Most people tune their 3-string Cigar Box Guitar to G D G, but there are many other tunings available and one of these is A E A . This means that your guitar will be tuned up a tone ( or 2 half steps)
You can probably use the strings that are provided for a G D G tuning but you may find the strings are then a little too tight to play comfortably if you intend to play without a slide.
Lighter gauge strings might help, so if you are buying a set of six strings and using the 3rd, 4th and 5th strings, I’d suggest using a set of light strings and using .017, .026 and .036 rather than the slightly heavier medium strings .018, .028 and .038. You will need to experiment a bit to see what suits you.
In this article, I’ll show you a few useful chord shapes for 3 families of chords, but if you want charts of the notes for each string, try this article: https://beginnercbg.com/chord-shapes-for-a-cigar-box-guitar-tuned-a-e-a-part-1/
Using Power Chords On a Cigar Box Guitar Tuned A E A
Just as in G D G tuning, it’s useful to know the I, IV and V chords and the relative minor or vi chord of the key that the guitar is tuned to. These are the power chords, but I have given an alternative version of the vi chord or relative minor because it’s so easy to play:
Below there are shaped chords for the Major chords of A, D and E. Don’t forget that power chords can be used in place of Major or minor chords ( This is because the only difference between them is the 3rd note is flattened for the minor. There is no third in the power chord )
D Major Chord Family Using Power Chords On a Cigar Box Guitar Tuned A E A
Another useful family for this tuning is the D family:
Here we have introduced shaped chords and the D,G and A are Major chords rather than power chords.
E Major Chord Family Using Power Chords On a Cigar Box Guitar Tuned A E A
And here is the last family for this article, the family of E Major:
Again these are Major chords rather than power chords.
Cigar Box Guitar In A E A Tuning: Free PDF To Download
Other Tunings For Cigar Box Guitar
If you are interested in alternative tunings for Cigar Box Guitar, you might enjoy this article: https://beginnercbg.com/9-different-tunings-for-a-cigar-box-guitar/
