1st Edition

Guitar Tunings A Comprehensive Guide

By Dick Weissman Copyright 2006
    120 Pages 145 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    120 Pages 145 B/W Illustrations
    by Routledge

    For many beginning-to-intermediate level guitarists, guitar tunings are a mystery. Everyone begins with "standard" tuning and knows its basic strengths - and limitations. But, once a guitarist gets beyond basic skills, the desire to play in different styles and achieve individual sounds leads inevitably to exploring alternate tunings.

    Guitar Tunings: A Comprehensive Guide is the first book to offer practical advice for how to use the most common special tunings for the greatest creative and musical effect. Illustrated throughout with examples in standard notation and guitar tablature, the author introduces different musical styles through the use of appropriate tunings. Including downloadable resources, this book gives clear and concise instruction for the guitarist who has mastered basic skills but wants to go beyond them. It will appeal to guitar students of all ages, and can be used for individual self-instruction or in one-on-one or group teaching situations.

    In short, Guitar Tunings: A Comprehensive Guide offers a comprehensive approach for all guitarists to enhance their playing skills and creative music making. Also includes 75 musical examples.

    Preliminary table of Contents: Introduction The Perils of Standard Tuning Open Tunings or Slack Key Guitar Tablature vs. Music Notation Modified Capos Nashville High Strung Guitar Twelve String Guitar Partial Chords with Open Strings Other Resources 1 Retuning the 6th String to a D Using Different Chord Formations Windy Blues Up the Neck Double Dropped D Tuning D Demon 2 G Family Tunings Partial Chord Fingerings in Open Tunings Slide Guitar Slidin' Slidin' #2 Movin' Fast Roamin' Blues without Words Lonesome Blues Lonesome Blues #2 The Parlor Pedal Point Waltz G Minor Tuning Minor Claw Darker Than Ever DGDGAD Tuning Across the Mountains GDGFCD (Mountain minor) The Cuckoo 3 D Family Tunings Dreaming Dreaming, expanded solo D Blues Ridge Runner Blues Musing Dulcitar Good King Wenceslas In the Parlor D Blues For Whom the Bell Tolls D major 7 tuning Up The River Uncertainty D minor tuning Minor Moan Calling the Children Home D major 7 tining DADGAD Irnament Dulcidad Oud Food Blue Gad Plucky Pierre 3 C Family Tunings Impressions Walkin' C to Shining Sea Blues Open C minor tuning Too Much Suffering Shifting Gears Other C Family Tunings Marble Stairs C9 Tuning Ren Burned Banjo-It Is C major 9 tuning Quadruple C tuning West of East 4 Other Tunings Open A Tuning John Henry's Train Tune Carl's Carousel Fourths Tuning Beijing Nights Devilish Dance Lute Tuning John's Lute Fisk Duplicate Tunings Turning Still Nashville High String Tuning Country Fried Leadbelly's Music Box Twelve string guitar tunings 12 X 5 Version 1 12 X 5 Version 2 Openings White Men At Eagle Pass 5 Standard Tuning Tricks Using Capos Partial capos Using the Partial Capo Partial Fulfillment Country Rhodes Nine Frets High Open String Chords in Standard Tuning Many Crossings Opening The E Blues Appendix A Off the Wall Tunings: A Brief Inventory Appendix B Chord Charts Open G Open D DADGAD Open C E Tuning Bibliography

    Biography

    Dick Weissman has recorded three guitar instruction albums for Music Minus One, has played on dozens of recording sessions, written instructional books for Mel Bay and Alfred Music, and currently performs in a duo with classical guitarist David Crabtree.