Lately I have been working with open D E and G tunings. I find they give me a chance to explore the fretboard and it’s easier for me to switch from chords to slide etc. Anyone use open tunings and have any particular tunes they may play in open tunings and have any specific pointers ?
Search
I put my guitar into open G for the first time recently and it was so much fun. Learned to play some bits of a couple Rolling Stones classics like Start Me Up & Brown Sugar along the way.
Open tunings are something I definitely want to explore some more sometime :)
You know it’s my understanding that Keith Richards and Ron Wood pretty much play every thing in open tunings. I think I red that some where....
@Deb Anderson yeah that's true. Keith also usually takes off the low D string when he is in open G. So he only plays a 5 string guitar with the open G on the 5th string being his lowest note :)
@Merlin cool so do you happen to know what tuning he uses for the chord progression for “Happy”?
This is something I've never really gotten into (except in our private lessons with the song "Little Martha" @Deb Anderson) The closest I get to open tunings on a regular basis is DADGAD. I use it for a lot of more obscure instrumental acoustic music like Beppe Gambetta, Phil Keaggy, or my own stuff.
I've been tempted to try open tunings for slide playing but I just can't bring myself to dedicate one guitar to a slide setup with an open tuning. My favorite slide player plays in standard tuning, so I'm sure that has influenced me too.
The one thing that I do like about DADGAD is the same thing that you mentioned Deb. It really gives me a chance to think differently explore new sounds and shapes. :D
Nate is the slide player you mentioned above the same one we talked about in the lesson last week - Eric Sardinas ? Also is DADGAD considered dropped D? I have a friend who plays in dropped D tuning quite frequently when playing an all acoustic set.
@Merlin thank you for the Happy tutorial link ... I’ve been working on the tune for the couple of days. Almost have both the rhythm part.. (getting my bars chords up to speed is one of my goals in the next month or so) and definitely have the slide part down and working on additional fills... Keith Richard’s is right you can’t help but being happy when you play the song. And @Nate Savage I’m going to get back on track with that Travis picking we’ve been working on together if not this afternoon definitely in the am.
you're welcome :) Sounds good! Yeah I agree, it's an awesome song. I should learn some Rolling Stones tunes as well.