Tuning Guitar To Match Singer's Range

[jauernis]

Can someone give me a real dumbed down explanation of this?

See here:
[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5yfKDYNR7uY&feature=related[/ame]

I am not grasping what he is saying in how to tune the guitar to the singer's highest note. Let's say you have a beginning singer that is not comfortable going into mix voice and his highest note in chest is D4 how would you tune the guitars according to what hes saying??

 

[JeffTD]

You don't tune to any specific notes, you just tune to make it easy for the singer to use his entire range. If your signer has a lower range than most guys, tuning to E standard probably isn't the best idea.

 

[Suicide_As_Alibi]

Yeah, basically: The guy in the video is trying to explain something that doesn't really have an explanation.

Dropping your tuning if your singer is a bass/has a low timbre isn't a bad idea, but there's no standard method to it. Deftones are now using 8 strings and Chino is a tenor; Johnny Cash played in standard and he was a bass. The best thing is to just look at your songs - if you're playing a lot of open strings and the singer is struggling to hit the high notes, try dropping half a step and see if it makes a difference.

Steve

 

[Flat Fifth Fury]

For some singers it doesn't matter much. For my current project I'm writing everything for my main vocalist in D because that fits her voice better. To me this is not different than adjusting your tones to make space for each instrument.

 

[PhilR]

Neurosis do this as well.

As far as the Deftones example goes, to be honest Chino's voice seems to sit best in the E-F range I think. To me his vocals on the new material sit best since the Adrenaline days.

 

[exoslime]

not only that, it depends on the songs, the melodies, and the tempo

when we work on a new song, we always try out which tuning and tempo fits best and delivers the atmosphere as we want it.

its all about the vocals.. if they sound best in Fis, i use a capo on the 2nd fret..
if they sound best in D.. i use the guitar with lower tuning.

 

[Pxz]

IIRC the whole 1/4 note flat that Pantera used was due to Phil`s vocal range .