ADADG Tuning
I’ve been setting up to play some more guitar but ran into a problem translating songs between the six string drop-D tuning I use on guitar and the ADADG tuning on my five-string bass. So I decided to try to tune my guitar down to ADADG tuning and relearn a couple of songs.
The advantages of this tuning are :
- the two low pairs of strings are copies of AD, so you can hop octaves just by moving across strings instead of across and up.
- I dont have to relearn any drop-D songs or scales that I already know (this is how I got to ADAD in the first place)
- Since I’m forced to use different fingerings I might stumble on some unique sounding riffs
Disadvantages:
- I cant use standard guitar chords or scales
- Learning new songs will be harder because I cant use standard tab
- the low A string on the bass sounds funny - especially tuned down 1/2 step you really only hear the overtones - this is true on the guitar as well
I’ve thought of going to a tuning in fourths like ADGCE. If I used that I could use standard guitar fingerings, i’d just have to shift the roots five frets.
I’ll stick with this another week or so and see how it goes - it’s good to stretch the mental muscles a bit. So what kind of triads can we build with this tuning? Here goes:
Major triads
Scale degrees indicated by number:
The root position chords actually sound pretty full once you get four strings going and it’s not too hard to shift major and minor. They are for the most part just variations of the C shape,
Minor chords require very slight modifications:
Minor
Note that its very easy to find chords with repeated roots and fifths, but getting a single major third with the root on the D-string is tough.