Open G tuning

Open G: the strings and their notes

Open G from standard

What open G is

Open G tunes the open strings to a G major chord: D G D G B D, low to high. Three strings go down a whole step from standard, the 6th (E to D), the 5th (A to G) and the 1st (E to D); the 4th, 3rd and 2nd, D G B, stay where they are. Because the three middle strings don't move, the tuning keeps a lot of standard's feel on the inside of the neck.

It is the tuning of the Rolling Stones' riffs: Keith Richards plays “Brown Sugar”, “Start Me Up” and “Honky Tonk Women” in open G, usually with the 6th string taken off so the lowest note is the G on the 5th string. Before him it was a Delta blues and slide tuning, and in the 19th century parlor guitarists called it Spanish tuning. On a five-string banjo, the standard tuning is open G too (g D G B D).

How to tune to Open G from standard

With the tuner above: tap Start, play each string the table changes and turn until the needle sits in the middle. By ear, without the tuner:

1. 5th string: A2 to G2. Its 7th fret should sound like the open 4th string (D3).
2. 6th string: E2 to D2. Its 5th fret should sound like the open 5th string (G2).
3. 1st string: E4 to D4. The 3rd string at its 7th fret (D4) should sound like this string open.

Then check the whole tuning once more with the tuner: retuning one string moves the neck, and the others drift a few cents.

On the same strings, tension follows the square of the pitch: the 1st, 5th and 6th strings keep 79 % of their pull. Slacker strings buzz and read flat at the attack; for more than a whole step down, a heavier set (or at least a heavier low string) keeps the feel.

What one finger plays

Strummed open, the strings ring G. A finger or a slide straight across the 5th fret gives C, across the 7th D, and the 12th is G an octave up: the three chords of a blues in one straight line.

Playing in open G

• The Keith Richards version: take the 6th string off (or don't play it); the root is then the open 5th string, G, and a one-finger barre on the 5th, 4th and 3rd strings gives the major chords with their root in the bass.
• Riffs from the major chord: the classic move is a second finger on the 2nd string at the 1st fret and a third on the 4th string at the 2nd fret over the open G, which gives the suspended sound between G and C.
• Open A is the same tuning two frets higher; a capo at the 2nd fret in open G sounds exactly like open A.

All six strings in standard and the other tunings: the guitar tuner. Any note at all: the chromatic tuner.

Then play something

The notes you tuned can go into Brumm as a short melody over a beat. Hum a line on top and it becomes an instrument.

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