Alternate tuning

Any tuning of the open strings other than the standard intervals, used to reach voicings or ranges the normal tuning will not give.

Retuning changes three things at once: which bass notes are available open, how far the fingers have to reach for a chord, and how much tension the neck carries. A dropped bass string puts power chords under one finger; an open tuning makes a whole chord out of a single barre; a modal tuning such as DADGAD suggests drones and suspensions that are awkward to finger otherwise. The trade is that familiar shapes no longer produce the chords their names suggest.

Example: retuning the lowest string from E down to D turns the ordinary E-shape power chord into D, which is the entire trick behind drop-D riffing.

Alternate tuning

See also