Maybe you’ve heard of open tunings, but aren’t sure how they work or what can be beneficial about using them.Get a taste of these tunings by lowering your strings to open D minor, then playing a handful of chord shapes and applying them to a bluesy etude.
Open D minor was used to excellent effect by one of my guitar heroes, the great bluesman Skip James, who created some beautiful, mournful music in this tuning. Like many open tunings, D minor can make things easier on the fretting fingers, as you can generally make greater use of the open strings than in standard tuning. In this lesson, I’ll show you how fun and satisfying it can be to play in open D minor.
To get started, lower string 6 a whole step, to D, and drop strings 3, 2, and 1 a step as well, to F, A, and D, respectively. Use an electronic tuner if needed. It might take a little while to get your guitar perfectly in tune in open D minor, but the end result is worth the effort when you hear that big Dm chord that the open strings form.
Bottleneck Slide Blues Guitar Cd 1
The beauty of open tunings is that they allow you to play a bunch of chords using just one or two fingers. In open D minor, for instance, as shown in Example 1, playing string 3, fret 1, gets you a D major chord. If you place your second and third fingers at fret 2 of strings 3 and 5, you’ll have a colorful-sounding Gadd9/B chord, as opposed to the basic open G. And moving your second finger over to string 4, fret 2, makes for an A11, rather than the regular open A7. Get to know these chord shapes well before moving on.
For the rest of this lesson, you’ll work on some simple fingerpicking patterns, sounding the bottom strings with your thumb and the upper strings with your index and middle fingers. Based on a D chord, Example 2 is built from an alternating bass line on strings 6 and 4, with a higher bluesy hammer-on, from the flatted third (F) to the major third (F#), on beats 2 and 4. To do these hammer-ons, pick the open third string, and use a hammering motion with your fretting finger to sound the F# at the first fret without picking it.
For the G chord (Example 3), place your third finger on the second string (instead of the third string, as in Ex. 1), for G7/B. The alternating bass line is maintained here, but the melody is more syncopated, with the notes falling on the “ands” of the beats. Since open D minor tuning has several pairs of octaves between the open strings 1 and 4, 2 and 5, and 4 and 6, you can create cool riffs involving parallel strings, as depicted in Example 4. Play the upper and lower notes with your second and third fingers, respectively.
How To Play Open D Chords
Based on an A7 chord, Example 5 demonstrates a similar idea to Ex. 4, but instead of octaves uses major sixths on strings 1 and 3. [If you find terms like flatted third, major third, and major sixths intimidating, not to worry. You don’t need to know any theory to play through this lesson.
Now put everything together in a 16-bar study I call “Open D Minor Blues” (Example 6), which is actually in the key of D major. The second ending adds some new materials based on the previous concepts—in bar 10 there is a new octave position, on strings 4 and 6, and in bar 11 you’ll find sixths on strings 3 and 5, but this time minor, not major.
Of course, this lesson has barely scratched the surface of what is possible in open tunings. I’d encourage you to explore D minor on your own; while you’re at it, tune your third string up a half step, to F#, and you’ll be in open D major. Whether you’ve only been playing guitar for a short time or are more experienced on the instrument, experimenting with tunings like these can help expand your musical horizons.There’s more than one way to tune a guitar. Tunings outside of standard guitar tuning are called “alternate tunings.” While they may initially seem tough to master, alternate tunings are a great way to expand your musical knowledge.
Learning Guitar: Open D Tuning
In this lesson, we’ll learn how to tune your guitar to open D, a popular alternate tuning. We’ll also discuss the benefits of experimenting with alternate tunings and cover some songs in open D tuning.
There’s a couple reasons why you might want to wander away from the easy-to-understand standard tuning: First off, alternate tunings allow you to experiment with songwriting. Famous guitarists like Joni Mitchell and Keith Richards played many of their greatest hits in alternate tunings.
Secondly, open D tuning on guitar allows you to just hold down a couple strings to make chords. Because of this, open D tuning is popular with slide guitar players as they can play complete chords using the slide.
Open D Guitar Tuning Guide
Open D tuning changes the tuning of all but two of the six strings on guitar. Here’s difference between standard and open D tuning:
In open D tuning, your low E string will be taken down a whole step to D, A will stay the same, D will stay the same, G is lowered a half step to F#, B is lowered a whole step to A, and the high E goes down a whole step to D.
Now that the difference between standard and open D tuning is clear, here’s how you tune a guitar to open D: Start by plucking the low E string. Tune it down a whole step by turning the tuning peg clockwise towards you. Keep plucking the string until you hear the correct note. Repeat for other strings that need tuning.Pro tip: You can use the Online guitar tuner to help you tune your guitar to the correct note. Use either the Electric Guitar Online Guitar Tuner or the Acoustic Guitar Online Tuner. Or download the app for your phone. Both the web and app versions give you the ability to adjust your settings and tune specifically to Open D and other alternate tunings. No tuner? No problem! Tune your guitar by ear: Start by playing the note you’re trying to tune to on another string and try to match it. e.g. To tune your low and high E strings to a D, play the D string (3rd string) and adjust the tuning pegs until the notes sound similar. Note that the D on the 1st string will be in a lower octave than the 3rd string, and the 4th string D will be in a lower octave than the 6th string.Play your low A string in an open position, then match the tone as you tune down your B string a full step. Tune your G string down by half a step to F#. Match the note to the tone you hear when you play the 4th fret of your D string. Since they are neighboring strings, the tone will sound the same -- not a higher or lower version of your F#.
Key To The Highway
It might require some mental gymnastics in order to successfully play the chords you know in open D tuning. Practicing songs in this alternate tuning is a good way to teach yourself how.
“Big Yellow Taxi” makes use of open D’s cheery sound to describe a humorous and ironic situation: Folk musician Joni Mitchell told a journalist she was inspired to write “Big Yellow Taxi” while in a Hawaii hotel room. She looked out her window to see gorgeous mountains juxtaposed by an ugly parking lot down below.
Mitchell plays the song in the key of E, so it’s possible to play it in the alternate tuning of open E. However, you risk breaking your strings tuning up that high. Play it safe by tuning to open D and clipping on a capo at the second fret.
The Open D Slide Tuning
“The Cave” lacks the playful sound heard in “Big Yellow Taxi.” Instead, the open D tuning used in this song by folk rock band Mumford & Sons creates a stoic yet uplifting listening experience, bringing out the emotions in the lyrics: “‘Cause I need freedom now/And I need to know how/To live my life as it’s meant to be, ” singer Marcus Mumford belts. Inspirational indeed!
Alternate tunings can be challenging, but venturing outside of standard tuning can be rewarding because it reveals new ways to play chords and to set an emotional tone to a song. With practice, you can master open D tuning, as well as some of its variations, such as open E tuning or open A tuning. Learn more with a free trial from Play.One of the most commonly used alternate tunings is that of Open D. The tuning is used across many different styles of guitar music but most commonly it is used in blues and folk music.
Open D tuning tunes the strings of the guitar so that when all
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