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• Always write down any good chord shapes that you find in an altered tuning.


• If you use an open or altered tuning in a recording with more than one guitar part (and possibly keyboards),
  remember that such tunings are "ensemble fragile". The distinctive quality of the chord voicings can be lost, as they
  tend to be obscured by the other harmonic instruments in an arrangement.

Some Alternative Tunings
It is possible to create different versions of the same open tuning by changing the mixture of roots, thirds and fifths.
Let's take E major as an example. The standard open E is:

String 6 5 4 3 2 1

Note E B E G# B E

Inc/Dcr - +2 +2 +1 - -

Part of triad r 5th r 3rd 5th r

This tuning increases the tension on the neck. Is there a way of doing it by tuning down instead? Here's a solution I
devised:

String 6 5 4 3 2 1

Note E G# B E B E

Inc/Dcr - -1 -3 -3 - -

Part of triad r 3rd 5th r 5th r

The same thing can be done with open A. The standard version (used on 'In My Time Of Dying') is:

String 6 5 4 3 2

Note E A E A C# E

Inc/Dcr - - +2 +2 +2 -

Part of triad 5th r 5th r 3rd 5th

This is my version:

String 6 5 4 3 2 1

Note E A C# E A E

Inc/Dcr - - -1 -3 -2 -

Part of triad 5th r 3rd 5th r 5th

Now let's try open C. The standard version is:

String 654321

Note C G C G C E

Inc/Dcr -4 -2 -2 - +1 -

Part of triad r 5th r 5th r 3rd

But it could be done: