Saturday, March 07, 2009
Playing By Ear in Open-D Tuning - Part 2
The other way open-D tuning is superior for the ear player is in the area of experimentation.
Now, for the experienced (standard tuning) guitarist, experimentation may not be a big deal. After all, for those folks, with the background, the theoretical knowledge, the experience with chords, harmony, etc., experimentation is readily achievable, with all that you already know (surprisingly it does not apply to all experienced guitar players).
But for those inexperienced, novice, frustrated guitar types who feel like they have music in them, but just cannot get over the hump of priming needed in standard tuning, open-D tuning offers a nifty by-pass. The neat thing about a tuning such as open-D is that you need virtually no musical background out of the gate. Your guitar is tuned to such a user friendly starting point - a beautiful, common, usable D major chord - that the door is held wide open for you to get playing guitar, by ear, right away.
What do I mean by this?
Consider it - you strum your guitar, and you have a common major chord, with no fingers to fret. All it takes to create a second usable chord is to add one finger to one fret - and it matters not which - any string, any fret (heck, even any finger!). You have another new chord. An actual, playable, legitimate chord - and you really don't need to know the name of it (although Guitar-eze does get into a minimal amount of theory for those who may desire it).
Add to this the fact that a single finger can replicate that starting D major chord all the way up the neck of your guitar, creating Eb, E, F, F#, etc., and you have opened up a world of guitar, with an absolute minimum of technical or theoretical knowledge. For an ear player, or experimenter, or intuitive guitar player, it's heaven.
That's what open-D tuning is - heaven.
Now, for the experienced (standard tuning) guitarist, experimentation may not be a big deal. After all, for those folks, with the background, the theoretical knowledge, the experience with chords, harmony, etc., experimentation is readily achievable, with all that you already know (surprisingly it does not apply to all experienced guitar players).
But for those inexperienced, novice, frustrated guitar types who feel like they have music in them, but just cannot get over the hump of priming needed in standard tuning, open-D tuning offers a nifty by-pass. The neat thing about a tuning such as open-D is that you need virtually no musical background out of the gate. Your guitar is tuned to such a user friendly starting point - a beautiful, common, usable D major chord - that the door is held wide open for you to get playing guitar, by ear, right away.
What do I mean by this?
Consider it - you strum your guitar, and you have a common major chord, with no fingers to fret. All it takes to create a second usable chord is to add one finger to one fret - and it matters not which - any string, any fret (heck, even any finger!). You have another new chord. An actual, playable, legitimate chord - and you really don't need to know the name of it (although Guitar-eze does get into a minimal amount of theory for those who may desire it).
Add to this the fact that a single finger can replicate that starting D major chord all the way up the neck of your guitar, creating Eb, E, F, F#, etc., and you have opened up a world of guitar, with an absolute minimum of technical or theoretical knowledge. For an ear player, or experimenter, or intuitive guitar player, it's heaven.
That's what open-D tuning is - heaven.
