Alternative Tuning

Perhaps you have seen or heard of guitarists who tune their guitar down down a 1/2 or whole step. There are a few reasons they do this. Mainly, for the sound, but also for  the lead singer; who doesn't want to strain himself/herself while trying to sing over the guitars. Tuning your guitar down a 1/2 or whole step is easy once you understand how to tune your guitar by ear. If you want to tune your guitar down a 1/2 step, you will want to open strings to look like this: 

Eb ||-----------------------------------------------| 
Bb ||-----------------------------------------------| 
Gb ||-----------------------------------------------| 
Db ||-----------------------------------------------| 
Ab ||-----------------------------------------------| 
Eb ||-----------------------------------------------| 

All the strings will be tuned down to a flat. Just tune your guitar to the standard tuning, then tune the 6th fret of the top E string until it matches the 5th string (A) Then follow the steps listed in the Tuning the Guitar lesson.  

An easy way find your reference point is this: Figure out what you want the open string to be. If your tuning down a whole step, then the top E string will be a D. Pretend that your top string is already tuned to a D, then count up the frets until you find the A. 

D ||---|-E-|-F-|---|-G-|---|-A-|---|-B-|-C-|---|-D-|---|-E-|-F-| 

In this case it would be the 7th fret. Tune the 7th fret to the A by matching to the open 5th string. The top string will now be an open D. Now you can just tune all the strings using this as your reference. 

Here are some other alternative tunings you can try. See if you can figure out how to tune these without using an Electronic Tuner. As you get to know your fretboard, you'll find that tuning is easy. There is no better way (in my opinion) to train your ear and learn your fretboard than by experimenting with different tunings. These tunings are written with the bottom string listed first. So a standard tuning would look like this: E,B,G,D,A,E 

D,B,G,B,G,D 
D,A,Fs,D,A,D 
D,A,G,D,A,D 
D,C,G,D,G,B 
D,B,G,D,A,E 
E,Cs,A,Cs,A,E 
D,B,G,D,B,G 
E,C,G,C,G,C 

Hope this broadens your guitar playing. You will find that your chord patterns will vary as well, experiment and have some fun.