Open Tuning Question

[CannibalKiller]

I write most of my music in Open B Minor(B F# B F# B D), and it's really improved my playing style. But I was wondering, what are some cool arpeggios and chord shapes to use in an open tuning?

 

[Winspear]

It's best to understand the theory behind what you're doing. You obviously know that your open strings are B minor...so any 1 finger barre chords or sweeps are going to be minor chords. And I'm sure you know 0-0-0-0-0-1 is major.
Could list plenty but you'd be best just looking into chords and how they are made, and then applying it to the tuning.
Cool tuning by the way - the octaves arranged in that way with the minor only on the top is great fun. I do the same but sus2 rather than major or minor (so high C#)

 

[CannibalKiller]

Cool tuning by the way - the octaves arranged in that way with the minor only on the top is great fun. I do the same but sus2 rather than major or minor (so high C#)

Thanks, originally I was in Open B Major (I'm a Devin Townsend fanboy ) but the minor made more sense for the kind of music I write.

 

[Winspear]

For some basic chord building you've got your majors and minors from the two F# strings - 5-4 or 5-3 across F# and B strings for example.
Majors or minors like that rooted on the B strings is a bigger stretch and not very useful.

If you move the notes from the chords above down onto the lower B strings you'll have inversions of the major or minor using the standard powerchord or tritone shapes like 5-6 or 5-7. So starting from the lowest string, 0-2 is an inversion of G# minor. You could extend that across another octave, so 0-2-0-2

Just play around - Guitar Pro's chord identifcation tool coupled with the fretboard view is useful

 

[CannibalKiller]

Thanks

 

[peagull]

I play in Open C and worked out some moveable chord shapes for my singer to use with a 5 string version (He doesn't like the High E, so as you are playing in B Minor, these are still perfectly usable)

Some basic Barre shapes (All rooted on the Low string, so move it up 3 frets, and your root is Eb etc)

--C---Cm--Cmaj7--C7--Cm7--CmM7

E-------------------------------
C-4---3----4-----4---3----3-----
G-0---0----4-----3---3----4-----
C-0---0----0-----0---0----0-----
G-0---0----0-----0---0----0-----
C-0---0----0-----0---0----0-----

 

[CannibalKiller]

I play in Open C and worked out some moveable chord shapes for my singer to use with a 5 string version (He doesn't like the High E, so as you are playing in B Minor, these are still perfectly usable)

Some basic Barre shapes (All rooted on the Low string, so move it up 3 frets, and your root is Eb etc)

--C---Cm--Cmaj7--C7--Cm7--CmM7

E-------------------------------
C-4---3----4-----4---3----3-----
G-0---0----4-----3---3----4-----
C-0---0----0-----0---0----0-----
G-0---0----0-----0---0----0-----
C-0---0----0-----0---0----0-----

thanks, those are really cool

 

[CannibalKiller]

What about picking patterns like this? I have no idea how to write this stuff.

 

[rjnix_0329]

I know this probably isn't exactly what you wanted to hear, but he has composed these melodies after years of playing and in this tuning, as well as having just an immense amount of talent and a phenomenal ear. That being said, he uses some of the same shapes and arpeggios in this song that he did in "Numbered!" off of Addicted, and I learned that one. Some of the arpeggio shapes he uses are things like this, from low to high:

6th: 7 - 11
5th: 9
4th: 7-11
3rd: 9
2nd: 7-11-7

Then back down the same notes. Or:

6th: 7-11
5th: 8
4th: 7-11
3rd: 8
2nd: 7-11-7

He likes to use a lot of major and minor arpeggio shapes, and in the case of Mighty Masturbator mixes them up with scale runs as well. Experiment and use your ear! That's how Devin insists he does it, though I am convinced he knows more theory than he lets on.

 

[CannibalKiller]

I came up with something:


What do you think?

 

[CannibalKiller]

Bump

 

[djyngwie]

It sounds like a minor scale harmonized in thirds... Alone it doesn't seem all that interesting to be perfectly honest. A band arrangement/song context would really help.

 

[CannibalKiller]

It sounds like a minor scale harmonized in thirds... Alone it doesn't seem all that interesting to be perfectly honest. A band arrangement/song context would really help.

That's exactly what it is I know, I just posted it because I was going for a similar sound to the DTP song I posted, and I wanted to know if it worked.