I don't know much about any tuning other than standard. But I know some guitarists are big fans of open tuning (Keith Richards especially). And of course, those lazy rockers from the '90's are all about drop-D tuning so they can make chords with only one finger.

But I do not know if Prince has used anything other than standard tuning on any songs. Does anyone have any examples of non-standard tuning?

I've not come across examples.

During the Lovesexy era, Joel Bernstein

http://en.wikipedia.org/w..._Bernstein

was his guitar tech:

http://www.princevault.co...esexy_Tour

and given his work, particularly with Joni Mitchell, I have sometimes wondered whether Prince showed any interest in experimentation with different tunings.

As reported in this article from 1998:

http://jonimitchell.com/m...tterns.cfm

Joel Bernstein, as Joni's archivist, "has kept a record of all of Joni's tunings since the very beginning. He contributed to the introductions of the Hits and Misses songbooks and is probably the only person on earth besides Joni herself who could produce a totally accurate list of her tunings"

I've thought about this myself and it appears that he never has. I've seen him play a string then tune that string down to make a diving sound but of course that's not really the same.

On Gotta Broken Heart Again I think he tuned down a half stef for the solo. He hits an open E harmonic at the end of the solo and the song is in Eb.

Nope, I do not believe so. The reason for non-standard tunings is either to make a song easier to play, or to help the singer out. Prince always just learned to play the song in the standard pattern, and his singing is pitch-perfect across octaves so no help needed. That is really a testament to his musical ability.

Thank you all for your awesome answers - especially you, Langebleu!

I agree, it's a testament to Prince's incredible talent that he never has jacked with tuning. But I bet one day he gets curious and says, "OK, what can I do if I use other tunings?" I bet he will produce some acoustic numbers that will blow us away.

leonche64 said:

Nope, I do not believe so. The reason for non-standard tunings is either to make a song easier to play, or to help the singer out.

It's not the only reason. A lot of artists began to experiment in non-standard tunings as a form of art, and ethnography, or hell, just rebellion and erm, lack of skillset.

leonche64 said:

Nope, I do not believe so. The reason for non-standard tunings is either to make a song easier to play, or to help the singer out. Prince always just learned to play the song in the standard pattern, and his singing is pitch-perfect across octaves so no help needed. That is really a testament to his musical ability.

this is absolute rubbish... different tunings open up a lot of different possibilities on guitar... you have no idea what you're talking about

the thought that only people who lack talent experiment with the full range of possibilities of their instrument is just more typical org stupidity and ignorance

as far as prince using them... i asked this question on the npgmc forums some time ago... one of the mods there replied that prince only played in standard tuning... i can't imagine them being allowed to say that if it wasn't true

leonche64 said:

Nope, I do not believe so. The reason for non-standard tunings is either to make a song easier to play, or to help the singer out.

If you don't know what you're talking about, it's better to remain silent.

The reason for open tunings is an artistic one : Not only the guitar resonates differently,
but it also opens the way to "new" chords, and unisons impossible to achieve with standard tuning.

This has nothing to do with making the song easier to play, quite the contrary when you are used

to the standard tuning. Almost everything changes with an open tuning.

This has nothing to do with helping the singer out, you're mistaking it with transposition, which has nothing to do with the matter.

bonatoc said:

leonche64 said:

Nope, I do not believe so. The reason for non-standard tunings is either to make a song easier to play, or to help the singer out.

If you don't know what you're talking about, it's better to remain silent.

The reason for open tunings is an artistic one : Not only the guitar resonates differently,
but it also opens the way to "new" chords, and unisons impossible to achieve with standard tuning.

This has nothing to do with making the song easier to play, quite the contrary when you are used

to the standard tuning. Almost everything changes with an open tuning.

This has nothing to do with helping the singer out, you're mistaking it with transposition, which has nothing to do with the matter.

I believe leonche64 mistook 'alternate tunings' for 'changing the key of the song', via capo or actually tuning the standard tuning of the strings up or down as required. Whole 'nother ballgame.

[EDIT: D'oh! I missed your last sentence, where you basically said what I just said. ]

[Edited 1/22/15 14:51pm]

I think Prince uses standard tuning because he rarely has an actual guitar pat live and almost always just plays what he feels like. He knows all his scales and chords shapes when he's standard tuning so he wouldn't be able to improvise as easily or freely in another tuning because he doesn't know his way around it.

Oh my goodness! Guys, don't get upset or take it so personal. Perhaps I should have said "In my experience as a professional musician...." I apologize. I retract the statement.

leonche64 said:

Oh my goodness! Guys, don't get upset or take it so personal. Perhaps I should have said "In my experience as a professional musician...." I apologize. I retract the statement.

Sorry. I got carried over. The guitarist in me is not a nice guy.

bonatoc said:

leonche64 said:

Oh my goodness! Guys, don't get upset or take it so personal. Perhaps I should have said "In my experience as a professional musician...." I apologize. I retract the statement.

Sorry. I got carried over. The guitarist in me is not a nice guy.

Ha ha, no problem. As a bass player, all I ever do is either tune down half a step at the request of a singer or pick of a 5 stringer on the RARE occasion I get picked up for a metalcore show. Next time I will wait for questions about bass before opening up the old pie hole.