Given Limb was contacted by Taliesin Cochran, who has developed a guitar tuning method that would allow someone who has lost a limb or is missing fingers to be able to play the guitar effectively, and he wants to share this information with people who could benefit from it.   
 
Taliesin’s technique, which is described below, should be useful to someone with a basic understanding of music theory music theory and/or basic  familiarity with the guitar.

“Gmajor/Bminor tonic/dominant open tuning for amputees or anyone else by Taliesin Cochran.  Email tdcochran2@gmail.com if you have any questions.
The tuning is either from string 6-1 (6 is the lowest pitch string on the top, conventionally E2, and 1 is the highest pitch string on the bottom conventionally E4) G2,B2,D3,F#3,A3,C#4. This gives a pattern of alternating strings either three or four half steps apart.
Playing open strings 6,5,and 4 together gives you G major, and playing open strings 4,3,and 2 together gives you D major. This gives you the tonic, dominant, as well as the less useful mediant chord (iii) in G major without having to fret any string.  You can change the key by using a capo.  Alternatively if you play open strings 5,4, and 3 together you get B minor, and if you play 3,2, and 1 together you get F# minor. This gives you the tonic and dominant chord in B natural minor.  Again you can change the key by using a capo. This allows someone to play I-V progression in major and i-v progression in minor with only one functional hand.  It also allows someone missing all but one finger on the hand used to fret to be able to play scales using open strings, or someone with two functional fingers to play any scale on the guitar without the use of a capo.

Dropping the 1st string by half a step would also allow one to play the diminished vii chord, but it you would only be able to play in major.

Be careful while tuning the low pitch strings, this tuning puts a lot of stress on the 6th string, so alternatively you could use F#2,A#2,C#3,F3,G#3,C4 for the same effect one half step down, but this causes the 1st string to hang a little lose (this only matters if you plan to use the minor chords). If you are worried about the stress on the strings you can use a lighter gauge, they tend to be able to withstand the stress a little better.  If the highest pitch string is too lose replacing it with a higher gauge string might solve the problem.

Gminor/Bbminor tonic/dominant open tuning
Very similar to the one above with the intervals between strings reversed. This would allow you to play in G minor or Bb major. The tuning is G2,Bb2,D3,F3,A3,C4. Again this could be lowered a half step to reduce strain, and you could use a capo to change key.

Tuning this will be a little difficult one handed if you do not have a chromatic tuner (the iPhone has a chromatic tuner app), so you may need help getting the guitar set up. Using a conventional guitar tuner allows you to be able to tune the first example’s strings 6,5, and 4 easily, but depending on the tuner it may be difficult to tune the last three (I can do it on my analogue tuner after some practice finding out how the notes appear on it).
Please share this with anyone it might help.”

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 27th, 2010 at 1:46 pm and is filed under amputees, life issues. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.