Rare tunings
I always considered the different tunings of the guitar as one of his best things. This month,
I would like to show you how we can get interesting results with some rare tunings.
Begin by the tuning I used on "Flow my tears" on Stu Hamm's Radio free albemuth. The
track is in E minor tonality, with chords and melody coming from Em9 and CM7#11 patterns. The
ambiance a bit shuffly inspired me to play harmonics randomly giving both melody and harmony.
Here's the tuning I sed (from low to high) : E G D E A B
By playing harmonics on 5th, 7th and 12th frets, I producted notes in cool resonance with the
chords, and also created a bell or kalimba-like sounding. By varying dynamics, you'll see
that the timbre of those harmonics can change. This is a thing which I want you to stress on.
I used this tuning and technic with a variation on "Rubina" that you'll find on my Not of
this Earth. Variation ; E G D E A E
"Rubina" and "Flow my tears" are in relative tonalities G Major and E minor, respectivly,
it's the reason of the compatibility of those tunings and songs. Try to play harmonics
both-gathered by changing positions and skipping strings, in order to get a kalimba-like
sound. For bell-sounding harmonics, attack each harmonic separately by using a simple or
complex rythm. With a bit of reverb, delay or stereo chorus, you'll see that you can get a
sound really sublime. Tune yourselves, and explore...