Unlocking the mysteries of slide guitar in open g tuning. This list of guitar tunings supplements the article guitar tunings. The second style this works great in is a country sound with a dirty feel. Tunings are described by the particular pitches denoted by notes in western music. This guitar lesson is going to be about open g tuning. Most blues players began playing the guitar in an open tuning as it made playing much easier yet gave the guitar a much stronger and richer sound. Simply put, an open tuning is when your guitar is tuned so that strumming all the strings without holding any of them down on the fretboard will produce a chord. Finally, there are lots of open tuning variations droppedd, open d, all the weird ones that joni mitchell uses, and the really odd one that stephen stills uses on suite judy blue eyes which is something like d, b, b, b, b, d that he apparently got from david. One of the everly brothers was playing his guitar on open g to get the unique rhythm guitar style on wake up little susie. Acoustic guitars love to be played on the lower frets with lots of open. All open tunings create a chord when the guitar is strummed without fretting any notes, and are named for the root of the chord they create. They can be played with finger picks or with a flat pick or no picks.
This information is also applicable to almost any open tuning. The bottleneck way of playing guitar consists of letting the surface of the slide rest on the strings while we strum or fingerpick. What do you get when you combine a guild jumbo 12 string, open d tuning, bottleneck slide. Click here to download a printable pdf of this lessons notation. Country blues guitar in open tunings book3cd set grossmans guitar workshop. This tuning was also a favorite of bob dylan, who used it to great effect in songs like oxford town and a simple twist of fate. As youll learn in this ebook, there are countless ways to form blues riffs and be creative with them.
Generally, the guitar action needs to be higher than when playing. These qualities combine to create a magnetic groove that pulls you in and keeps. These tunings are frequently used in the playing of slide and lapslide hawaiian guitars, and hawaiian slack key music. I have also included the 5 box patterns you need to learn in order to memorize the blues scales in all keys. While country guitar has roots in the aforementioned styles, concepts such as openstring cascades, hybridpicked doublestops, and pedalsteel bends can befuddle even the most accomplished players. How to play blues rhythm guitar like the blues masters. Jack covers several alternate tunings that work well for slide guitar. In this lesson ill show you that absolute basics of outlaw country strumming.
If youre in the key of d and play blues or minor pentatonic licks with some countryrock attitude, you end. Kenny opens up the world of open tunings and how they can be applied in the blues genre. This tuning delivers a very open, almost naturally. While delta blues slide guitar still embraces perhaps only a handful of open tunings, hawaiian slack key now uses hundreds of tunings.
When i was putting this lesson together i was watching a bunch of lessons on open g tuning and they were all about the rolling stones. Blues guitar overview introduction 12 bar blues in emajor 12 bar blues in a. Blues in d introduction to open tuning open d blues in g bottleneckslide guitar blues in c minor blues jazzier blues moveable chords in f, bb and eb the circle of fifths have you noticed. Oct 12, 2015 open tunings have been exploited for use with slide guitar since the earliest days of delta blues. Here is a little piece that is like alot of slide blues. Mel bay open tunings have always been an integral part of the country blues guitar tradition. But open tunings on an instrument that is easy to play eventually suggest other possibilities. Learn blues guitar from stuart ziff with an intermediate guitar lesson for open tunings. Sep 22, 2015 the second style this works great in is a country sound with a dirty feel. To change this up and maybe give you something new, i busted out my acoustic guitar and came up with a small lick using open g tuning. Open tunings are very often used by guitar players like keith richard from the rolling stones. Roy book binder has given us another terrific look at his unique brand of fingerpicked blues guitar. Both terms stand for a relative tuning of the strings to each other, no matter what the.
