The "musicality" of low tunings?

[cronux]

Since low tuned guitars are "in" for a while now and are used for a wide variety of metal genres I started thinking about something - a riff in let's say low F# sounds kick ass, with some minor melodies on top of it, kinda meshuggish and what not but play the same stuff in E standard the whole thing sounds like a joke - I've made a couple of songs in F# that sounded good, but playing the same stuff on a 6 string in standard sounded awful. the other way around (standard to F#) kinda made more sense and sounded ok.

so what's the deal?

 

[vampiregenocide]

Lower tunings sound easier on the ears to me. I've never really liked anything higher than D standard. I only have a guitar in E to learn more traditional songs.

 

[celticelk]

I think it depends on the riff. I've tried playing, for example, some Metallica riffs in B or F# and they just sound like crap to me. I find that I tend to write riffy stuff in B, and use the low F# for expanded motion around the tonic; writing riffs in F# mostly just doesn't feel right to me. YMMV.

 

[DLG]

it's all what your ear is accustomed to and what your ear recognizes as being a cool sounding riff and a riff that you want to write. You can use this to your advantage I think. Try writing a riff that sounds awesome to you in E standard, and I guarantee that it will sounds even more amazing to you in the lower tuning that you prefer.

I did this with my band when we went with 7 strings. When we got seven strings, every chugging on the open b sounded awesome to us, so I decided that I would write most of the riffs I was planning on writing in E standard, with the impression that if they sounded awesome and heavy to me in that tuning, they would sound even better on the 7th string.

I have no such preferences, to me it's all about a good riff, and I think that a large percent of low-tuned bands use it as a cop-out.

Just like with super clean/compressed production. If your riff sounds awesome recorded on a tape player, it probably is way more awesome than the one you recorded one note at a time on your computer and produced the fuck out of to get it to sound good.

I never hear any lack of heaviness in Revocation, who I think are in E standard, or in old Nevermore, which is mostly in E flat, because the riff writing and execution is just so damn good and heavy.

 

[lucasreis]

I personally think every tuning can sound good and heavy if the guitarist is good. Being heavy doesn't depend on tuning.

It's just that... Meshuggah's riffs were written in low tunings, and the way they play sounds more interesting with those tunings because it's a very different way to play. But Thrash Metal sounds better in higher tunings due to the whole nature of the genre.

But, personally, a good guitarist can sound heavy even with a capo. I think it's more of a matter of style. Djent sounds good with lower tunings but it doesn't sound good in E standard, for example.

But I don't really have a preference. I listen to bands that use several kinds of tunings and I like to experiment with them all.

 

[Alex6534]

Sylosis, now tell me you can't sound heavy in standard

 

[Jonathan20022]

Having a C as my low note has always felt right when I write music. I have all my guitars in Standard Barre one that goes from Open C to Drop C, To me the difference is very minimal it just sounds much easier on the ears in Drop C whenever I construct songs there.

In Standard or Drop D, the songs also tend to be a bit more straightforward. But I never really mind it.

 

[troyguitar]

I feel the opposite of this whole forum, apparently. I think most (distorted guitar) stuff below A sounds bad, and a lot of stuff below D sounds bad. Then again I think all growled vocals sound bad too, so that might be coloring my perception of low-tuned metal since the proportion of growls goes up as tuning goes down and AFAIK there is no metal band with exclusively clean vocals tuning below Bb (Nevermore).

 

[Semichastny]

They are different notes in different octaves. A riff can sound completely different and lead to other places by just changing something as comparably small as the tempo of the riff. When you have lower notes the feel changes dramatically. I mean look at Sludgy music most of it would sound terrible if it was played in E as opposed to A

 

[DarkWolfXV]

To me, low tunings are cool (as low as G#) but anything below that which i refer to very low tunings (lower than G#) suck to me, that is territory of bass, dude, not guitar. Plus, if riff is good, it sounds great on every tuning, like Corporeal Jigsore Quandary, sounds catchy to me even in E standard, not as dark, but yeah, still awesome.

 

[GhostsofAcid]

For a couple months I went through every tuning between drop F# and F standard (1/2 step up, not the lower F). Out of all of them, I ended up settling on E and D standard. I've realized I pretty much hate how guitars sound tuned below around A or B. It's gotten to the point where I never play my seven because I just don't need that much lower range for the stuff I like to play.

 

[ChrisRushing]

As with anything music related it is all about context. A true "musician" (owning and or knowing how to play a guitar isn't instant qualification haha) understands what a piece calls for and how to make it work without placing any kind of stipulations or notions about what "should" or "shouldn't" be. That can apply to any aspect of the instrument but I think tuning is a great example. Obviously your influences and what you are used to hearing may cause your millage to vary.

 

[Stealthdjentstic]

I personally cant really use anything below G but I like it when other people do.

 

[mniel8195]

i think more than 50% of it depends on the quality of the sound coming out of the amp and the production of the track when it comes to low tuning. the rest is performance

 

[MFB]

I use E for my seven string so I can use it for post-rock, traditional songs, or low sludgy riffs in B standard

My Kramer is kept in D so I can use it for ridiculous grindcore and to learn other stuff

Aside from those I really don't use many tunings, do E, D, and B

 

[Maggai]

I personally like all tunings. In my band we are mostly tuned a full step down on seven strings. But we have many six string songs in both e standard, d standard and drop c. And some eight string songs in standard tuning. I also like open c minor and DADGAD tuning.

Different tunings makes me play differently and come up with different stuff. If you're stuck in a rut, a new tuning can help spark that creativity again.

 

[JStraitiff]

I have a particular riff in mind that i still havent decided what to do with. I originally wrote it in drop A but then one day i decided to play it in drop D and it sounded much more awesome. I cant decide which tuning sounds better but im leaning toward drop D.

 

[Don Vito]

Just do what sounds good with your style.

Personally, I use E when I write almost anything. I guess because I've been playing in E for so long, that my ears have grown accustomed to it. Sometimes I'll be like "Well this band sounds so good in Drop G" or Drop B or something. I then assume that I've been doing it wrong, and need to downtune to get what sound I'm looking for. This often results in musical failure, because the I developed My style in E tuning around the Rythm playing of guys like James Hetfield, and the leads of say, Marty Friedman, or even Josh from Sylosis. In short, play in whatever tuning you feel reflects your ideas and expressions.

 

[lucasreis]

I personally cant really use anything below G but I like it when other people do.

Same thing with me. I like to play from standard E to drop A, using several tunings within this spectrum. But when I try to write something lower than A it always ends up sounding like shit.

However, I love Mnemic's latest two albums, which are played in sevens but with 8 string tunings (F# as the lowest note) and I also love the way Ihsahn uses his 8 string, the tone sounds crazy, it all sounds really, really good, but I just can't write like that! lol

 

[zjmourning]

I'm using a 7 string I guess you could say "drop" E? I have to use a bass string but I think it sounds really unique. Bass player has some trouble getting that low heh.