Is playing in open tunings like open c or open B cheating

[All_¥our_Bass]

Open tunings are practically the rule if you're playing slide.

 

[TheProgWay]

I don't think there's anything wrong with using open tunings.. shortcuts are all good. But, if you are playing the same damn thing everytime and all songs come out the same, there might be a problem... experiment with variety of keys, harmonies, patterns, licks, etc, its all good

 

[CrownofWorms]

how am i gonna play minor and dissonant chords

And also will I have trouble going back to a guitar in standard intervals

 

[7 Strings of Hate]

of course open tunings are the game shark of guitar playing. how can any self respecting musician cheat at guitar?!?!?! For shame sir! For shame!

 

[JosephVincent]

Exploring different tunings isn't cheating. If anything it'd be beneficial. It'd teach you relationships between intervals quick.

 

[CrownofWorms]

I guess sounding like gorguts makes it a bit harder and more elaborate(which is fun)

 

[Epyon6]

Simply with my opinion if you are doing it to make things so much easier and avoiding actual practice and technique then I see it as a panzy thing to do, EXAMPLE: many metalcore kids around here use drop tunings because their too lazy to actually use power chords and not use the drop tunings for the real reason they should be used like for extended range in chords and things of that nature. But you cant "cheat in music" lol.

 

[Amanita]

how am i gonna play minor and dissonant chords

And also will I have trouble going back to a guitar in standard intervals

<sigh> an example...
i tune an 8string EAEAEGBD (and a baritone 6 AEAEGB). this ain't exactly an open chord (on a six you could say it's open A9)
you get all drops on low strings and all thirds on treble side. getting note clusters and all kinds of 7th chords is trivially easy
now i didn't sit and wonder how should i tune my guitars in some fancy way but experimented a bit and at some point i discovered this particular tuning works surprisingly well for me.
yup, sometime i find it a bit hard to remember how to play a guitar tuned in standard

 

[Mr. Big Noodles]

Exploring different tunings isn't cheating. If anything it'd be beneficial. It'd teach you relationships between intervals quick.

I've never had a problem with intervallic relationships in standard tuning. I'd suspect that retuning as a shortcut would probably encourage more shapewise thinking than intervallic thinking.

how am i gonna play minor and dissonant chords

As Amanita points out, all intervals are readily available at your fingertips in standard and drop tuning. Really, I'd stick with standard and actually figure out what's going on, rather than change the entire instrument at a whim and hope that it turns out for the best. How have you been playing those chords before?

And also will I have trouble going back to a guitar in standard intervals

I suppose that depends more on you than it does the guitar. Actually, much could be said for the rest of the question.

 

[CrownofWorms]

Exploring different tunings isn't cheating. If anything it'd be beneficial. It'd teach you relationships between intervals quick.

How

 

[Choop]

I really like open tunings, and played in open C for a long time after discovering Devin Townsend. It just is an interesting new way to try and write cool riffs on the guitar for me. I guess it could be cheating if you just want to bar major chords the entire song, but then I didn't know guitar playing was a competition.

 

[Projectdream95]

Like a lot of people have said, the kind of tuning you use isn't cheating, as each tuning gives you completely different possibilities to experiment with. Just focus on understanding the theory behind the notes you're choosing in your tuning

 

[starslight]

If it helps you get the music out, it's good. That's what I think. I was really into Michael Hedges and Don Ross for a while and made this silly chart to help me be able to practice scales and arpeggios in a wide variety of tunings:

different tunings containing the same interval groups:

 DADEA_
 R5R25
_GDGAD
 R5R25

 DADGA_
 R5R45
_GDGCD
 R5R45
  _ADE__
   R45

  C GC GC_
  R 5R 5R
 _F CF CF
  R 5R 5R
__BbFBbF
  R 5R 5
   

 	DADF#A_
 	R5R3 5
       _GDGB D
        R5R3 5
      __CGCE
        R5R3

These are just some I came up with for tunings that were popping up frequently in the grandpa's-guitars stuff I was fucking around with at the time (CFCFCF = fuck yeah Nick Drake). I got the idea from studying a lot of slide guitar guys, who often use this principle to play the same licks in the two most common slide tunings, open D and open G.

 

[HoKrll]

Open C opened my mind up to sooo many more possibilities.
Just playing like you are in standard, but in open c, makes all these incorrect intervals within the scale...but it leads you to new ideas and different ways to approach a sound. If that makes sense.

Anyways, playing minor in open c sucks. Find your inversions! or use diads

 

[rjnix_0329]

If Devin Townsend is wrong, I don't want to be right.

If you understand what you are composing and playing, and are simply letting the notes flow from your fingers, it doesn't matter what intervals you have your strings set to.

 

[AxeHappy]

I think he wasn't concerned with, "cheating," but more on cheating himself. Like would it be handicapping himself to play in these tunings because it's easier.

That said, everything already said covers it. No. Not at all. And this is from a guy who plays almost exclusively in standard.