Nashville tuning may not be something you typically associate with the baritone guitar. However, in the video below, virtuoso Pat Metheny beautifully demonstrates what his ‘Half Nashville’ alternative tuning can offer to baritone players. Once you’ve watched this beautiful baritone performance, read on to learn how to tune your baritone guitar to ‘Half Nashville’ tuning. And to delve more into this topic, check out Baritone Guitar Tunings – A Complete Guide to Traditional & Alternative Tunings.
How to Tune Your Baritone Guitar to ‘Half Nashville’ Tuning
You could spend a lifetime trying to copy Pat’s musical styling, but fortunately, emulating his ‘Half Nashville’ tuning only takes minutes!
Pat’s half Nashville tuning requires that you sub out the 3rd and 4th strings in your typical baritone string set for standard-gauge guitar strings and tune both one octave up from normal baritone tuning. Thus, your typical baritone would be tuned (low to high) B, E, A^, D^, F#, and B. Note: the “^” symbol denotes the raised octave. Pat tunes his baritone A to A, so if you want to follow more precisely in his sonic footsteps, try tuning your baritone to A, D, G^, C^, E, A.
This alternative tuning adds brightness and breadth to the baritone guitar, creating interesting voicing possibilities. If you want to learn more about baritone tuning, check out our complete guide to baritone tuning. It’s chalked full of standard and alternative tuning options for baritone guitar.
Thanks for reading this article, we hope you have fun with this unique baritone guitar tuning! If you want to explore more baritone guitar tunings, please read Baritone Guitar Tunings – A Complete Guide to Traditional & Alternative Tunings. And if you’re thinking of buying a new baritone guitar, please check out our electric baritone reviews and acoustic baritone reviews!
