Half Step Down

[The Heretic]

Is there any real benefit to playing half a step down for a relative newbie? I've been playing for a few years in standard and after coming across more and more classic songs that were originally played half a step down I decided to go for it and now my playing sounds like complete shit (well more than normally)..especially alternate picking...should you just pick a tuning and stick with it for life?

[Smythsonian]

Same set of affairs for me when I started, went down half a step after some time in standard when I realized alot of bands I like use it.

Ended up being beneficial though because it loosened the string tension up just a bit, making the guitar easier to play overall for me. Maybe you're using a lighter string gauge though to begin with thus the half step down has now made the strings harder to attack/notes going sharp & poorer tone in general?

I think if you write alot of your own tunes or end up in a band you'll naturally settle into a tuning and stick with it. Perfectly healthy to play around with different tunings and break the comfort zone a bit even if you still feel relatively new to the guitar and you feel you've gotten all you can get out of E standard. Even if you stay in E though sure there's a historic wealth of albums that prove it can be heavy and vicious.

[The Heretic]

Yep you're spot on...I'm using .11's and it feels like the strings just aren't there..might try a heavier gauge to see if it make a difference..whats makes it worse probably is that I'm taking extra lessons on an acoustic and when I go back to electric its like the strings aren't there even on standard tuning. I'll have to nail my flag to some mast and stick with it!! Cheers for the feedback!!

[Smythsonian]

Interesting, I think the acoustic might have conditioned you to finding a heavier string and stiffer feel the most comfortable to play then. I was using 11's when tuning down to C# Standard