Alternative Guitar Tunings  
         Part 1 * Open Tunings

When the guitar is re-tuned so that you can 
play a chord on the open strings, this is known
as an "open" tuning. Among the most common are
open G (which is also referred to as "slack key")
or "Spanish" or "Hawaiian", open D, open E and 
open C. These open tunings produce open-string
chords of G major, D major, E major and C major.
One major advantage of open tunings is that other
chords may be played simply by using the first
finger (index finger-frethand) to barre all 6
strings, at any fret. For example, when playing
in an open G tuning, to play an A major chord,
simply barre all 6 strings on the 2nd fret, as 
shown below. When using alternate tunings, it's
best if you choose "lower-tunings" as often when
tuning higher you can easily accidentially break
your guitar strings.

Tuning Diagram For Open G Tuning
Large E (6th string)= D 
A string (5th string)=G
D string (4th string)=D
G string (3rd string)=G
B string (2nd string)=B
Small E (1st string)= d


   Example 1         Example 2          Example 3
   A major chord     B major chord      C major chord   
e :--2--------------|--4--------------|----5------------|
B :--2--------------|--4--------------|----5------------|
G :--2--------------|--4--------------|----5------------|
D :--2--------------|--4--------------|----5------------|
A :--2--------------|--4--------------|----5------------|
E :--2--------------|--4--------------|----5------------|


Open Tunings * Part 2