We started our tour of the “C” tunings with Open C Minor Tuning CGCGCD# playing the C Blues Scale, and followed that with CGCGCE “Open C” tuning in the key of C Major.

Today’s tuning is CGCGAD in the key of C Major. As with the previous two “C tunings”, strings 6 – string 3 are the same (CGCG) but we tune string 2 to A and string 1 to D. The open chord is D 7sus.

The video below features a few chord progressions from my song “Jolly Walker” which focuses on the open chord C 6sus2 with the melody in C major. For your viewing pleasure, the screenshot below shows the notes I’m playing in scale note names, numbers, scale degrees and intervals.

As you can see, we don’t need a lot of notes to have an interesting chord progression. In “Jolly Walker,” the open chord with the melody notes C, D and F on string 2, followed with the F note on string 6/fret 5, offers a nice “back and forth” progression. Adding the G note on string 2/fret 10 adds some variation to the melody.

May these daily alt tunings continue to inspire you as you explore songwriting beyond the limitations of standard tuning. If you’d like to learn more about making alt tuning a part of your songwriting, give me a call at 888-7-GUITAR or reach out to me here.

Until next time…

~Scott Quillin

Did you know? Scott started playing guitar when he was 14 years old back in 1982. A Pittsburgh native, Scott resides in Rhode Island where he teaches guitar, bass, music and songwriting. He also records and mixes songs for local bands and artists as well as his own music. He writes and records nearly every day and has a real passion to help others hear their “inner voice” and express that in songs.

You can listen to more of Scott’s music at https://soundcloud.com/scottquillin.