A Guide to Selected Alternate Guitar Tunings for Music Therapists

While every music therapist is familiar with standard guitar tuning, fewer music therapists are comfortable using alternate guitar tunings, even though this skill is included in the Professional Competencies document of the American Music Therapy Association (2013). Specifically, within the music foundations section, guitar skills subsection, there are two competencies relevant to the topic of alternate tunings: (a) tune guitar using standard and other tunings, and (b) perform a basic repertoire of traditional, folk, and popular songs with or without printed music. Likewise, from the Scope of Practice document of the Certification Board for Music Therapists (2010), within the professional development and responsibilities section, professional development subsection, the following item has relevance: (a) expand music skills.At the core of the professional competencies is the idea that music therapists should be familiar with a wide variety of musical styles and idioms in order to re-create composed songs, create original songs, and facilitate improvisations appealing to their clients in order to address the clinical work to be done in the session. Even when the music therapist uses the "right" chords and an appropriate accompaniment pattern, some songs never sound "like the recording," which is generally what clients desire when they request a specific song or artist. Sometimes the key issue is that the performer is using an alternate tuning in order to create different chord voicing and effects. With practice, music therapists can learn and easily make use of alternate tunings within the clinical setting.In order to assess the prevalence of this topic in guitar method books and music therapy journal articles, the author reviewed 12 guitar method books in her personal collection and university music library (see Appendix A for list of titles) and searched the PsyclNFO and ERIC databases for information about alternate tunings. The search revealed three guitar methods including alternate tunings (Kuhn & Reid, 1984; Meyer, DeVillers, & Ebnet, 2010; Oden, 2014) and two music therapy articles with information about alternate tunings (Kennedy, 2001; Shoshensky, 2005). Therefore, the purpose of this article is to provide information about selected alternate guitar tunings to music therapists. The following topics will be addressed: (a) relevance of alternate tunings to the AMTA Professional Competencies and the CBMT Scope of Practice documents, (b) how to create nine alternate tunings, (c) tips for retuning strings, (d) listening guide for each tuning, and (e) a description of combining alternate tunings in the clinical setting to facilitate clients' use of the guitar.Creating Alternate TuningsWhile many online and text resources list alternate tunings and corresponding pitches, the sheer number of possibilities and applications can be overwhelming. Indeed, Joni Mitchell is credited with using over 50 different tunings in her music (Drozdowski, 2012). With the variety of options available, it can be challenging to determine the most useful alternate tunings for use in music therapy practice. See Table 1 for nine alternate tunings selected for this article based upon their frequency of use by musicians and ease of use for music therapists. Certainly, other music therapists might compile a different list, but this brief listing of nine options is a good place to start with alternate tunings. Several online and text resources are available with chord diagrams for alternate tunings (Gallagher, 2004; Hanson, 1995; Johnson, 2002; Mohr & Klein, 2002).Ups for Retuning StringsWhile music therapy students and professionals are familiar with the process of guitar tuning, some reminders are useful when experimenting with alternate tunings. First, clip-on tuners can be helpful for accurate and rapid retuning, especially in a session space with a great deal of ambient sounds. Clip-on tuners attach directly to the headstock and tune through vibrations traveling through the instrument. …