A Beginner-Friendly Guide to Alternate Tunings

In standard tuning the six strings are set up as a compromise — good for everything, perfect for nothing. An alternate tuning changes the pitch of some strings so the guitar is already leaning towards one particular sound. The most common kind is an open tuning, where the strings, strummed with no fingers down at all, ring out a full chord.

Why this makes songs easier

• ·Chord shapes shrink. Many become one or two fingers, or a single finger laid flat across the neck.
• ·Open strings ring through the changes, so a slow song sounds fuller with less effort.
• ·Difficult stretches often disappear, which matters if your hands are stiff or out of practice.
• ·The instrument gives you the mood for free — that shimmering, unresolved sound in so many folk records.

The tunings worth knowing first

• ·Open D — D A D F♯ A D. Warm and hymn-like. Strum it open and you have a D major chord. A single finger barred at the fifth fret gives you another whole chord.
• ·Drop D — D A D G B E. Only the lowest string moves. The gentlest possible first step away from standard.
• ·Open G — D G D G B D. Bright and rolling, the sound of a lot of blues and country picking.
• ·DADGAD. Neither major nor minor, which is precisely why it sounds like the ocean and a bagpipe at once.

How to get into Open D without hurting your guitar

Everything either stays put or goes down, which is the safe direction — you are loosening strings, not straining them.

• ·6th string (low E) down a whole step to D.
• ·5th string (A) stays.
• ·4th string (D) stays.
• ·3rd string (G) down a half step to F♯.
• ·2nd string (B) down a whole step to A.
• ·1st string (high E) down a whole step to D.

Turn slowly, check with a tuner, and go round twice — the neck settles as the tension drops, so the first pass is never quite right. Strum all six strings open: you should hear a clean, happy D major. That sound is your proof it worked.

Answers to the two questions everyone asks

Will it damage my guitar? Lowering tension is normal and safe. Give it a minute to settle and re-tune. Will I forget standard tuning? No. Tuning back takes ninety seconds, and most players keep a second guitar, or simply enjoy the ceremony of retuning as part of the song.

Where to hear it in a real song

Open D is the tuning behind a lot of the slow, ringing folk repertoire — it is the tuning I teach Both Sides Now in, because the open strings do so much of the work that you are freed up to sing. If you want to work on that second half, read how to play and sing at the same time.