep the strings at the third fret.
If you know the notes on the sixth string, then the note on the sixth string at the fret where your finger makes the beam is the root note of the chord you’re playing.
A word of caution. When you tune the strings higher, you add more tension to them, and sometimes they can break if you turn them up too high. Always turn your head away from the guitar when tuning higher than normal, to prevent a breaking string from hitting you in the face or eyes.
When you’re in this tuning, have a little fun and play around forming chords and discovering new ones.
Here’s a clue. In this open E tuning, form an open E chord just as you would in a standard tuning and play it. Then lift your fingers and strum the strings open. Do this back and forth several times, starting with the open string chord, then going to the E “shape” chord.
Can you recognize the opening chords of the Black Crowes’ “She Talks To Angels” intro?
Open E tuning is also used quite a bit for slide guitar, as well as Dobro.
I’ve said before that there are times for all of us when our playing becomes a bit stale. We feel like we’re not playing anything new, like we’re stuck in a rut.
It is at times like these that it can be good for the psyche to shake things up a bit, to do something different and unhurried.
The next time you feel like this, try switching to an open E tuning and let your creativity flow!