Life On The Low Cs

John reveals his tuning secrets

“The tuning I use most often, if I’m just noodling, like the one that I’m guilty of just leaning on all the time is drop D – DADGBE. Then, after that it’s DADGAD.Those are the two main ones. If I’m playing a full gig, then I have to have a guitar in CGDGAE, because my song Undone is in that tuning and I haven’t figured out any other way to play it. It’s a good one, you know. Most of it comes from DADGAD or open G and just trying out shapes and finding that they don’t work, so you have to alter a string here or there. I really like having a low C.

“Winter would probably be in there as well: CACGAE, which is like A minor 7 over C, and that’s a brilliant tuning. It’s like it’s instantly folky. It just sounds like sad folk music.”