Hello all!

 

I was wondering the science of tuning guitar strings...Like, on parachutes coldplay tunes down a lot to make chords easier to play hence: high speed, yellow, shiver.

It's like chris tunes down his strings to play the bass strings with his thumb.

I was wonder what's the easiest way to find the right now tuning to make chords easier to play. I'm very new to the guitar so sorry if this is a super noobie question lol.

 

Thanks,

Joe

So what are you asking? Just how to tune correctly? Or how to do thumb based chords?

So what are you asking? Just how to tune correctly? Or how to do thumb based chords?

 

 

Well, I guess both. I just didn't know if there was a science to tuning like that so you can play the bass not with the thumb rather than barre chords.

 

For instance, the chorus on shiver starts with a B. and they tuned it so you play the 6th string with the thumb and it's tons easier to move around the neck. Is there any easy way to translate chords from standard tuning to these different tunings?

 

Thanks!

You can play the bass with your thumb in standard by just not holding the high e-string.

example: [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ay3HT7Mjnvs&feature=related]YouTube - ‪a message-coldplay acoustic in japan‬‏[/ame]

 

Chris doesn't use odd tunings just for the reason you gavn. He's said in interviews that it helps the creative process to mess with the tuning and then play random chord shapes until he finds something he likes, and then build the song around that.

 

However, I know people will sometimes play in drop D so you can play all six strings without the thumb. So that's always an option if you're just beginning and standard is too difficult for some chords.

Yeah, I'm confident in saying that all Coldplay songs use the thumb to play the low E string. It's not simple, but I've been playing for a year, and I've been able to do most of their songs, so really it just takes some time, but you'll get it. The most tricky part of these Coldplay songs are the damn tuning. I'll warn you right now that I've snapped a good number of strings (mostly the High E) doing these tunings. To prevent this, I started tuning with a capo, which isn't too complicated, just requires some thinking. Plus, if you need some chord diagrams, or what to tune for whatever song you're trying to learn, I've got most of em. You can look at Kapone's tabs here, but most of them are only kinda accurate. Zergio and Moses the Marshmallow here are masters in finding the right chords, but they're not here as often as they used to be. So just ask me, I'll try my best to help.

 

And I might start making video demonstrations on how to play some of these songs.

Thank you both so much for the replies!

 

Tnspieler1012: Where did you see that interview at? I would love to check it out!

 

jin: That would be super awesome, and very helpful. Charts and Chords for the songs would be lovely!

 

Thank You Again!

No prob dude, just message me what songs you want