The story
You can feel the difference in the wood of the guitar before you even strike a note. As you tightened those strings into Open E, the tension increased, pulling the neck slightly closer and making the strings feel firm and ready. It is a bright, high-tension world compared to standard tuning. If you were to look at the notes you just tuned—E, B, E, G-sharp, B, and E—you would realize that the guitar is no longer a collection of intervals waiting to be organized. It has become a single, resonant E-major chord.
This is the tuning of the sky and the open road. It is exactly the same relationship between strings as Open D, just shifted one whole step higher. That shift changes the character of the instrument. Where Open D can feel growly and deep, Open E is tight and brilliant. It is famously the sound of Duane Allman. When he stepped onto the stage with the Allman Brothers Band, particularly on tracks like Statesboro Blues, he used this tuning to give his slide guitar a vocal, piercing quality that could cut through a wall of Hammond organ and drums. Today, Derek Trucks carries that same tradition, almost never leaving this tuning, using it to find those microtonal cries that sound more like a gospel singer than a piece of wood and wire.
The reason slide players gravitate toward this setup is a matter of simple geometry. In standard tuning, playing a major chord requires your fingers to press down in specific, staggered shapes. But when your guitar is tuned to Open E, the chord is already there, lying flat across the strings. Your slide acts as a moveable bridge. Because the slide is a straight line, it can only play what is right in front of it. In this tuning, every single fret you visit is a perfect major chord.
One thing to keep in mind as you explore is that because Open E requires tuning three of your strings up, it puts a lot of physical pressure on the guitar. If you ever feel like the strings are too stiff or you worry about the bridge, many players prefer to tune down to Open D and put a capo on the second fret. It gives you the same notes with a bit more slack.
When you bring your slide to the strings—whether it is made of heavy brass or a glass bottle neck—remember that the rules of fretting have changed. Do not press the strings down to the wooden fingerboard. If you hit the wood, you’ve gone too far. You want to glide on the surface like a skater on ice. Position your slide directly above the metal fret wire itself, rather than behind it, to stay in tune. For a moment, just lay the slide across all the strings at the twelfth fret. Pluck them and let the sound ring, then slowly move the slide toward the headstock and back again. Notice how the guitar no longer steps from note to note, but sighs between them.