The Magic of the Open G

The Magic of the Open G (c) David Philip Ireland

How to tune a guitar to and open G tuning

I’ve been happy writing songs over the years and decades on my trusty six string acoustic guitar. Nothing fancy, just a good dreadnaught Tanglewood. Lightweight strings, regular tuning. Some good songs emerged, some successes here and there…and then came the lockdown.

And things began to change.

I had a couple of beautiful songs that didn’t ‘zing’ like they should have done.

And then I discovered a magical transforming trick. The open G tuning!

It’s a very simple re-tune here that will take your songs to other places.

So here goes with the technical bit…

All you need to do is to lower both E strings a step down to D, and then lower your fifth string from A to G. Strings two, three, and four stay the same.

That’s it! That’s all you need to do.

Now, I play an Alvarez Baritone guitar which is already tuned four tones lower than a regular guitar, but the principle is exactly the same.

So, all you need to do now is to start making shapes. The richness of the chords that emerge is astounding. It’s just hard to go wrong.

I’ve always struggled with ‘barre’ shapes, but they’ve just gone out of the window!

Some experimentation with the sounds and you’re all ready to go.

I pulled out a couple of my ‘difficult’ songs - the one’s that refused to fly - and just began to sing. The open G tuning just took the songs to new heights and gave them a lift they truly needed. Melodies I’d not encountered before began to emerge and within a few hours I had come up with a couple of songs I was truly proud of.

I’m not a showboat musician - not at all - the guitar is my accompaniment, but virtuosity is not in there. My songs are about the words and melody, getting my story across in as musical a way as possible. But with the open G tuning, there is something new emerging. Something that is more virtuoso. Something a little more Joni, a little more Keef!

Both Joni Mitchell and Keith Richard are great exponents of open tuned guitar playing - Keith especially has built a career and a stunning back catalogue around that open G tuning.

So, if you’re a strummer who needs to lift the mundane into the extraordinary, then I would urge you to try out the open tuning. Even the beginner will gain much from this

During my sets, I am now able to re-tune to open G and back to regular tuning while running through my intro patter without a thought. It just took a couple of days before the new tuning became second nature.

I have yet to try out many of the other tunings, but I will - once the open G addiction has worn off a little - but there’s no sign of that happening anytime soon!

Give it a go! Give it a G!

(I've included a video of my song 'Footprints in the Snow' played using the open G tuning - on my trusty Baritone - so four tones lower...)