A Beginner's Guide to Alternate Guitar Tunings (Drop D, DADGAD, Open G)

Standard tuning (E-A-D-G-B-E) is where most people live, and that's fine. But some of the best guitar music ever recorded uses alternate tunings, and trying one can make a guitar you've played for years suddenly feel like a different instrument.

Drop D

Tune your low E string down one whole step to D. That's it. One string, one step. You can now play power chords with one finger barred across the bottom three strings, which is why every metal and hard rock guitarist uses this tuning. “Killing in the Name” by Rage Against the Machine, “Everlong” by Foo Fighters, “Heart-Shaped Box” by Nirvana - all Drop D.

Open G (D-G-D-G-B-D)

Strum all strings open and you get a G major chord. Keith Richards wrote “Start Me Up,” “Brown Sugar,” and a dozen other Stones classics in Open G (he also removes the low D string entirely, but that's optional). Slide guitar in blues almost always uses open tunings since you can slide a full chord up and down the neck.

DADGAD

The name tells you the tuning: D-A-D-G-A-D. It produces a suspended sound - neither fully major nor minor. Celtic and folk guitarists love it. Led Zeppelin's “Kashmir” uses it. Pierre Bensusan built his entire career around DADGAD fingerstyle. If you play folk or acoustic fingerpicking, this tuning is worth a weekend of exploration.

Open D (D-A-D-F#-A-D)

Like Open G but based on a D chord. Strum open and you hear D major. Elmore James used it for slide blues. Joni Mitchell used it for folk. It also works well with a capo - put a capo on fret 2 and you're in Open E without the higher string tension that can break strings.

Open E (E-B-E-G#-B-E)

The classic slide guitar tuning. Duane Allman, Derek Trucks, and Bob Dylan's “Blood on the Tracks” all live here. The main risk: the higher string tension can snap strings on lighter gauge sets. Some players use Open D with a capo at fret 2 to get the same pitches with less tension.

How to retune

You need a chromatic tuner for alternate tunings since the target notes change. The OpenFret tuner is chromatic, so it detects whatever note you play and shows you how sharp or flat you are. It doesn't care what tuning you're going for. If you keep multiple guitars, OpenFret's guitar inventory lets you track which guitar is in which tuning, so you don't have to retune constantly.