Stanley Jordan is one of the guitar world's foremost two-hand tapping geniuses, having developed a unique style that all centres around an unorthodox tuning system that lets him tap into some otherworldly voicings. And, as it happens, he stumbled upon that system by accident.
Unlike Jacob Collier, who’s been turning heads with his five-string guitar that’s tuned in a symmetrical fifths system, jazz juggernaut Jordan opts for fourths. And not because it provided a genius solution to a problem. Not initially, at least.
“This was actually the first way that I ever tuned a guitar,” he confesses to Rick Beato. “Because when I got my first guitar for Christmas at the age of 11, I had a book, and the book said, ‘Tune your low string wherever it sounds good. Then you tune the next string from the fifth fret, and the next one from the fifth fret.’ Once I saw the pattern, I just put the book down. I tuned the whole guitar in fourths.”
Article continues below“I was like, ‘What?’” he says. “I'm only 11. This is too much stress. I can't handle this.”
The penny dropped soon after, and he realized that the B string didn’t adhere to the pattern. But even at such a young age, he questioned the status quo.
“I was always wondering, like ‘That’s weird, but why is that?’ So, I played for years in standard tuning. And then, when I was really starting to get serious about learning jazz, I decided to go back to the fourth tuning because it simplifies things.”
As he then explains, his all-fourths tuning (E-A-D-G-C-F) offers a greater symmetry across the fretboard. As a tapping lover, he fingers a G chord shape with his two hands, and explains how the shape remains the same as he moves horizontally across the fretboard. Otherwise, “I'd have to learn three different fingerings.”
Jordan has gotten so good at his tap-tastic approach to playing that he can play Stairway to Heaven on two guitars at once, earning high praise from prog legend Steve Hackett.
He’s also explained how Swedish massage videos help him practice the technique. Guitar World reckons he’s incapable of thinking inside the box.
“Octaves are the same fingering,” he adds. “So it’s even easier than on piano. It’s easy, because the brain uses the same fingering no matter what hand it is.”
Alternate tunings can be a source of great inspiration, with Soccer Mommy saying it can take away the formulaic nature of playing. Monuments guitarist, John Browne, meanwhile, believes DADGAD can help save metal guitar from one of its biggest problems.
