Verbal Analysis

This unique tuning, known as the 'Glider Tuning' used by My Bloody Valentine for their track "Off Your Face," offers a distinctive and ethereal soundscape. It retains the familiar low end of standard tuning while introducing a beautifully dissonant and shimmering quality on the higher strings. The open strings hint at the atmospheric, droning, and sometimes unsettling harmonies characteristic of shoegaze music. It's a tuning designed not for conventional chord shapes, but for exploring textures, sustained notes, and creating a wall of sound, often enhanced by tremolo effects. Players can expect to find themselves in a sonic territory ripe for experimentation, creating rich, layered soundscapes rather than typical melodies.

Technical Analysis

Based on a standard EADGBe starting point, this tuning sets the open strings to E2-A2-D3-G3-A#3-D#4. The lower four strings (E-A-D-G) remain in standard perfect fourth intervals, providing a stable, familiar foundation. The true character of the tuning emerges on the higher strings:

• The 3rd string (G3) to the 2nd string (A#3) forms a minor third (3 semitones).
• The 2nd string (A#3) to the 1st string (D#4) forms a perfect fourth (5 semitones).

This specific interval structure (G-A#-D#) reveals an open G Augmented triad on the top three strings. When strummed with the lower standard strings, the full open tuning (E A D G A# D#) creates a complex, suspended, and richly resonant chord. It leans towards a G augmented sound with a low E root and A and D providing further harmonic density. This setup is ideal for creating dense, shimmering drones and textured washes of sound, rather than facilitating traditional major or minor open chords. Standard chord shapes will be recontextualized and require significant adaptation, encouraging players to discover new voicings and melodic possibilities within the unique sonic palette.

How to Tune

To achieve the 'MBV 'Off Your Face' Glider Tuning' from standard EADGBe tuning, follow these steps. Please note the recommended semitone movements for each string:

• 6th String (Low E): Keep as is; no change (0 semitones). The note remains E2.
• 5th String (A): Keep as is; no change (0 semitones). The note remains A2.
• 4th String (D): Keep as is; no change (0 semitones). The note remains D3.
• 3rd String (G): Keep as is; no change (0 semitones). The note remains G3.
• 2nd String (B): Tune down 1 semitone. The note changes from B3 to A#3.
• 1st String (High E): Tune down 1 semitone. The note changes from E4 to D#4.

Note: All movements are within a safe range for standard guitar strings (less than 4 semitones up or down).