Open C tuning is an open tuning for guitar. The open-string

note Note, notes, or NOTE may refer to: Music and entertainment * Musical note, a pitched sound (or a symbol for a sound) in music * ''Notes'' (album), a 1987 album by Paul Bley and Paul Motian * ''Notes'', a common (yet unofficial) shortened versi ...

s form a

C major C major is a major scale based on C, consisting of the pitches C, D, E, F, G, A, and B. C major is one of the most common keys used in music. Its key signature has no flats or sharps. Its relative minor is A minor and its parallel min ...

chord, which is the triad (C,E,G) having the root note C, the

major third In music theory, a third is a Interval (music), musical interval encompassing three staff positions (see Interval (music)#Number, Interval number for more details), and the major third () is a third spanning four Semitone, half steps or two ...

(C,E), and the

perfect fifth In music theory, a perfect fifth is the Interval (music), musical interval corresponding to a pair of pitch (music), pitches with a frequency ratio of 3:2, or very nearly so. In classical music from Western culture, a fifth is the interval f ...

(C,G). When the

guitar The guitar is a stringed musical instrument that is usually fretted (with Fretless guitar, some exceptions) and typically has six or Twelve-string guitar, twelve strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming ...

is strummed without fretting any strings, a C-major chord is sounded. By barring all of the strings for one fret (from one to eleven), one finger suffices to fret the other eleven major-chords.

Examples

There are several open C tunings.

Repetitive C-E-G-C-E-G

The English guitar uses a repetitive open-C tuning :C-E-G-C-E-G, which is approximately a

major-thirds tuning Among guitar tunings#Alternative, alternative tunings for guitar, a major-thirds tuning is a regular tunings, regular tuning in which each interval (music), interval between successive open string (music), open strings is a major third ("M3" in m ...

, specifically :C-E-G-C-E-G=C-E-A-C-E-A.

"C5" variant C-G-C-G-G-E

This open C tuning was used by

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for songs including Pretty Noose, Burden in My Hand, and Head Down. Chord sequences often omit the high E string, leaving the

power chord A power chord , also called a fifth chord, is a colloquial name for a chord on guitar, especially on electric guitar, that consists of the root note and the fifth, as well as possibly octaves of those notes. Power chords are commonly pla ...

ubiquitous to

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music.

C-G-C-G-C-E

: C-G-C-G-C-E. This open C tuning was used by William Ackerman for his "Townshend Shuffle", by John Fahey for his tribute to Mississippi John Hurt, and by

Led Zeppelin Led Zeppelin were an English rock music, rock band formed in London in 1968. The band comprised vocalist Robert Plant, guitarist Jimmy Page, bassist-keyboardist John Paul Jones (musician), John Paul Jones and drummer John Bonham. With a he ...

Jimmy Page James Patrick Page (born 9 January 1944) is an English musician and producer who achieved international success as the guitarist and founder of the Rock music, rock band Led Zeppelin. Page began his career as a studio session musician in Lo ...

for "

Friends ''Friends'' is an American television sitcom created by David Crane (producer), David Crane and Marta Kauffman, which aired on NBC from September 22, 1994, to May 6, 2004, lasting List of Friends episodes, ten seasons. With an ensemble cast ...

". It is also used by

Devin Townsend Devin Garrett Townsend (born May 5, 1972) is a Canadian singer, guitarist, songwriter, and record producer. He founded extreme metal band Strapping Young Lad and was its primary songwriter, vocalist, and guitarist from 1994 to 2007. He has also ...

for the vast majority of his work (

The Devin Townsend Project Devin Garrett Townsend (born May 5, 1972) is a Canadian singer, guitarist, songwriter, and record producer. He founded extreme metal band Strapping Young Lad and was its primary songwriter, vocalist, and guitarist from 1994 to 2007. He has also ...

Strapping Young Lad Strapping Young Lad (SYL) was a Canadian extreme metal band formed by Devin Townsend in Vancouver in 1994. The band started as a one-man studio project; Townsend played most of the instruments on the 1995 debut album, '' Heavy as a Really Heavy ...

Casualties of Cool ''Casualties of Cool'' is the debut album of Canadian country rock duo Casualties of Cool, consisting of Canadian musicians Devin Townsend and Ché Aimee Dorval, released on May 14, 2014. It is a musical departure from any of Townsend's previous ...

Overtones C-C-G-C-E-G

:C-C-G-C-E-G Another open C tuning uses the harmonic sequence (overtones) of the note C. When an open-note C-string is struck, its harmonic sequence begins with the notes (C,C,G,C,E,G,B,C). The root note is associated with a sequence of intervals, beginning with the

unison Unison (stylised as UNISON) is a Great Britain, British trade union. Along with Unite the Union, Unite, Unison is one of the two largest trade unions in the United Kingdom, with over 1.2 million members who work predominantly in public servic ...

interval (C,C), the

octave In music, an octave (: eighth) or perfect octave (sometimes called the diapason) is an interval between two notes, one having twice the frequency of vibration of the other. The octave relationship is a natural phenomenon that has been referr ...

interval (C,C), the

(C,G), the

perfect fourth A fourth is a interval (music), musical interval encompassing four staff positions in the music notation of Western culture, and a perfect fourth () is the fourth spanning five semitones (half steps, or half tones). For example, the ascending int ...

(G,C), the

(C,E), and the

minor third In music theory, a minor third is a interval (music), musical interval that encompasses three half steps, or semitones. Staff notation represents the minor third as encompassing three staff positions (see: interval (music)#Number, interval numb ...

(E,G); in particular, this sequence of intervals contains the thirds of the C-major chord .

C-minor open chord: Cross-note tuning

Flattening this open tuning's open-note E to E changes the open chord from C-major to C-minor, so producing the cross-note tuning :C-C--G-C-E-G which enables one-finger minor chords. Like other cross-note tunings, it also allows major chords to be fretted with one adjacent finger.

Relation to new standard tuning

Many of the notes from the harmonic sequence for C appear in the new standard tuning (NST), which is a nearly

regular tuning Among guitar tunings#Alternative, alternative guitar tunings, guitar-tunings, regular tunings have equal interval (music), musical intervals between the paired note (music), notes of their successive open string (music), open strings. ...

based on

s; NST also has (D,A) from the

pentatonic scale A pentatonic scale is a musical scale with five notes per octave, in contrast to heptatonic scales, which have seven notes per octave (such as the major scale and minor scale). Pentatonic scales were developed independently by many ancient ci ...

on C: :C-G-D-A-E-G NST is used in Guitar Craft (a school of guitar playing founded by King Crimson's Robert Fripp). The open-C overtones tuning has the same range as NST, which can use extreme strings (.011 and .059 inches).

C-C-G-C-E-C

:C-C-G-C-E-C Using a high C rather than the high G of the overtone series, this open C tuning was used by Mick Ralphs for the songs " Can't Get Enough" and "Movin' On" on Bad Company's debut album. Ralphs said, "It needs the open C to have that ring," and "it never really sounds right in

standard tuning In music, standard tuning refers to the typical tuning of a string instrument. This notion is contrary to that of scordatura, i.e. an alternate tuning designated to modify either the timbre or technical capabilities of the desired instrument. Vio ...

Notes

References

* {{Guitar tunings, Open Open tunings