Country blues lick in open d tuning open d tuning, country blue, drugs. First thing, you must tune your guitar strings down to match the open d tuning. In particular, this list contains more examples of open and regular tunings, which are discussed in the article on guitar tunings. Some slide blues licks in open g that son house and robert johnson and other delta guys used to great effect in open g tuning. Deactivate arrows on your keyboard for page navigation with alt k. Stuart will discuss many considerations including positioning and chord forms. Alternate tunings for guitara brief look rochester guitar club. And you can play with the 1st and 3rd strings open as well 000030. Blues chords with slide in open d tuning country blues. They can be major or minor chords, but the major tunings seem to be the most commonly seen in popular guitar music. Blues, rock and country are naturals for open tunings, slide guitar and hawaiian lap steel are also done in open tunings. Outlaw country strumming for beginners lets say you want to strum along with some willie, waylon and boys, but alas, you dont know what strumming pattern to use.
Open tunings or slack key guitar some of the most common alternate tunings used by musicians are socalled open tunings. In this approach the guitar is tuned to a full chord. This edition of in deep will focus on open g tuning and how it is used in blues slideguitar playing. Jul 29, 2016 finally, there are lots of open tuning variations droppedd, open d, all the weird ones that joni mitchell uses, and the really odd one that stephen stills uses on suite judy blue eyes which is something like d, b, b, b, b, d that he apparently got from david bromberg or one of the sixties folk players. These chords, riffs and scales can be expanded in a. They are found in classical guitar, folk, blues, rock and roll, to some degree jazz, and in a host of steelstring acoustic. Country blues guitar players have often favored open tunings, as they are an easy way to achieve a rich, full sound with minimal effort. Learn blues guitar from kenny ray with an intermediate guitar lesson for open tunings. Open d is another major chord tuning and another popular choice among delta blues guitarists. Joni mitchell has employed a wide variety of unusual. Open g tuning songs open g blues guitar tuning the video above opens with an old clip of me playing crossroads by robert johnson on an old johnny joyce model aria, and at 1.
Country blues guitar in open tunings dvd grossmans guitar workshop. These days open tunings are common all across the spectrum of guitar playing. You can get more charts in with custom tunings using my interactive scale generator here. The examples well look at are there to spark your creativity in your rhythm guitar playing. With a few pulloffs on the a and d strings 3 rd fret, youve got some outlaw country riffs cooking. Learn all about open tunings here you learn how to tune your guitar in some so called open tunings. Esteemed musician and teacher stefan grossman has created a. Mar 6, 2014 open tuning chart 7 open tunings 14 alternate tunings stay safe and healthy. These tunings have two advantages over other open tunings. Most blues players began playing the guitar in an open tuning as it made playing much easier yet gave the guitar. His interest in music was forged by his father, who played. By convention, the notes are ordered from lowestpitched string i. Country blues guitar in open tunings dvd grossmans. Complete country blues guitar book entertainment general.
Where they differ is that mississippi hill country blues generally has fewer chord. Now strike the open string and vary the force of your attack. They were very hand escpecialy if you play slide guitar. There are many new possibilities here, especially in the harmonic sense. Little red rooster and open g tuning blues guitar unleashed. Gbdgbd occasionally adopted for ordinary guitar, but requires lighter fifth and sixth strings. This pdf contains the scale charts for the blues scale in all keys for guitar in standard tuning. Blues in d introduction to open tuning open d blues in g bottleneckslide guitar blues in c minor blues. Open tuning is often used for delta blues on acoustic guitars, because you need. This technique is very important for developing a full sound and the right. Open tunings are so fun with slide guitar and open up a whole world of sonic possibilities. This tuning was made famous by elmore james, and is commonly used amongst many slide guitar players. By the way, this is the same tuning as is used on a five string banjo, so i see some finger picking in the future as well.
Theory, tunings, exercises 46 pages pdf with integrated sound for printing. Just hit a standard d chord and instead of muting the e string, let it ring out. Also a must is the eflat tuning that means all strings were tuned down a halfstep. What is an open tuning if a guitar is tuned to an open tuning playing the open strings results in a major chord or less common in a minor chord. Try hitting it hard enough so that the fifth string vibrates as well. Complete country blues guitar book free ebook download as pdf file. Ry cooder uses open tunings when he plays slide guitar. We have completely redesigned the tuning window to make it more intuitive and easy to use.
