Wednesday, February 18, 2009
Hey, Folkies
On the site, I always mention the styles I play guitar in, and the many styles suited to which open-D tuning is perfectly suited. Guess which one I never seem to mention?
Folk. As in, folk guitar. As in, acoustic guitar, which is often referred to as - folk guitar.
Make no mistake - open-D tuning is beautifully suited to all songs folky. Just think Joni Mitchell and Bruce Cockburn, to name two relatively obscure open-D-ers.
Or, Bob Dylan - I shall be Free, Corrina Corrina, and Oxford Town on his very first album, and all of the album Blood on the Tracks - all open-D.
As a matter of fact, the folkie in me seems to be surfacing, the more I strum my acoustic guitar in open-D. For the past couple of years, I've even dropped the pick in favor of finger picking (or attempting to). Now, I'm no finger picker, but I do know that open-D just sounds wonderful played this way. For a more percussive attack, of course, the pick is the way to go, although some of the intricacy of a multi-finger attack can be diminished.
So in short, folkies owe it to themselves to give the folk guitar a re-tune to open-D and see the beauty of this tuning in action, in folk music.
Folk. As in, folk guitar. As in, acoustic guitar, which is often referred to as - folk guitar.
Make no mistake - open-D tuning is beautifully suited to all songs folky. Just think Joni Mitchell and Bruce Cockburn, to name two relatively obscure open-D-ers.
Or, Bob Dylan - I shall be Free, Corrina Corrina, and Oxford Town on his very first album, and all of the album Blood on the Tracks - all open-D.
As a matter of fact, the folkie in me seems to be surfacing, the more I strum my acoustic guitar in open-D. For the past couple of years, I've even dropped the pick in favor of finger picking (or attempting to). Now, I'm no finger picker, but I do know that open-D just sounds wonderful played this way. For a more percussive attack, of course, the pick is the way to go, although some of the intricacy of a multi-finger attack can be diminished.
So in short, folkies owe it to themselves to give the folk guitar a re-tune to open-D and see the beauty of this tuning in action, in folk music.
Labels: acoustic guitar, easier guitar, easy guitar, folk guitar, guitar, learn guitar, open-D guitar, play guitar
