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Hi,
I am thinking about trying some open tunings, DADGAD to start with.
But I am struggling with the concept of chord progressions. I have read that in open tunings you don't play chord progressions as such, but stay focused around the open chord tonality. Is that right?
I can understand it if so because I would imagine a lot of chords become more difficult to play and don't fall under the fingers so easily.
So would a DADGAD player play a I-vi-ii-V progression for example? Or a player in say open E?
If not how do they reflect harmonic movement? Surely just playing the open tuning as the only chord in a tune gets boring? Okay, replacing the 3rd note to give a sus4 chord would break it up a little, but even so you are still fundamentally playing one chord through the tune aren't you?
I can see that if you tune to say open D, you wouldn't want to play a I-vi-ii-V progression in C (C-Am-Dm-G), but you would want to play a I-vi-ii-V progression in D (D-Bm-Em-A), so presumably you would have to learn the chord shapes of Bm, Em and A in the open D tuning.
Or have I misunderstood the whole principle (a distinct possibility!)?
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Comments
That being said, most people consider that open tunings come into their own when applied to the "home" key...and I emphasise key....the whole key not just the I chord. So for example let's say you're playing a I IV V progression in Open E. When you're on the I chord, you can do a lot melodically, using ringing open strings to support what you're doing. Then, when you move to the other chords, you can leave some open strings still ringing and that will give you some suspensions from the key, which means you can get some very interesting sounding chords with some very simple (often just 2 finger) chord shapes. Martin Simpson is a great example of this. He very rarely holds down more than three strings for chords and often only two, and the tuning does all the work, harmonically.
You can also find some interesting colours by using a tuning for keys other than the "home" one. For example, you could play something in A using Open E and whilst you'd be needing to potentially barre a bit more for your I chord, the open strings would give you your V chord.
So no, they definitely don't limit you to the open string chord.
All that being said, there are people who stylistically choose to use open tunings in the way you describe. It's common in genres that derive from banjo and fiddle music, so old time, blues, folk etc
So the norm is to use the open tuning as the home key and go to town when on the I chord. Then when moving to the IV or V (or what have you), do the best you can with the notes you have available!
I don't want that to sound facetious. It is what struck me when I read your reply. It has clarified it for me, so thanks. I will give it a go.
In open D I would expect to use chords D, Em, F#m, G, A, Bm, and some sort of C# (but I wouldn't use it!).
DADGAD isn't a chord I recognize (it may well be though) so I don't really know what chords to use. If I had to guess I would say the same as open D. So I would treat the open strings as the D chord and work out some fingerings for G and D chords.
I won't try to play a G minor piece in Open E; I'll stick to the key of E major!
I think I get it now.
I must admit last night I put my acoustic into DADGAD and spent a pleasant evening just messing around playing the open strings and a couple of chords (D and G), along with the D major and minor pentatonics. What was interesting to me was how easily I stumbled across fragments of Copperhead Road, Amazing Grace and other tunes, with both a harmonic and melodic content.
I thought I was missing something you see, that open tuning players still played as many chords in a tune as a standard tuning player would.
I can see why the top players use so many different tunings though, because I guess listening to an entire evening of DADGAD music would be a little wearing, but mixing the setlist up with songs that use other tunings would retain the listeners interest. So a DADGAD song, followed by an Open G song, followed by a CGDCGD song, followed by a DADGAD song in a different style to the first one, followed by... and so on would be more interesting for the listener and the player I would have thought.
So for example in Open G you can play a rural type blues, an alternating thumb bass ragtime arrangement, and then a pretty finger picked country tune without the need to retune.
I actually live in Chesterfield, but work near Loughbrough so need to figure out if I can get there. I might just take the day off work because I might not get chance to ever see those two together.