@luserdroog: Include @supercat before a chat message if you want me to notice it.

I came up with the tuning for playing chords. The range is somewhat limited for melodic purposes, but the ability to use all three chord inversions can be helpful when trying to combine a melody with chords under it. The first part of "All through the night" sounds really nice with this tuning. When the melody goes up high, it's necessary to either go rather high up the fretboard or drop it down an octave and, for parts, only play 3 strings.

I've also found the tuning works well for pieces that have a moving base line under chords. For example, Piano Man works quite nicely with a chord progression of "C Em/B Am C/G F C/E D G". Better than can be done with standard tuning, actually, since standard tuning can't get the low "D".

My objective with this tuning was simply to make it possible for someone who was new to the guitar to play a wide variety of chords easily, but the more I've used it, the more I've discovered that it can do. I'm sure someone who was talented would be able to do even more with it.

roger that @supercat.

I had the same motivation for investigating the open tunings. It made chord building very easy. Later I found all the drones to be really fun. But eventually, I felt the need to go back to standard to "test myself" in a sense.

See if I'd learned anything in the process.

@luserdroog: I guess my philosophy has been that I have no aspiration of becoming a great guitarist, but I like being able to sing songs with my wife and play chords along with them. Being able to go from being a total zero on the guitar to being able to play Mermaid Song and Amazed in less than 48 hours, seems pretty, well, "amazing". BTW, do you know either tune?

Mermaid Song includes all of the following chords: Bbm Bm B Db D Ebm Em F F7 F#/Gb F#7 G. Amazed includes Ab A Bbm Bm B Db D Eb E Fm F F# G. Not exactly "easy" chords by normal standards.