00:09Hi everybody I'm Stuart Ryan and in this lesson I'm going to show you how to use one of my
00:14favorite alto tunings open G major this one's most famously used by Keith Richards so if you've
00:20heard Brown Sugar from the Rolling Stones you've heard open G but it's also used by everybody from
00:25blues pioneer Charlie Patton to Rich Robinson of the Black Crows and many more let's start off by
00:30seeing how you actually get into the tuning so we take the low E string down a tone to become
00:36a D
00:38the fifth string is down from A to a G strings four three and two stay the same D G
00:45B and then
00:48finally the high E string is tuned down a tone to a D and then we get this big open
00:56G major chord
00:56from all the strings one of my favorite aspects of open G major tuning is that the fourth third
01:05and second strings the D G and B stay the same so if you know what your triads are on
01:12those strings
01:12you can use those to create chords and then you can use the open strings around them to create color
01:17so in this next example I'm going to play a simple G major to C major progression so I'm playing
01:24a G major
01:24here using this G triad and a G on the top and I'm going to go to a C major
01:33chord but it sounds great
01:36because I've got the addition of the open D string on the top which is the nine so I get
01:41a C add nine chord
01:43with the fifth G in the bass so this is going to give us a real kind of country Americana
01:51sound
02:13then
02:14and
02:44Next I'm going to play
02:45a folk fingerpicking inspired example, a kind of Bob Dylan sound. It's a simple chord progression, G, C, D, so
02:521, 4, 5 in G major, but the open strings are again doing so much of the work. We have
02:57an open G major chord, the open C again, and we go to this really gorgeous D add 4, and
03:09everything's played with this steady open G bass line all the way through.
03:21So that gives us this really nice consistent sound. Here's the example.
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04:46Open G is also amazing for Americana and especially bluegrass.
04:50A lot of bluegrass music is played in the key of G, so this tuning is almost tailor-made
04:55for it.
04:55And again, we can let the open strings do lots of the work.
04:58In this next example, I'm going to play a rhythm idea based around this big open G5 chord.
05:06Which has a really kind of neutral quality until we add the F sharp in it.
05:14And then I'm going to play licks down in the open position and again it's the open strings
05:18that are doing so much of the work here.
05:20Meaning I only have to use one or two fingers on the fretboard.
05:23I'm going to play the rhythm.
06:19When you leave the open position you'll start to find some really unique and
06:23colorful chords where you combine a couple of fretted notes against the open strings in
06:27the tuning. It's a really easy way to add things like ninths, elevenths, sharp elevenths to your
06:33playing and you can almost do this on a trial and error basis just play around see what works
06:38and then analyze the chord voicing afterwards. So next I'm going to play three interesting sound
06:43chord voicings with plenty of color attached and then I'll turn them into a simple arpeggiated piece.
06:53Oh
06:57Oh
07:00Oh
07:03Oh
07:04Oh
07:05Oh
07:17Oh
07:21Oh
07:22Oh
08:19I've written a short instrumental piece to conclude, and this one's really inspired
08:23by Rich Robinson of the Black Crows and Jimmy Page, and we're going to sort of hear how
08:29we get that Americana root sound from licks like this.
08:36And again, the open strings are doing so much work there, but we can also get these
08:39kind of really dramatic 70s chords like this C minor.
08:46Again, just two fingers and open strings doing the work.
08:50One thing about open tunings is they can drag you into the key of the tuning, so you'll get
08:54stuck playing combinations of G, C and D.
08:57So when you've played through these examples, try finding some different chords in different
09:02keys using threaded notes and open strings to really take advantage of the tuning.
09:06Here we go.
09:42Here we go.
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