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"One way of avoiding the more obvious cliches of the acoustic guitar is to tune it differently. This can be as simple as altering the bass string to create a low bottom note (The Beatles, Chet Atkins, Stephen Stills) or making up a completely new tuning specifically for the song (Gordon Giltrap, Nick Drake, Paul Simon). Either way tunings are a really useful way of coming up with exciting new sounds on the acoustic guitar. "

These extracts are from Joe Bennet's excellent "It's Easy To Bluff Acoustic Guitar" book. Click on book cover at the end of this lesson for more details.

Editor's Note: Below are 4 of the more common tunings, but there are literally stacks of tunings you can use.

Click on book cover for more detail Extract reproduced with permission of Music Sales Limited. This book can be purchased from all good music and book retailers, at www.musicroom.com or direct from Music Sales Limited (Tel: UK 01284 702 600). Any comments or suggestions, please e-mail sorcha.armstrong@musicsales.co.uk

"DAD-GAD" - DADGAD

If you're a Zeppelin fan, this tuning suggests "Black Mountain Side" and "Kashmir". If you prefer the older school of folk guitar playing, think of Davey Graham and John Renbourne.

Taking the 6th string down to D gives you lots of freedom with moveable D major/minor chord shapes, as you can leave all six strings ringing all the time. Of course, you may want to save the impact of this low D for a critical moment, as in Fleetwood Mac's "Oh Daddy". Using it as a pedal tone under other chords like A7 can also give pleasant results.

OPEN G TUNING - DGDGBD

This open G tuning is one of the most popular, and can be heard on recordings by artists as diverse as The Rolling Stones and Gordon Giltrap, whose smash hit "Heartsong" (known to many as the theme for TV show "Holiday") uses this tuning in a similar pattern. The sixth string detuned to D is not often used.

OPEN D TUNING - DADF#AD

Another popular folk tuning, this open D is along similar lines to open E used by Joni Mitchell in Big Yellow Taxi. It lends itself to big, full-sounding strummed chords. Most patterns which work in open G can be transferred across a string for a deeper, more resonant sound. This tuning can also be heard in action during the acoustic intro of the Stones' "You Can't Always Get What You Want"

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