One common answer is to tune the guitar to a chord. You can at least experience the beauty of strumming one rich, full sounding chord, and you have some freedom to explore the fingerboard. The songs that do work sound great.

But the guitar does not sound "normal," and there are big limitations in the kinds of songs and chord changes available. If you tune to a major chord, you can't play any minor chords, and you are left with a handful of easy chords that are unique to that tuning. You only play in one key, and you can't just pick up somebody's guitar and play something. Very few common songs were played that way, so most songs just don't sound right in an open tuning.

It's almost what we need, but it still has too many drawbacks. Any other ideas?