# Licks, tricks and tips in Open C Major tuning



## maliciousteve (Feb 9, 2008)

Hey guys just tuned my PRS to Open C Major tuning (SYL influence) and wondered if any of you guys do the same?

If so, care to share any licks etc?


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## hunter75 (Feb 22, 2008)

maliciousteve said:


> Hey guys just tuned my PRS to Open C Major tuning (SYL influence) and wondered if any of you guys do the same?
> 
> If so, care to share any licks etc?



Hey there, I use open c all the time and tune my 6 down to open B, licks wise ermm id say that you can use 3 string major arrpegios for diminished down and i found it makes it 10x easier to do a diminished run, chords sounds great and easier when adding 9ths and major 7ths


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## distressed_romeo (Feb 22, 2008)

Sorry I'm a bit late to the party here...

Here're some arpeggio fingerings...







...And here's a long legato run based on F minor pentatonic with a maj7 passing note for a jazzy sound...






This illustrates one of the coolest things about Open C; you can group extended scales into three-note-per-string fingerings, moving in octaves, and only have one position shift between the top two strings, as opposed to the three position shifts playing this same lick in standard would involve.

A similar concept is top play string skipping tapping licks across each C string (Devin Townsend does this a hell of a lot if you ever watch him play). You get three full octaves without any tricky position shifts.






As for chords, octaves ringing against open strings are your friends. As with most open tunings, you can get some pretty complex chords using deceptively easy fingerings.


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## hunter75 (Feb 22, 2008)

Those scales look pretty awesome, I've found doing alot of diminished and minor arpeggios are easier thatn traditional shapes, I find chords to be the best thing about this tuning, adding massive octaves and adding in the 9th's and 7th's is awesome, aswell as playing some jazzy sequences, best tuning ever  having a seven with a low G makes it even better


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## ArneRobot (Oct 20, 2011)

Hello there,

can anyone list the exact tuning (like "CXXXXXX") for Open C Major on a 7-string guitar? I'm new to the 7-string AND to open tunings

Thank you!

Arne


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## starslight (Oct 23, 2011)

Here's a whole instructional video done in open C:



It's a little...odd, to say the least. But there's scale shapes and chord voicings in there somewhere.


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## ArneRobot (Oct 26, 2011)

Hello starslight,

thanks for the great entertaining video! Yes, there are sclae shapes and chord voicings. Actually Devin tunes his 6-string to C-G-C-G-C-E.

But how does that translate to a 7-string? Add another "G" before the "E"?

Thanks a lot!



starslight said:


> Here's a whole instructional video done in open C:
> 
> 
> 
> It's a little...odd, to say the least. But there's scale shapes and chord voicings in there somewhere.


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## Stealth7 (Oct 26, 2011)

The 7 string version would be (low to high) GCGCGCE.. Hope that helps!


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## ArneRobot (Oct 27, 2011)

Yes, thanks  that does help! But why is that tuning still called "Open C", it's more like "Open G", isn't it?

Thanks a lot, folks!



Stealth7 said:


> The 7 string version would be (low to high) GCGCGCE.. Hope that helps!


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## Varcolac (Oct 27, 2011)

ArneRobot said:


> Yes, thanks  that does help! But why is that tuning still called "Open C", it's more like "Open G", isn't it?
> 
> Thanks a lot, folks!



No, open G would use the notes of a G major triad; G(1) B(3) and D(5)

The lowest note of the tuning is a G, yes, but the other notes mean it's clearly a C major tonality: C(1) E(3) G(5).


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## celticelk (Oct 27, 2011)

Stealth7 said:


> The 7 string version would be (low to high) GCGCGCE.. Hope that helps!


 
Another valid option would be ECGCGCE, which is interestingly palindromic but doesn't encourage those 5th-root power chord forms that most metal guitarists would want to use on those bottom strings.


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