Songwriting may be one of the more esoteric subjects covered in Guitar Player, as so many elements are completely subjective, or difficult to put into words. That said, there’s no better tool for songwriting than an acoustic guitar, and few better sources for inviting inspiration than twisting its tuners to new locations.
TRICK YOURSELF
An obvious songwriting tip comes in the form of suggesting a player stuck in standard try an open tuning. While it’s an awesome experience to work in, say, open G when you’re used to playing in standard, it’s also true that soon the obvious open-G moves become apparent, and, if you’re not careful, this new adventure leads to sounding exactly like Keith Richards or Jimmy Page. The same is true regarding open E and Duane Allman, or DADGAD and Laurence Juber.
But something interesting happens when you tune a few different guitars to specific open tunings, and just leave them hanging out. Pretty soon, you should start to forget which tuning was on a specific guitar. Then, when you pick up a guitar, the experience of muscle memory gone astray starts manifesting in mysterious ways. For example, playing an A barre chord will sound completely different when the guitar happens to be tuned to open E or open G. Or, you might think you’re going to play something in open G, but that acoustic was actually tuned to open E. Such moments are ideal for surprising—or tricking—yourself into unusual songwriting territories. Go with it.
GET EXOTIC
The next level is to customize tunings. Let’s start with something simple. Put your guitar in standard—except tune the second string to a C, rather than