Open G tuning
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Among alternative tunings for the guitar, an open G tuning is an open tuning that features the G-major chord; its open notes are selected from the notes of a G-major chord, such as the G-major triad (G,B,D). For example, a popular open-G tuning is
- D-G-D-G-B-D (low to high).
An open-G tuning allows a G-major chord to be strummed on all six strings with neither fretting of the left hand nor a capo. Like other open tunings, it allows the eleven major chords besides G major each to be strummed by barring at most one finger on exactly one fret.[1] Open tunings are common in blues and folk music,[2] and they are used in the playing of slide and bottleneck guitars.[1][3]
Contents
Repetitive variants for special instruments
Repetitive open-G tunings are used by Russian guitars, Dobro guitars, and banjos. They repeat three open-string notes.
The repetitive open-G tuning
- D-G-B-D-G-B-D
<score vorbis="1"> { \clef "treble_8" \time 3/4 <d, g, b, d g b d'>2. <d, >4 <g, >4 <b, >4 <d >4 <g >4 4 <d' >4 <d, g, b, d g b d'>2. } </score> is used by the Russian guitar, which has seven strings tuned mostly in major thirds.[4][5][6]
Dobros use a full six-string tuning with a bottom G: G-B-D-G-B-D, low to high. The two lowest strings are, accordingly, tuned three semitones higher for the lowest string (from E up to G) and two semitones higher for the second-lowest string (from A up to B) while the highest string is tuned two semitones lower (from E down to D), relative to standard tuning.
The 5-String Banjo's standard tuning is also an Open G: g-D-G-B-D, where the lower case "g" denotes the highest-pitched string, physically located next to (above) the lowest-pitched string, the first upper case "D".[7]
Overtones of the fundamental note G
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Bad Company guitarist Mick Ralphs has used another open-G tuning, which listed the initial six overtones of the G note,
- G-G-D-G-B-D
<score vorbis="1"> { \clef "treble_8" \time 3/4 <g,, g, d g b d'>2. <g,, >4 <g, >4 <d >4 <g >4 4 <d' >4 <g,, g, d g b d'>2. } </score> for "Hey Hey" and while writing the demo of "Can't Get Enough".[8] The overtones tuning G-G-D-G-B-D was used by Joni Mitchell for "Electricity", "For the Roses", and "Hunter (The Good Samaritan)".[9] Truncating this tuning to G-D-G-B-D for his five-string guitar, Keith Richards plays this overtones-tuning on The Rolling Stones's "Honky Tonk Women", "Brown Sugar" and "Start Me Up".[10]
See also
- Minor thirds tuning
- Scordatura, alternative tunings of stringed instruments
- Stringed instrument tunings
Notes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Sethares (2010, p. 16)
- ↑ Denyer (1992, p. 158)
- ↑ Denyer (1992, p. 160)
- ↑ Bellow (1970, p. 164): Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Timofeyev (1999): Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
- ↑ Lua error in package.lua at line 80: module 'strict' not found.
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- ↑ http://opendtuning.com/open-g-tuning-dgdgbd/
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References
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