[billy16]

i've played around with open tunings, but i could never seem to do much with them. what are the purpose for these tunings? i mean why would you use an open tuning rather than a standard tuning?

i'm just curious because i want to know what they are used for and how to make the best of them. so maybe i could use them in a song.

[Ted Zeppelin]

I would say first off, that it is for ease, there are certain songs that just need an open tuning for simpler fretting. Then of course there are songs that involve slide that need some form of open tuning ie open D.

[B.B. Hudson]

You have to utilize the open strings if you don't want to stretch 7 frets just to play scales, meaning your choice of keys is always limited. Usually you just play Open-G in G, Open-D in D etc. In the root key there are lots of things you can't do in standard tuning. For instance you can barre a chord across with just one finger and pick out a bass line with your thumb, then you have all the rest of your fingers to play some kind of melody over the top. Obviously with slide it is desirable to have open tunings so you get some more interesting intervals between the strings (in standard tuning you only have a perfect 4th and a major 3rd).

[cichlid_dmb]

I'd recommend finding some songs that use the specific tuning you're working in. I think open G (DGDGBD) is the easiest to start with, personally, or DADGAD. When I first started I playing I learned chords through the songs I worked on. I'm kind of doing the same thing in open tunings, finding as many songs as I can in whatever tuning I'm in. Another fun thing to do is trying to play common chord progressions that were originally in standard in an open tuning.

For example, in open G tuning, C - Am - F - G, a classic progression in the key of C.

7x755x - x55555 - 3x321x - x00000

And here's G - Em - C - D, in the key of G.

x00000 - 2x2002 - x55555 - x77777

So I'd recommend just trying to find things to play in whatever tuning you're in.

[billy16]

ok, thanks guys.

i have a better understanding of how to use these. maybe i'll play around with them today.

[Graeme! Yes, Graeme!]

Check the song Day's Too Long in my soundclick. I use DADADD tuning (a slightly odd open tuning - it's one big drone)

[dadfad]

Like everyone above said, there are just certain tunes, certain licks, certain styles, certain modalities, that just cannot be played without using open (or altered) tunings. Becoming familiar with using opens vastly expands what you can do with a guitar, whether it's blues/slide or certain traditional styles or even very contemporary work, open and altered tunings give whole new areas on the guitar to be explored. Getting into open/altereds is probably the biggest reason to have several or more guitars. It's more difficult to practice and work with another tuning when you have to continually tune/re-tune a single guitar. One tends to avoid doing it. Even cheap "beater" guitars from a yard sale or something can be left in different tunings and it makes it easier to practice them if all you have to do is pick it up and play. Then for a gig or a more important time you can re-tune your "main" guitar to play them if you need to. I can play in about twelve or so different tunings, maybe five or six of them regularly. Once you get into them, working with them becomes fairly easy. And some play almost identically, maybe moved over a string, etc. Some like D and E, or G and A, are identical just tuned a step higher (or lower) in pitch. There are lots of fairly obscure ones too.... an old "fiddle tuning" called Scotch-B (EF#BF#BE) allows one to play old Appalachian reels and dances authentically, the CSN tune "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes" is done in EEEEBE (all firsts with a single fifth. This and variations on it, like DADDAD, etc, are called First/Fifth tunings, which are just a giant power-chord across the whole neck. DADGAD is excellent for Celtic (as are several other tunings). Open-Dm DADFAD is used for extremely hard-blues and was used extensively by the old bluesman Skip James (and others from his area around Bentonia, Mississippi) like in his tune (covered in the movie "O Brother Where Art Thou") "Hard Time Killing Floor". Without opens slide-blues would be very dull and boring. Anyway, exploring opens and altereds really increases a guitarists possiblities dramatically.

[CRG1400]

dadfad never ceases to amaze me. good info.

[billy16]

thanks a lot dadfad

[dadfad]

(Thanks, guys!)

Like Chichlid mentioned, just pick one and start in. Mess around with it first, explore it a little and see what's what with it. Then look for all you can find to listen to in it, then pick a few good tunes that have been done using it to start with, and take it from there.

[theprik]

i need another acoustic just so i can always have one guitar in an open tuning, i hate tuning back and forth