open G

Look in the index for lessons here on GN. I'm sure there's some basic stuff on open tunings.

I mainly use it for slide, but Open G and Open D are great fingerpicking tunings, too. Open D (DADF#AD) is a close relative of DADGAD, which is popular for Gaelic style music.

Of all the open tunings available, I've pretty much settled on two to alternate between - standard EADGBE tuning, and open G. Open G I like because it's pretty easy to tune to from standard - just lower the pitch of the E and A strings two semi-tones, and the same for the top E string.

So you've got DGDGBD - the root G note isn't on the bottom string, but that can be an advantge - by alternately picking those two strings, you've got a nice root/fifth alternating bass line. If you look at the DGB triad on the 4th 3rd and 2nd strings, that's the G major triad. You can slide up two frets on the D string for the 6th, and on the G string for the 2nd or 9th. Slide up one fret on the B string, you've got the fourth.

The fourth and sixth together can be quite useful - look at this chord.

DGDGBD
00 2 010 .......you're adding the 4th and 6th (of the G scale) and it's often tabbed as Gsus4/6. However, if you take C as the root of that chord, you've got D G E G C and D notes, or - to put them in order, C E G and D - the first, third and fifth of the scale of C, with an added D - the 9th - so it's a Cadd9 chord, which is quite an acceptable substitute for a C chord. Keith Richards uses this shape a lot - Brown Sugar, Street Fighting Man, Start Me Up spring to mind.

Another useful shape is

DGDGBD
0 00 230.....taking D as the root, you've got D G A and C notes - a D11 chord, again a fairly handy substitute for a D chord.

Using just those three shapes, you can play around at different frets and create a good rhythm guitar riff.

Here are some other handy shapes.....

DGDGBD
0 00 330 - Gminor
00 3 003 - G7 (you can fret either or both of those F notes - it'll still be G7!)
00 3 333 - Gm7
00 0 002 - G6
00 2 000 - G6
00 0 010 - Gsus4

You can move these up and down the fretboard to make different chords, although some are a bit of stretch.

And of course the blues shuffle is easy to do - G/G6/G7 are all one finger chords...five frets further up, you've got C/C6/C7, and at the seventh fret, D/D6/D7. That's pretty easy to combine with a slide riff!

I recently did a version of Vigilante Man in open G - a pretty rough version, I've been working on it and I'm ready to re-do it. It's done as a mixture of chords and slide, and it's all done around the open strings, and the 3rd 5th and 7th frets.

Open G's a great tuning to experiment with - that's how I learned, trial and error. So get experimenting!

:D :D :D

Vic

Wow, thanks a lot Vic! I have been reading a "Guitar Legends" magazine that featured The Rolling Stones and Keith talks about open G tuning and I have been wondering how to tune to it, but hadn't asked yet. I was going to do that today, but don't need to now.

Anyway, thanks again.

Jim-Bone

thanks for the great help vic, that is sharp! u rock!

Look in the index for lessons here on GN. I'm sure there's some basic stuff on open tunings.

I mainly use it for slide, but Open G and Open D are great fingerpicking tunings, too. Open D (DADF#AD) is a close relative of DADGAD, which is popular for Gaelic style music.

rio i would be so glad if u could give me one slide lesson on open G, and just wanna tell u that, my type of music is country, i love blue grass and folk too. so if the lesson is of that type i will be very happy. :D