Open D Tuning

[recordingtrack1]

Any here who frequently play in open D tuning?

 

d

A

F#

D

A

D

I've spent a lot of time noodling around with this tuning today and I have totally fallen in love with it. I'm already learning Leo Kottke's arrangement of Little Martha, though I'm just now beginning to get the feel of it. However, I am taken mostly with the ability to just "jam" with open notes and harmonics. I believe it is the most flexible tuning I have ever used and I can see great possibilities with it. It is very exciting.

 

Just wondering if there are others out there who are big fans of this tuning and maybe some suggestions for musical pieces you play using it.

 

RT1:)

[OldGuitarPlayer]

I use it for slide

[guitarist21]

I'm a huge fan of open D. Great for slide, like OGP said, but I also use it for a whole bunch of Dashboard Confessional songs (flatpicked, mostly) and it is a fun tuning for tapping with different natural harmonics occuring than standard.

 

Ellen

[happy-man]

That's the one open tuning I use. I'd never used open tunings, but I finally gave up trying to make the Black Crowes "She Talks to Angels" sound decent with standard tuning. Gotta have those harmonics. I think they do it in E, but D works better for me. I don't have to stretch the strings, and the vocals are high anyway.

 

Scott O

[bjorn-fjord]

Open D is a great, versatile tuning. It's probably the most common alternate tuning used by many of the old blues greats. Blind Lemon Jefferson absolutely rips in open D.

Although I prefer open G for slide and hawaiian stuff.

[AK47]

Open D is a cool tuning. Works well with or without a slide. The licks you play in open G also work in open D. You just have to play the licks one string up. I find open E the easiest to jam with someone who is in standard tuning. E is the same as D but just tuned up. If you decide to use E remember that is a lot of tension on your neck and can be hard on most guitars.

[Cripes]

I've enjoyed that tuning and have written a couple instrumentals using it. You can really get happily lost in it.

[garthman]

I more or less only played in open D (and also a little open G plus CGDGCD) for a 2 year period some several years ago. I suppose it does the ego good to be able to whizz up and down the fretboard sounding like a guitar superhero.

 

In recent years I've realized that those good people who developed the instrument and tuning over the centuries were right to settle on "standard" tuning because of its versatility - and there is so much to learn anyway that I tend to play in standard (or standard D - DGCFAD) most of the time now.

 

I still tune to open D for some Dylan songs that I play and I also use double-drop D occasionally which I rather like since you get the same open string benefit when playing in the key of D as you do with open D but, with a little adroit manipulation, you can achieve some "standard" chords (and you can also just use the inside strings to hit them too.)

[Terry Allan Hall]

I keep one of my Guild F-212XLs in Open D, and by tuning the 3rd string up a 1/2 step, you can have DADGAD, too!

 

Written several tunes in Open D, plus I play several blues tunes in it like "Police Dog Blues", "Guitar Rag", etc.

[Freeman Keller]

I was trying to learn Little Martha some years ago and having a hell of a time with the part that moves up to the 5th fret - I was trying to barre the same thing that Allman does at the nut, only move it up to five and the pinkie stretch was killing me. We happened to be at a Kottke concert (second row middle) and Leo did his version. I realized that he dropped the barre and fretted it exactly the same as at the nut and - bingo! - the light came on. Now it is one of the many songs I play in open D.

 

Kottke - Echoing Gilowitz (sp), Watermellon (slide), Little Martha (actually a Duane Allman song)

 

Fahey - Poor Boy Long Way from Home (slide), several Christmas songs

 

blues - Police Dog Blues, Dark was the Night Cold was the Ground (slide), Death Letter, some train blues, Steel Guitar Rag, and of course the song the tuning is named after - Vestapol

 

Kelly Joe Phelps does almost all his lap style playing in open D (but he does capo all over the neck)

 

It is also a very popular electric blues slide tuning - probably more than open G (which tends to be more popular for acoustic slide).

[Bitt81]

I am a novice with any open tunings and Little Martha is the only song I play in open D. I have enough challenges playing in standard tuning to concentrate on additional tunings

[pschaafs]

Lots of Dylan's "Blood on the Tracks" album songs I play in open D - and some Fahey stuff. Also experimenting with it for slide (I suck....)

[Verne Andru]

Love open Dm. As TAH notes above, simply by retuning the third string up 1/2 step I go from open Dm to open D to DADGAD. I keep the 12 neck on my double alternating between open Dm and D, and the baritone neck to BF#BEF#B which is 3 semi-tones down from DADGAD which I can get by using a capo on the third fret.

 

[gthom]

I love playing the Kottke Little Martha version, and I also learned a version of Marching Through Georgia in Open D.

[recordingtrack1]

 

originally posted by Freeman Kellar: I was trying to learn Little Martha some years ago and having a hell of a time with the part that moves up to the 5th fret - I was trying to barre the same thing that Allman does at the nut, only move it up to five and the pinkie stretch was killing me. We happened to be at a Kottke concert (second row middle) and Leo did his version. I realized that he dropped the barre and fretted it exactly the same as at the nut and - bingo! - the light came on. Now it is one of the many songs I play in open D.

 

 

Thanks Freeman, I'm absolutely deadset on learning this piece. You are right about the 5 fret stretch. I just read your post and I can't wait to try this. Thanks for the tip.

 

Right now I'm like a kid in a candy store. Every time I pick up my 000 I disintegrate into jamming all over the fretboard and doing harmonics and stuff. This tuning really lends itself to this. It's freakin' fun and even my kids, who don't often bother, come into my music room wanting to know what I am playing. Even though I have tuned to open D some in the past, I'm just now "discovering" it.

 

RT1:)