In the quest to break out of my ever present rut. I've started experimenting with alternate guitar/bass tunings. My thought is that I generally end up playing through certain fret patterns by habit and instead of doing the work to break those habits, it's much easier to mess with the tuners so that those same fret patterns produce new sounds. It's call bagging and sometimes it works.
The tuning I ended up liking the most is called New Standard Tuning and was 'invented' (or at least named) by Sir Robert Fripp of King Crimson fame. Normally a guitar is tuned in 4ths up until the change to a major 3rd, then back to a 4th. I don't like the normal guitar tuning. The switch to the major 3rd screws up the symmetry and makes me angry.
In contrast to normal guitar tuning, New Standard Tuning has you starting a low C, which is great for metal, and then tuning in 5ths all the way up to the last string, which is tuned to a minor 3rd. Again with the broken symmetry. There's a good reason for this switch to a minor 3rd at the high string, it's not possible to tune the high string up to a 5th because the tension would snap the string. So to keep the string tension down, it's only tuned up to a minor 3rd.
Hmmm, Mr. Fripp, maybe your guitar is trying to tell you something. Maybe it's trying to tell you that it doesn't want a 6th string. You see, when my 6th string snapped, as I was angrily trying to tune out the broken symmetry, I listened. So now I play a 5 string guitar, tuned to Even Newer Standard Tuning©, which trades the broken symmetry for a broken string. In addition to the perfect symmetry, which I guess is really perfect consistency, this now removes one more set of notes to learn. Patterns and chords are now one string shorter, making them more focused, direct and succinct. Brilliant! Thanks!
I need to get a new set of strings as well, as most strings are sized to Old Standard Tuning. For eNST, one needs a heavy C string to compensate for the drop and a light E string to compensate for the increase. Then I'll need to adjust the intonation and I'll be going all in for eNST! Maybe someday I'll bring back the 6th string, but not now, not yet.
In future posts I'm going to start talking about how to use NST. One thing I've found lacking in my searches have been diagrams and charts to show how existing scales and chords map into this tuning. So I'll talk about that as I learn it myself.
Thanks for your comment Ryan. After playing with New Standard Tuning for a few weeks now, I agree with you, with one caveat. On my electric, I generally play mostly melodies, leads, simple triad chords, etc. So I’ve left the 6th string off of my electric because it helps me focus on just playing the lead without struggling with the incongruous minor third at the top. I’ve never been good at memorizing fretboard patterns, so it’s been a boon to have the pattern be more symmetrical across the fretboard. And I can’t complain about having one less string to think about and still have more range to work with than standard tuning!
Now, when playing full chords on my acoustic, the minor third at the top really does add some interesting tones to chords. It’s almost like Nashville tuning in a way or having the drone string on a banjo, it really adds something unique to the sound.
I think the minor third interval on top is a crucial aspect of new standard tuning. Here's why: to my ears, wide intervals (anything above a 5th) sound broad and sonorous on lower notes, and not as powerful on higher ones. Close intervals (2nds and 3rds, etc) tend to sound muddy on low notes but pleasing on high notes. Therefore, a tuning that lets you play chords composed of wide bass, fifth, and sixth intervals in the lower register while simultaneously adding e.g. a minor second on top can produce some amazing voicings.
I've been using this tuning for some time now. There's a program , 'Gootar', that is a chord generator, among other things. One of the cool things is that it allows one to set chord voicings for cgdaeg. I find it helpful.
Awesome, I’ll check it out. Thanks!
[...] (NST) is CGDAEB (actual tuning experience not for the faint of heart), Fred Frith tunes his CGDAEG “to prevent physical injury” from that top string thwacking you in the face, and I am with the venerable Mr. Frith on this. The [...]
@Cobzilla You said, "One thing I've found lacking in my searches have been diagrams and charts to show how existing scales and chords map into this tuning." The jazzcittern.com website has a whole load of info on the topic, chord/scale theory, and so on – And a few apps that teach the stuff. Maybe that would fit the bill.