Open E tuning

Open E: the strings and their notes

Open E from standard

What open E is

Open E tunes the open strings to an E major chord: E B E G♯ B E. It is the one common open tuning that raises strings instead of lowering them: the 5th goes up a whole step (A to B), the 4th up a whole step (D to E) and the 3rd up a semitone (G to G♯); the two E strings and the B stay. One finger or a slide across a fret gives a major chord.

It is the slide guitar's tuning in blues and Southern rock: Duane Allman played slide in open E, and so do many Delta-style players. Because the open strings are E, songs in E, A and B fall straight under the hand: open, 5th fret, 7th fret.

How to tune to Open E from standard

With the tuner above: tap Start, play each string the table changes and turn until the needle sits in the middle. By ear, without the tuner:

1. 5th string: A2 to B2. The 6th string at its 7th fret (B2) should sound like this string open.
2. 4th string: D3 to E3. Its 7th fret should sound like the open 2nd string (B3).
3. 3rd string: G3 to G♯3. Its 3rd fret should sound like the open 2nd string (B3).

Then check the whole tuning once more with the tuner: retuning one string moves the neck, and the others drift a few cents.

On the same strings, tension follows the square of the pitch: the 3rd string goes up to 112 % of its pull, so tune it up slowly; the 4th and 5th strings go up to 126 % of their pull, so tune them up slowly.

What one finger plays

Strummed open, the strings ring E. A finger or a slide straight across the 5th fret gives A, across the 7th B, and the 12th is E an octave up: the three chords of a blues in one straight line.

Open E or open D with a capo

Raising three strings adds tension (the 5th and 4th strings go up to 126 % of their pull) and a little more risk of a broken string. Open D has the same intervals a whole step lower; with a capo at the 2nd fret it sounds exactly like open E, with the strings slacker instead of tighter. For slide, many players keep a separate guitar in open E with slightly lighter middle strings.

• Tune up slowly and stretch the raised strings a little, or they keep falling flat for the first minutes.
• The G♯ is the major third: tune it last and check it against the open E strings.

All six strings in standard and the other tunings: the guitar tuner. Any note at all: the chromatic tuner.

Then play something

The notes you tuned can go into Brumm as a short melody over a beat. Hum a line on top and it becomes an instrument.

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