Mitchell Tunings Chords by Joni Mitchell JONI MITCHELL TUNINGS ----------------------------- written by Howard Wright spxhaw@uk.ac.cf.thor 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