Dgbdgbd is an open g tuning, approximately in major thirds. Also used by a few delta guitarists such as skip james and bukka white was the crossnote tuning where your guitar is tuned to an open em chord. This is a slightly longer lines using double stops. Practising this cell in isolation will make the lick easier to execute. Blues guitarists have utilized open chord tunings for many years. Johnny demonstrates a very helpful bending exercise combining two notesone. The two most popular open tunings in blues are open g and open d. Theory, tunings, exercises 46 pages pdf with integrated sound for printing printable pdf support high quality printing and audio. There are some common techniques that apply to all open.
There are, of course, others that are utilized, with many distinctive variations, depending on the musician and style of music. In this lesson you will learn some typical john lee hooker riffs and licks in spanish tuning open a or open g that every blues guitarist needs to know. Here i will demonstrate a few licks in open d tuning. Country blues guitar in open tunings 2004 rotten tomatoes. The following opentunings use a minor third, and give a minor chord with open strings. John lee hooker was one of the true blues giants and a real groove monster. Fred sokolow teaches statesboro blues in open d tuning d guitar chord, guitar. The following open tunings use a minor third, and give a minor chord with open strings. Unlock the guitar mysteries of the delta blues great. For a minimum of effort you can produce a maximum of sound. Country blues guitar in open tunings dvd grossmans guitar. About kenny ray view full biography kenny is a blues veteran of 40 years whose pedigree includes recording and appearing with artists the caliber of william clarke, little charlie and the nightcats, charlie musselwhite, smokey wilson, albert collins, and stevie ray vaughan. During the folk scare of the 1960s open tunings found favor among many songwriters of the day.
The most commonly used open tunings for slide are e, d, g and a. In this lesson, we will explore the use of open d tuning while playing with a slide. This lesson comes along just as im reading keith richards autobiography where he talks about open g tuning and not even using the sixth string. The most popular country blues tunings were the open g tuning, also called spanish tuning and the open d tuning, also called vestapol tuning. Combine modal sounds with pentatonics and blues scales. Finger style guitar is also played in many open tunings. Open tuning altered tuning gitarrenworkshop opend, open. For many guitarists who cut their teeth on blues, rock, or jazz, country guitar technique is a bit of a mysteryperhaps even a little intimidating. Outlaw country strumming for beginners guitar alliance.
Please practice handwashing and social distancing, and check out our resources for adapting to these times. To get the open d tuning on your guitar you tune it like this. Open tunings have been exploited for use with slide guitar since the earliest days of delta blues. All examples are taken from my new ebook an easy guide to open tunings for blues guitar, which contains many more examples and ideas available at my website. On this dvdvideo, he covers the basics of open tunings and the use of the bottleneck, teaching essential techniques in a way that will be easy even for newcomers to this style.
What is an open tuning if a guitar is tuned to an open tuning playing the open strings results in a. Daddad tuning is sometimes used on dobro guitars for rock and blues. Improve your guitar playing with online video lessons from jamplay. Open g is the most common example of alternate guitar tunings and using a slide is by far the most common technique for this delta blues tuning.
Country blues guitar in open tunings book3cd set grossman. The method of choice if you want to combine both slide and normal playing. Open tuning chart 7 open tunings 14 alternate tunings. Remember that open d tuning or any tuning for that matter is not just limited to playing blues with a slide. Learn the variety of picking techniques and tunings that johnson used to. Mel bay open tunings have been used by many country blues guitarists. Guitar tunings assign pitches to the open strings of guitars, including acoustic guitars, electric guitars, and classical guitars. Open g guitar tuning guitar lessons learn guitar from. Open tunings have always been an integral part of the country blues guitar tradition.