'Mitchell Tunings' by Mitchell Joni - Guitar Tutorial

                                       JONI MITCHELL TUNINGS
                        -----------------------------

                                               written by Howard Wright
                                               [email protected]


I thought I'd put together a little piece on Joni's tunings because I've
recently worked out quite a few of the tunings she uses, and it's easier
to list them all in one place than try to TAB them all separately.

I hope to get round to tabbing at least a couple of the songs mentioned
in full, but it takes time so I thought I'd write this first to give the
basic info.

Two 'standard' tunings which she has used quite a bit are the open G and
open D tunings.


Open G is (from low to hight) : DGDGBD

Open D is (low to high)       : DADF#AD


I say 'standard' tunings because these have been used by a lot of people.
The open G tuning is used a hell of a lot by Keith Richards for example.

Another favourite of hers is a variation on the open D which I call the
Dadd9 tuning.

It is   :  DAEF#AD


There are also a couple of other tunings I've worked out, though I've only
found her using them on one particular song.


Anyway, here is a list of songs with their appropriate tunings. I hope to add
to this list as I work out more songs, but I've got a feeling that she has a
small number of tunings which she uses on a lot of different songs, rather than
inventing a new tuning for every new song.
If you play around a bit you might start to get the song worked out for yourself
- once you've got the right tuning, things are a lot easier !

Thanks also to Jared White for sending some tunings he knew, and to Jimfre Bacal
for sending some others (courtesy of Patrick Willoughby).


 Tuning            SONG                  Album
---------------------------------------------------------------

C G Bb Eb F Bb :

                Sex Kills              Turbulent Indigo


D A E F# A D :

                Sunny Sunday           Turbulent Indigo

                Passion Play           Night Ride Home

                Cherokee Louise        Night Ride Home

                Night Ride Home        Night Ride Home


 D A E G C E :

                Furry Sings the        Hejira
                     Blues

                Jericho                Don Juan's Reckless
                                         Daughter


C G D F C E :

                Coyote                 Hejira

                Woman of Heart and     For the Roses
                  Mind

                Don Juan's             Don Juan's ...
                  Reckless Daughter


C G D F G C :

                Chalk mark in a        Chalk Mark in a
                  Rainstorm no. 1         Rainstorm

                Cool Water             Chalk Mark in a
                                         Rainstorm

                Hejira                 Hejira


D A D F# A D :

                Free Man In Paris      Court And Spark

                People's Parties       Court And Spark

                Michael From           Joni Mitchell
                  Mountains

                Cactus Tree            Joni Mitchell

                Night in the City      Joni Mitchell

                Pirate of Penzance     Joni Mitchell

                Both Sides now         Clouds

                Chelsea Morning        Clouds

                You turn me on         For the roses


D A D E A D :

                I had a King           Joni Mitchell

D G D G B D :

                Don't Interrupt       Hissing of Summer
                 The Sorrow             Lawns

                Nathan La Franeer     Joni Mitchell

                Little Green          Blue

                For the roses         For the roses

                Marcie                Joni Mitchell

                Circle Game           Ladies of the Canyon

                Morning Morgantown    Ladies of the canyon


B F# B E A E :

                Magdalen Laundries    Turbulent Indigo


 Remember that you can tune down and then use a capo to get the same sound

- so instead of tuning to open D (DADF#AD), you could tune to open C (CGCEGC)
 then put a capo on the 2nd fret.


I've tabbed 'Free Man in Paris' and 'People's Parties' already - check out
Nevada for those (but use a mirror site !)

If you have any trouble finding them I can mail them to you

I hope to TAB some of the others soon

Howard