Category: Alternate Tunings

Ease into Alternate Tuning with a Blues in Open D Minor taught by Mary Flower

Why try alternate tunings? The simple act of changing the tuning of your guitar—even by just one string—can have a magical effect: it’s almost as if you have a new instrument. All kinds of sounds become available that you couldn’t play in standard tuning and familiar fingerings produce surprising results.

Learn a Traditional Hymn in DADGAD Tuning

In 1984, Steve Baughman was putting himself through college, working as a security guard in an old folks’ home, when he heard one of the residents play “Love Divine, All Loves Excelling” on the piano. Baughman was struck by the bombastic quality of this old Charles Wesley hymn, which he…

Adam Perlmutter
November 4, 2017

Fingerstyle guitarist Steve Baughman plays "Danny Boy"

Learn to Play the Orkney-Tuned Irish Classic ‘Danny Boy’

I encourage you to focus first on getting the melody down. Once you have that in your blood, you may feel free to explore your own bass lines and arpeggios.

Steve Baughman
January 18, 2017

Lesson: Folk-rock Songwriter Peter Mulvey Explains How to Create a Dynamic Solo Sound with Alternate Tunings

Songwriter Peter Mulvey visited my home studio while on tour in upstate New York and walked me through his song “The Knuckleball Suite.”

Jeffrey Pepper Rodgers
December 19, 2016

Going Beyond Drop-D

Here is a way to get some of that alternate-tuning mojo without straying too far from what you know

Jeffrey Pepper Rodgers
April 15, 2016

Photograph of fingerstyle guitarist John Doyle.

John Doyle Shows You How to Play Celtic Guitar

I met up with Doyle at a Philadelphia-area house concert where, joined by fiddler Duncan Wickel, he performed a stunning show that displayed the full range of his powers on guitar, from rollicking rhythm to beautifully melodic fingerstyle (actually played with a pick and one finger). Before the show, the easygoing virtuoso sat down with his left-handed Muiderman flattop to shed light on how he honors and stretches tradition as a guitarist and songwriter.