drop d & its variations better than standard

[nemesis]

you d have to of been living in a whole for the last 15 years to not of noticed how drop d and other tunings that allow for that interval( open e,d,c dadgad, etc) have almost become the norm over standard tuning for quite a lot of styles. You could look at both and realize their pros and cons but in the end taking all musical styles in mind which do you all find to be more effective to play in or use. ive been a standard player most of my life but i have dabbled in its alternatives and found them to be fun. its just a matter of getting away from cliched 1-finger power chord riffs:rolleyes: as i know there are more benifits than just being able to rock out mindlessly. so what do you think guys, which one tends to rock your boat? as a bonus to othe players, if you could provide drop d style playing tips to help break out of that all to common power chord rut that would be cool.

[gersdal]

I love dadgad, dadghd and dadghe tuning for bluesy comping on my acoustic and slide playing. I easily get lost when improvising at dadgad tuning, so I definitely have something to work on at that point. I seldom play power chords in such tunings.
Check out the thread on Blackwood Stroll by Kirk Lorange and other good threads by him on droped tunings.

[nemesis]

i love dadgad and you shouldnt really get lost. if you work out how ,say the d major or major pent scale, you would see that the patterns are not really all the difficult. i reccomend going to www.looknohands.com where you can map out the patterns on the fretboard for about any tuning or scale you want. being able to see how the scales lay out across the fretboard really helps.

[diggerbucket]

My electric guitar is nearly always in standard tuning, however my acoustic spends most of it's life in alternative tunings. At the moment it's in DAEGCD because I've been playing Java Man by Michael Hedges (it's the only song I know of in that tuning before you go off hunting for more!). I'm not a good player by any means but it's fun to mess about with different tunings and make some interesting sounds.

[perth]

are you experimenting with alternate tunings so you can get away from straight power chord progressions? you can do that in standard tuning as well. effectiveness of any alternate tuning really depends on your personal view of your instrument, and is just as personal as what type of strings and what kind of picks you use.

personally, cgdgbd, cgdgbe, and cgdgbf are my favorites. the differences in the high string are dictated by how i play the voice lead.

[nemesis]

i dont really find myself relying on power chords in my playing to much since i find using thirds in riffs helps to define the tonality better but that fifth interval between strings kind of eliminates my ability to use them on those strings within like 6-7 frets but dropping that one string sure helps when using others. in my opinion drop d and such was never really explored beyond making power chord shapes easier by most rock players. i used to just think it was a cop out way of writing simple songs and if you look at a lot of tabs out there you see a whole lot of one finger chords just moving up and down the neck with out much variation in style for a whole lot of songs. it kinda pissed me off cause people were getting rich writing these beginner riffs. its pretty common to use in the metalcore movement right now but at least these bands can play even if they are starting to sound the same at times. you can find variation and originality in any tuning( and sometimes technique for that matter) though as long as you take the time to look for it

[debaser]

Ultimately, the effectiveness of any tuning is determined by the player, and the composition. Personally, I find standard most efficient - unless you really need a low D in a particular song, it's generally possible to voice most things in standard, and it maintains consistency as far as scale patterns, arps, etc. Having said that, I did use drop D almost exclusively for 3 years or so, and having 5ths and 9ths more closely in reach definitely had a certain effect on the stuff I wrote during that time.

[perth]

in my opinion drop d and such was never really explored beyond making power chord shapes easier by most rock players.

its also used in some classical peices, but not for the purpose of making any voicings easier or in fact different in any way. its only there because the peice needs a low d. the only tuning ive used (on guitar) for the purpose of making voicings easier is straight 4ths: eadgcf, which works great with movable voicings containing 4 notes.

[forgottenking2]

I really like DADGAD open G and others... I got my acoustics tuned to open Eb and... I think open C... but I mainly play standard when it comes to the electric... I guess I've spent so much time doing visualization exercises and such in standard tuning and then just when I think I know the notes I change the tuning... it'd be kinda cruel :D

It is a great way to experiment and come up with new ideas for sure.

[FredrikD]

in my opinion drop d and such was never really explored beyond making power chord shapes easier by most rock players.

I disagree with this. A power chord in drop d tuning sounds different from a power chord in normal tuning. Some bands use this very effectively to get a more psychedelic sound. You can also play chords that don't sound good with distortion in normal tuning.

The alternative tuning I used most recently is DADG#BE. I think it is a bit limiting but what can you do when it's not your song. :)

[gersdal]

i love dadgad and you shouldnt really get lost. if you work out how ,say the d major or major pent scale, you would see that the patterns are not really all the difficult. i reccomend going to www.looknohands.com where you can map out the patterns on the fretboard for about any tuning or scale you want. being able to see how the scales lay out across the fretboard really helps. Sorry about this late reply, but thanks, that link was really valuable. With a little work this can be worked out on paper also, but pretty handy to get it quick and easy like this.

[satch_master]

drop D is good for when i wanna play some soundgarden or tool but more than most i stick to good old standard tuning. Sometimes Eflat for YJM. I rarely ever go below D, then is just NUMETAL hahahahha.

[HughM]

I love . . . dadghd and dadghe . . .

Now those are two tunings I'd love to hear.

[widdly widdly]

What about robert fripp's so called "New Standard Tuning" :rolleyes: which is CGDAEG? Anyone actually using that?