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Think of the reason you're giving names to notes: communication. So, it depends who you're communicating with, their expectations of you, and your expectations of them. When I play soprano ukulele, I think in terms of the guitar fretboard - the intervals between strings are the same as the top four strings of a guitar. So in my head, I play a guitar "D" ...

It entirely depends what you want to play. A capo is for transposing a piece up by some number of semitones, without changing the fingering. So let's look at ways to transpose those pieces without a capo -- it will often involve changing the fingering: If the piece does not contain any open strings, you don't need a capo. Just play the piece with your ...

I like the way you've posed this question, and I think you're correct in comparing your problem to musicians who play different instruments in different keys, so I'll answer from that perspective. As jjmusicnotes alluded, it seems the problem may not be playing in different tunings so much as it is switching from one tuning to another after an extended ...

Your question is a question that is asked by many musicians over a range of instruments, but I think that the real question is a bit more broad than the one in the original post. I believe the real question your looking for is: "How can I make something that is unfamiliar familiar?" The answer to this is frequency. The reason why you have a difficult time ...

The upper four strings in open G (D G D G B D) comprise a harmonic series and offers shapes with some of the advantages of supercat's fine answer. $6 d 0.$5.2.$4.0.$3.2.$2.3.$1.4 $6 dm 0.$5.2.$4.0.$3.2.$2.3.$1.3 $6 g 0.$5.0.$4.0.$3.0.$2.0.$1.0 $6 or 0.$5.0.$4.0.$3.4.$2.3.$1.5 $6 gm 0.$5.0.$4.0.$3.3.$2.3.$1.5 $6 or 5.$5.3.$4.5.$3.3.$2.3.$1.5 Since ...

If one is aspiring to become a good guitar player, there really is no alternative to learning to finger cleanly. On the other hand, if one wants to simply have fun playing the instrument, and play chords to back one's favorite songs, alternative tunings may reduce the level of technical proficiency required. One tuning which makes it very easy to play a ...

Especially if everyone in your ensemble follows suit, you can think of this as playing with a different reference ptich frequency. Nowadays, most tuning uses a reference pitch of A'=440Hz. You can think of down-tuning your guitar as redefining this reference pitch to be a different, lower, frequency. For example, declaring A'=415Hz is the same as down ...

A point for dropping to Eb is that it gives you open strings which have sustain. The style of jazz accompaniment, as epitomized by Freddie Green, is closed and muted strings all over the neck, on archtop guitars that are notable for the punchy attack but minimal sustain, so the benefit you get is being on the position marker rather than off it. I don't doubt ...

For a variety of reasons: They like the sound of the looser strings and lower pitches (many dark metal acts) They like the snappier, jangly sound of tighter, higher pitched strings (e.g. Johnny Marr of The Smiths) They want to play certain open-string chords, while keeping the song within their vocal range They want to play certain open-string chords, ...

The short answer is that guitarists use alternate tunings to make it easier to play songs in keys other than E, A and D. One example of a reason for this would be to accompany a singer who insists that a certain song needs to be sung in a lower key than the one the guitarist learned it in. Another example would be when the guitarist determines that in a ...

If what you're trying to do is memorize the note names, then it's best to stick with one tuning, and learn the notes in that tuning before moving on to others. Standard tuning is a good choice since it is the "standard". Learning the note names in this tuning will facilitate many other types of learning and communication with others within the guitar ...

For the sake of a thorough answer, there are some new electric guitars that have recently appeared on the market that make use of what is refered to as a "digital capo". They can be configured to use built-in digital signal processing to raise or lower the pitch of the strings by digital pitch-shifting, while the actual tuning of the physical strings stays ...

Tuning to Eb can have a variety of advantages. When playing in a band with horns that are Eb and Bb instruments, tuning to Eb means that you use bar chords and play in their key much more easily. Having that lower Eb also means that for a tune in that key, you don't have to go up almost a whole octave to play the root note. It will also change the tone, ...

The best way is to experiment. I've never heard anyone play in A#/Bb as that is a tritone off standard tuning... that is, unless it is a baritone guitar OR 7 string, in which case you are just going a tone lower. The general idea is this: As you lower the pitch you must use fatter strings. You could get a 7-string pack of strings and use the lower 6 ...

I often play downtuned, and tend to keep thinking of the strings as the standard EADGBE - so you'll play a C chord (for instance), but it'll sound at a lower pitch depending on your tuning. Obviously, if you play with other people who aren't downtuned then you'll need to get used to transposing the chords/notes you're playing to match them.

Advantages: 1) better accomadates a particular vocal range try singing simple man by LS in standard tuning. LS tuned their guitars down 1/2 step.....another good example....several Neil Young songs....down by the river...only love can break your heart. Even neil on occasion, when his range shifts for whatever reason, tunes his guitar down a half ...