Sandwood Down to Kyle, DADGAD, arr. John Renbourn

 Well, here's my take on this great folksong, Sandwood Down to Kyle. The guitar overdub was just to add a bit of variety, and also to cover up my inconsistent bending in the main riff! I was just widdling around in Dm. I've put the lyrics on this page too:

 One Monday morn as I roved out, the wild birds for to see
 I met a man upon the road and asked for charity
I met a man upon the road and asked for charity


Come home with me and drink your fill, and comfort you shall find
And tell me why you walk the road that leaves the hills behind
And tell me why you walk the road that leaves the hills behind


For time has spent the summer, sir, and soon the leaves must fall
And I hear the sound within the wind that plays around your walls
And I hear the sound within the wind that plays around your walls


The bird must flee the winter, sir, she cannot stay behind
To build her nest upon the snow, nor can I look for mine
To build her nest upon the snow, nor can I look for mine


And if I had a hundred homes, to live each a while,
I'd build them all along the coast, from Sandwood down to Kyle
I'd build them all along the coast, from Sandwood down to Kyle

Ben Powell Bhagsu Road

I discovered this young British guitarist just by accident whilst surfing youtube for open tuned guitar pieces. Ben seems to have been heavily influenced by the music of Pierre Bensusan, and this piece is in Bensusan's trademark DADGAD tuning.

Open G minor Tuning: Clarsach

I was looking for John Renbourn stuff on Youtube the other day and I noticed that there weren't many versions of his masterpiece The Nine Maidens. I discovered this as a teenager in the 1980s and it changed my life completely. I had previously been learning fingerstyle guitar after giving up hard rock forever, but this was different to anything I had ever heard before.

This is my attempt at the first part of the Nine Maidens. It's not wonderful, but I hope it gives you a taste of Renbourn's work and maybe you'd like to find out more.
I got to the point where I couldn't stand listening to the original because it just showed how bad my playing was in comparison. Now I'm older, I've given up taking myself too seriously, and just play to enjoy myself, mistakes and all.

The tuning is G minor: DGDGBbD. Renbourn also used this tuning on an album called The Black Balloon, and although it produces wonderful sounds on the guitar, it is rather limited.

Sorry about the poor sound quality, I just used a webcam to record it. As my computer is a bit old now, the picture quality isn't very good either, that's why I switched on an artistic filter to hide that 'out of sync' effect that I get!

Pierre Bensusan explains DADGAD

Watch the video and you'll learn all about DADGAD tuning. Pierre describes this open tuning as 'modal'. A mode is a variation on the standard scales, for instance, what we recognise as 'do, ray, me, far' is a major scale, while if you start with 'ray'(the second note) you have a mode based on the major scale. DADGAD makes modal playing a little easier because it has no 'third'.

To understand this, you must know a little about chord theory. Unfortunately, many, if not most, beginner guitarists just learn chord shapes, that is, where to put the fingers on the fretboard without learning what the notes are. The key of 'C' has the notes C D E F G A B C and we can number them one to eight (which is why we call the gap from one C to another C an 'octave'). To play a major chord, you need the first, the third and the fifth of the scale. It's really that simple. If you've ever wondered why we chords called B maj 7 or E7 flat 9 or Asuspended4, now you know why. These chords have extra notes in addition to the three needed to make a simple chord.

Now in DADGAD, we have three Ds and two As or the three firsts and two fifths in the key of D. Knowing that the scale of D major is D E F# G A B C# D we can see that on the guitar the third(F#) is missing. The third note also defines the chord as major or minor - drop the third down a semitone, or one fret, to change the chord to minor. So DADGAD is neither major nor minor, thus making it a little easier to pick out melodies in different modes, whilst letting the open strings ring freely. Pierre talks about Scottish bagpipes and this is a good example.

To play a D major or a D minor is easy - you only need to add one note! More in my next post.

Pierre Bensusan - The DADGAD master

I'll talk a lot about Pierre Bensusan on this site - he's my favourite guitarist! I can only dreqm about having this much talent, but there are still lots of great things to play that are easier. That's the great thing about open tuning - beautiful sounds can just roll of the fingers.

About Open Tuned Guitar

Welcome to the wonderful world of open tuned guitar. On this site, you will learn how to tune your guitar differently to the standard EADGBE tuning to make the most incredible music.



If you've only been playing the guitar for a short time, you may be surprised to learn that a lot of the guitar music you hear doesn't use standard tuning. Famous rock and folk guitarists like Joni Mitchell and Jimmy Page tweak their guitars to explore and exploit the full potential of their instruments. I advise you to stick with standard tuning until you've mastered the basics, then have a look at what possiblities are available to you.



Open tuned guitar is nothing new. Even in the early days of modern classical, guitarists would re-tune their guitars in order to reproduce music that had been originally written for lute or even older instruments. To play lute music without too many difficult fingerings, the third string, G, has to be tuned down to F#. Although strictly speaking this is an alternative tuning, not an open tuning, this shows you that there is no obligation to stick with the EADGBE tuning.



What's the difference between alternative tuning and open tuning?



I would say that alternative tuning covers anything that is not standard tuning. Open tuning is a way of tuning the guitar that allows the open strings to make harmonies or very often full chords. If you're a jazz musician, any combination of notes can make a chord (!), but more generally, if by playing the open strings you can hear a three-note chord - that's open tuning.



Even the simple drop-D tuning, DADGBE gives us a two note harmony - the first and the fifth in the key of D or the first and the fourth in the key of A. Of course, even standard tuning could be described as open tuning for the sixth, third, second and first strings sound an E minor chord, while the fourth, third and second give us a G major.



So if standard tuning is an open tuning, we could say that all open tunings are alternative tunings except standard tuning.



You'll need to develop your ear in order to move from one tuning to another. Electronic tuners are useful, but it's not good to be dependent on them. I've used three or four different tunings in the course of a two hour concert - if my tuner had stopped working for any reason, I'd have been in trouble!