Darren Frate’s Altered Tunings: D-F#-C#-E

Hi guys…For the past six lessons we have been talking about the altered tuning of C-G-D-A. and the varous chord voicings and chord scales that go along with it. This month we are going look at another altered tuning,  D-F#-C#-E.

The tuning itself spells out a Dmajor 9^th chord. Remember altered tunings are a good way to restart your creative thinking,  take you out of familiar territory. Altered tunings are just another tool to put in your arsenal of  your bass vocabulary.

The attached video is a composition of mine called “Resonance” using the D-F#-C#-E altered tuning on a bass with piccolo strings…again I find that lighter gauge strings in general work best with altered tunings but are not a necessity. Next time we will start getting into the chord and scale shapes using this tuning. See you next time.