Guitar Tunings A Comprehensive Guide

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

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.