One way to advance your skill as a guitar player is to experiment with alternate tunings. There are a variety of popular tunings that guitarists have utilized in all kinds of creative ways, adding new dimensions to the sounds they create. One of these ways is using “open” tunings, which involve tuning all six guitar strings so that all of the open notes together form the notes of a major chord.
In this lesson, we’ll focus on open E tuning. We’ll demonstrate how to tune to open E, discuss why you may want to experiment with alternate tunings, and review some examples of how open E tuning has been used in popular music.

Open tunings allow guitarists to strum all six open strings to play full chords. The E major chord is a powerful open chord, which already uses three open notes in standard tuning. To tune to open E, the other three strings are tuned up, either a whole step or half step.
Beginner Music Theory: Learn The Five Essential Chord Shapes
Open E tuning offers just a slight tweak on standard tuning, adjusting three of the strings to form an open E major chord across all six strings.
If you visualize an E major chord in open position, you’ll need to tune the 3rd, 4th, and 5th strings up so that the open notes of those strings become the notes that would normally be fretted for the E major chord.
For a starting point, here are the notes on a guitar in standard tuning: E (lowest string) -- A -- D -- G -- B -- E (highest string)
Open E Dominant Seventh Guitar Chord
In open E tuning, the standard G string would be tuned up one half step, to G#; the standard D string would be tuned up one whole step, to E; and the standard A string would be also be tuned up one whole step, to B:
Keep turning the peg and plucking the string until you reach the note B. Pro tip: The Online guitar tuner can help you tune your guitar to the correct note. You can use either the Electric Guitar Online Guitar Tuner or the Acoustic Guitar Online Tuner, or download the app to your phone. Both the web and app versions give you the ability to adjust your settings and tune specifically to open E and other alternate tunings. The string should have the same tone as the B string, although that string will be an octave higher.
Next, do the same thing with the 4th (D) string, tuning it up one full step to E. This should match the tone of both the 6th string (one octave lower) and the 1st string (one octave higher).
E Major Scale On The Guitar
If you’ve tuned correctly, you should be able to hear all the familiar notes of an E major chord when you strum across all six open strings. It’s possible you may have to go back and readjust some of the newly tuned strings, until your guitar adjusts to the new tension of these three strings.
Tuning your guitar to open E accomplishes a few different things. First, it allows you to play major chords at various points along the fretboard by simply barring your finger across any one fret. For this reason, it’s a popular tuning for slide guitar players.
Another reason why guitarists enjoy playing in open tunings is because it allows them to play different variations of chords that take advantage of the ringing of open strings. They can also easily play harmonics across the 5th, 7th, 12th frets that form pleasant-sounding major chords.
Offene E Stimmung (open E Tuning)
Open E tuning can be used in many genres, but it has probably most often been put to use in rock and blues music.
Because E major is a frequently used key for blues, the open E tuning is often used by blues guitarists, particularly slide guitarists. Blues pioneers like Bo Diddley experimented with the tuning -- most notably heard on his self-titled tune, “Bo Diddley.”

Bridging the gap between rock and blues, The Rolling Stones’ Keith Richards was a huge fan of open tunings, and he leaned heavily on the use of jangling open strings as part of his trademark style. Iconic songs like “Jumpin Jack Flash” and “Gimme Shelter” use open E and make use of lush chords and frequent hammer-on and pull-off fills.
Open E Major Guitar Chord
Bob Dylan was so enamored with open E tuning that he wrote his entire Blood on the Tracks album using the tuning (though some songs were later recorded using standard tuning). You can hear some of the beautiful chord voicings he was able to achieve with open strings on a song like “Shelter From the Storm.”
A more modern use of the tuning is on the Black Crowes’ 1990 hit single “She Talks to Angels, ” where the acoustic guitar moves freely between sections of melodic chords, sliding lead phrases, and carefully placed harmonics.
Branching out with alternate tunings can be a real challenge. It forces you to reimagine the fretboard and learn new sets of chord shapes. However, these tunings can open up new possibilities and expand the depth of sounds you can create on the guitar. Sometimes a new tuning can give a guitarist a completely fresh perspective and provide a new canvas on which to experiment. With a free trial of Play, you can work on mastering open E tuning, or a few useful open tunings, like open D or open G.One of the most iconic and popular open slide guitar tunings, the open E tuning has a lot to offer. Still similar to its standard guitar tuning counterpart on a few strings, yet employing the use of a major chord in the open position, the tuning is great for rock, blues, country, and other musical styles.
Open E Tuning Slide Guitar Lessons
Achieving modern notoriety through the hands of players like Duane Allman and Derek Trucks, the tuning has proved its versatility and has the ability to shape sound in expressive ways. Let’s take a deeper look at using this tuning for slide guitar…
Like a few other open tunings, the open E tuning takes advantage of having a major chord on its higher strings, and the root and perfect fifths of this chord as bass notes. The lowest strings, strings 6 through 4, provide a solid foundation for voicing low end notes, and strings 4 through 1 are a great vehicle for melodic and chordal options.

The two highest strings of the tuning (as well as the lowest string) are identical to the standard tuning’s strings, giving guitar players an advantage in finding their way around the neck. The fact that the tuning shares this resemblance makes it easier to quickly locate familiar positions on the neck, however some adjustments will need to be made to scale applications and harmonic patterns to accommodate strings 5 through 3.
How To Play Acoustic Guitar In Open Tunings
Approaching the tuning with a fresh perspective, since it offers different avenues of playing because its an open tuning, will be a beneficial way to use it for slide guitar. However, locating positions and identifying musical patterns can become simpler if previous knowledge of the standard tuning is applied.
String 1 – E String 2 – B String 3 – G# String 4 – E String 5 – B String 6 – E
Slide guitar can have such emotive and vocal-like qualities, that taking advantage of the higher strings’ timbre can have a great effect on listeners.
How To Play The E Bar Chord
By voicing notes on strings 2 and 1 of this tuning, especially at the 7th fret or higher, the sound can really project and provide an impactful melodic effect. These types of notes will cut through the band’s sound with presence and clarity, and provide a timbre that slide guitar is known for.
Strings 4 and 3 also offer good melodic options, and are certainly worth taking the time to study when learning the tuning. Although this is beneficial and recommended for every string, finding pockets and patterns on the fretboard that begin on the 4th and 3rd strings will really begin to unveil the tuning.

If you already have a solid understanding of strings 2 and 1 from standard guitar, then learning strings 4 and 3 and incorporating them with strings 2 and 1 becomes a simpler process. Once this is done, most of the tuning is familiar and you have begun to utilize the major chord that the open E tuning offers on strings 4 through 1.
Essential Open Chords And How To Use Them
The open E tuning’s lower strings can act more rhythmically and provide good bass and harmonic options for your playing, especially if you are playing slide unaccompanied. String 6 is identical to a standard guitar’s E note, and string 5 is a B note, which is a perfect 5th above the E.
Without diving too deep into theory and technical terms, these two strings give you great options for playing a steady bass line and using your slide to voice the melody of a song when you’re playing solo bottleneck guitar.
Strings 6 and 4 are the same note, with an octave difference, thus making the tuning even more straightforward and intuitive. If you can become adept at playing strings 6 through 4, then you’ve gone a long way with this
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