Open E tuning
Open E tuning is a popular alternative for guitar slide players, but can work as a way to find new song ideas regardless of the style, but especially common is blues and rock styles.
You should be aware that this tuning put some extra pressure on the guitar. This is because three of the strings are tuned in a way that increases the tension on the neck. Therefore, the Open E tuning is typically combined with an electric guitar since the high tension will be more suitable. A "safe-mode" is to tune to the Open D with a capo on 2nd fret, which is the same as Open E.
To get the open E tuning on your guitar, you tune it like this: E B E G# B E.
More info
Including an octave perspective, the tuning is written as E2-B2-E3-G#3-B3-E4, meaning the lowest string is an E note in the second octave, the second lowest string is a B note in the second octave and so on. Standard tuning reference: E2-A2-D3-G3-B3-E4.
Movable one finger (or slide) shapes
E
F#
G
A
Comments
All you have to do is to lay your fingers over the four highest strings or play on all six strings. As the pictures illustrate, the E chord can be played with all open strings.
The shapes are movable, so if you move the fingers two steps up the fretboard from G major you will get an A major.
All common major chords in open E:
E: 000000 / 000004
F#: XX222 / 222222
G: XX3333 / 333333
A: XX5555 / 555555
B: XX7777 / 777777
C#: XX9999 / 999999
D: X X 10 10 10 10 / 10 10 10 10 10 10
Some other movable chords:
A6: 575555
A6sus4: 575655
A7: 585555
Aadd2: 555557
Joni Mitchell used this tuning for her famous song "Big Yellow Taxi" including the chords A (555555), A6 (575555), B (77777), B6 (797777), E (000000), Aadd9/E (020100).
Blues chords
E7
A7
B7
Comments
E7 can also be played as XX0654 or XXX654, which formally will result in E7(no5). A7 is to be correct A7/E. If you prefer, A7 can also be played as XXX123, which formally will result in A7(no5). If you prefer, B7 can also be played as XXX345, which formally will result in B7(no5).
A way to decrease the chord movement between E7 and A7 is to instead play A7 as xx3555.
Open chords
E
E7
E6
Eadd2
Emaj7
F#m7
A/C#
C#m
C#m7
C#m11
C#madd2
B/D#
Comments
These are some of the chords you could play in first-position when using the E open tuning. When playing in the key of E major, there are few good alternatives for the V chord, mainly because of the position of the D# notes.
There are many alternatives for some of the E chords. For example, E6 can also be played as 000024.
Additional chords in Open E
Tuning:
Esus4: 000300
Esus2: 002300
A/B: X00120
Bsus4: X02300
F#11: 2002 00
Chord progressions
Progressions in this specific tuning:
Eadd2 - F#m7 - A/C#
C#m - A/C# - E
More progressions can be found in the ebook referred to below.
If you want to go more into depth of this particular guitar tuning, see the Essential Chords in Open E Tuning ebook with over 100 chord diagrams.
Alternative Open E tunings
A slight adjustment in the setup could lead to Emaj7 tuning by decrease the 4th string one half step to D#, which results in E B D# G# B E.
This was an introduction about chords in Open E tuning, see also Open G tuning and Open Em tuning.