When you talk about alternate tuning you first need to address standard tuning. Standard tuning is, as the name implies, the most widely used tuning for a particular instrument. For guitar this would be E A D G B E. Other stringed instruments have different standard tunings.
The piano has the greatest tuning of them all: C D E F G A B. Not many pianos are tuned alternately. Guitar players do use alternate tunings often.
Using an alternate tuning simply means you tune the open strings in a different way. This will affect the sound of the instrument and will change the chord shapes to suit the new location of the notes.
Alternate tunings can make chords sound heavier or lighter depending how you use them They can also make it easier to play certain chord shapes. Drop D guitar tuning is an example where playing heavy power chords suddenly becomes easy because the notes line up nicely.
When you are the only one playing in a different tuning as the rest it can get quite complicated for you and the others to figure out what everyone is playing. Tablature notation is often only written in standard notation. Using a new tuning requires you to learn the new note positions and does not let you rely on muscle memory.
The ToFret tablature player supports the following instruments and tunings. New ones can be easily added. Custom ones are in the making.
All the interactive elements on the site will work with these tunings.
| Instrument | Tuning |
|---|---|
| Guitar | E A D G B E |
| Guitar drop D | D A D G B E |
| Guitar drop C | C G C F A D |
| Guitar DADGAD | D A D G A D |
| Guitar DADGBE | D A D G B E |
| Bass | E A D G |
| Bass drop D | D A D G |
| Bass drop C | C G C F |
| Ukulele | G C E A |
| Ukulele baritone | D G B E |
| Ukulele low G | G C E A |
| Banjo | G D G B D |
| Mandolin | G D A E |
| Cello | G C D A |
| Violin | G D A E |
| Viola | C G D A |
Every interactive element on ToFret shows the option to choose your tuning and the MIDI sound. These settings carry over to all pages. Once set they apply to all tools and pages you visit. Until you change it.