Reckless Tram ISSUE 2

Pistols’ Anarchy in the UK could only have been
conceived on an electric guitar.
Altered Tunings
Altered tunings can also be utilised to shift your
playing outside of its comfort zone. Sonic Youth’s
Thurston Moore once noted that “When you’re
playing in standard tuning all the time [...] things
sound pretty standard.” He and his bandmates often
used extremely unorthodox narrow guitar tunings to
move their sound away from rock clichés.
In the world of harmonicas, traditionalism tends to
reign supreme, though, and the Richter tuning, which
was originally designed to play a kind of Germanic
‘oom-pah’ music, is still by far the dominant tuning,
despite its limitations. But there are plenty of
alternative harmonica tunings out there, and if you’re
looking to inject a bit of originality into your playing, or
you just fancy learning something new, there’s sure
to be one that fits your needs. Let’s examine these a
little closer.
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