Altered Tunings For Electric Bass
Introduction
By Cliff Engel
Welcome to the world of altered tunings! From the newest MTV metal band to the latest cutting-edge, experimental power trio, more and more musicians in today's contemporary music are realizing the benefits to be gained from experimenting with altered tunings. For classically trained musicians, altered tunings are often referred to as scordatura, an Italian term meaning "mistuning." Scordatura has been utilized as a musical device since the seventeenth century to facilitate the performance of difficult passages in remote keys, to obtain unusual chord voicings, and to modify the tone color of an instrument.
As a solo bassist, I feel that altered tunings have completely transformed my concept of what I use to think was sonically attainable on an electric bass. Many years ago, I was introduced to the seemingly limitless potential of altered tunings through the music of solo bassist nonpareil, Michael Manring. There are numerous benefits to be gained through exploring altered tunings. For those of you who may be experiencing a little "bass burnout," altered tunings are a great way to unlock new musical frontiers. Getting tired of that same old "E-A-D-G sound?" Altered tunings are a fast, simple solution. Just install an extra light gauge set of strings (piccolo) on your bass and tune up to anything but standard tuning. As bassists, our ears have naturally been trained to hear the root notes that anchor down the groove. I've found that by simply tuning my bass higher, my ears have opened up to entirely fresh melodic ideas. By tuning your bass higher, you can more distinctly hear closer intervals played in the lower positions of an electric bass. Basically speaking, playing a closed position chord in the lower register of the bass in a higher tuning than that of standard will now sound like a chord and not just two or three notes that don't seem to belong together. Double stops, triple stops, and now even quadruple stops can sound great down low. Not only can you simply transpose the bass to a higher tuning through altered tunings, but now you can also tune the intervals between the open strings to a much wider spread than just the minor tenth interval of standard tuning (the open E-string to the open G-string). Not so obviously, this will allow you to play intervals that are physically impossible to play in standard tuning. By tuning your open bass strings to a wider spread, you'll be able to play lush sounding voicings using the upper extensions of a chord with only one finger. This will in turn open up more tonal and chordal possibilities to you because now your other fingers will be free to explore additional options. Altered tunings will give you entirely new harmonics to work with that don't even exist in standard tuning. Integrating altered tunings into your playing can also make existing compositions from your repertoire easier to play by moving wide interval spreads closer together which in turn requires less effort to perform.
By incorporating altered tunings into your own style, you will find that now you won't just sound like every other bassist who plays in standard tuning. You'll discover that each tuning has its own distinct character or personality dictated by the tension and intervallic relationships you choose between the strings. Altered tunings change the timbre or color of the bass because as you tune the strings higher, you are increasing the tension of each string which causes them to vibrate much differently than in standard tuning. Once you start experimenting with altered tunings, you will find that the tuning of the open strings will often dictate the overall sonority of the composition, especially with the higher tunings. Often the lowest open string can serve as the tonic or root of the key while the harmonics and remaining open strings direct the overall harmony of the piece. The resonance of open strings and harmonics are much stronger than closed notes, and once you activate open strings and/or harmonics, you can let them ring to serve as reference points as you arrange an entire orchestration around them. Using open strings and harmonics as points of reference is especially useful in serving to intonate a fretless bass.
With altered tunings, you don't have to spend thousands of dollars putting together an extensive collection of exotic basses to employ on your next recording because you will have a larger palette of tonal variations available to integrate into your own music. I play only two electric basses. I keep one of my basses in standard tuning and the other one strung with piccolo strings for altered tunings, and between both basses, I have an enormous palette of tones readily available at my fingertips. Altered tunings have allowed me the opportunity to compose complete arrangements using only the bass as the medium which is very inspiring to say the least. So, if your playing currently seems to be stuck in a rut or if you are just looking for new ways to expand your musical horizons, hopefully with this lesson I have inspired you to pick up your bass, install a set of extra light gauge strings, and check out some altered tunings!
As a solo bassist, I feel that altered tunings have completely transformed my concept of what I use to think was sonically attainable on an electric bass. Many years ago, I was introduced to the seemingly limitless potential of altered tunings through the music of solo bassist nonpareil, Michael Manring. There are numerous benefits to be gained through exploring altered tunings. For those of you who may be experiencing a little "bass burnout," altered tunings are a great way to unlock new musical frontiers. Getting tired of that same old "E-A-D-G sound?" Altered tunings are a fast, simple solution. Just install an extra light gauge set of strings (piccolo) on your bass and tune up to anything but standard tuning. As bassists, our ears have naturally been trained to hear the root notes that anchor down the groove. I've found that by simply tuning my bass higher, my ears have opened up to entirely fresh melodic ideas. By tuning your bass higher, you can more distinctly hear closer intervals played in the lower positions of an electric bass. Basically speaking, playing a closed position chord in the lower register of the bass in a higher tuning than that of standard will now sound like a chord and not just two or three notes that don't seem to belong together. Double stops, triple stops, and now even quadruple stops can sound great down low. Not only can you simply transpose the bass to a higher tuning through altered tunings, but now you can also tune the intervals between the open strings to a much wider spread than just the minor tenth interval of standard tuning (the open E-string to the open G-string). Not so obviously, this will allow you to play intervals that are physically impossible to play in standard tuning. By tuning your open bass strings to a wider spread, you'll be able to play lush sounding voicings using the upper extensions of a chord with only one finger. This will in turn open up more tonal and chordal possibilities to you because now your other fingers will be free to explore additional options. Altered tunings will give you entirely new harmonics to work with that don't even exist in standard tuning. Integrating altered tunings into your playing can also make existing compositions from your repertoire easier to play by moving wide interval spreads closer together which in turn requires less effort to perform.
By incorporating altered tunings into your own style, you will find that now you won't just sound like every other bassist who plays in standard tuning. You'll discover that each tuning has its own distinct character or personality dictated by the tension and intervallic relationships you choose between the strings. Altered tunings change the timbre or color of the bass because as you tune the strings higher, you are increasing the tension of each string which causes them to vibrate much differently than in standard tuning. Once you start experimenting with altered tunings, you will find that the tuning of the open strings will often dictate the overall sonority of the composition, especially with the higher tunings. Often the lowest open string can serve as the tonic or root of the key while the harmonics and remaining open strings direct the overall harmony of the piece. The resonance of open strings and harmonics are much stronger than closed notes, and once you activate open strings and/or harmonics, you can let them ring to serve as reference points as you arrange an entire orchestration around them. Using open strings and harmonics as points of reference is especially useful in serving to intonate a fretless bass.
With altered tunings, you don't have to spend thousands of dollars putting together an extensive collection of exotic basses to employ on your next recording because you will have a larger palette of tonal variations available to integrate into your own music. I play only two electric basses. I keep one of my basses in standard tuning and the other one strung with piccolo strings for altered tunings, and between both basses, I have an enormous palette of tones readily available at my fingertips. Altered tunings have allowed me the opportunity to compose complete arrangements using only the bass as the medium which is very inspiring to say the least. So, if your playing currently seems to be stuck in a rut or if you are just looking for new ways to expand your musical horizons, hopefully with this lesson I have inspired you to pick up your bass, install a set of extra light gauge strings, and check out some altered tunings!
