Open D tuning

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Open D tuning is an open tuning for the acoustic or electric guitar. The open string notes in this tuning are (from lowest to highest): D A D F♯ A D. It uses the three notes that form the triad of a D major chord: D (the root note), F♯ (the major third) and A (the perfect fifth).^{[1][unreliable source?]}

To tune a guitar from standard tuning to open D tuning, lower the 1st (high-E) string down a full step to D, 2nd (B) string down a full step to A, 3rd (G) string down a half step to F♯, and 6th (low-E) string down a full step to D.

In this tuning, when the guitar is strummed without fretting any of the strings, a D major chord is sounded. This means that any major chord can be easily created using one finger, fretting all the strings at once (also known as barring); for example, fretting all the strings at the second fret will produce an E major chord, at the third fret an F major chord, and so on up the neck.

Open D tuning is very popular with slide guitar (or 'bottleneck') players, as it allows them to play complete chords using the slide. This tuning is also used in regular (non-slide) guitar playing. The full and vibrant sound it produces - particularly on an acoustic guitar - also makes it ideal for fingerstyle playing.^[2]

Many new chord shapes and sounds are available with open D tuning. It can offer a strong compositional element that produces tonal qualities markedly different from standard tuning. The full range of major and minor chords, with all their extensions, are available to the player. Many well-known guitarists have used this tuning at some point in their career. Neil Young, Richie Havens, Joni Mitchell, Bruce Cockburn, Barry Gibb, Jim O'Rourke and Jason Swain have all released recordings featuring this tuning. Elmore James used this tuning heavily. Stone Gossard from Pearl Jam uses this tuning when playing the rhythm guitar on "Even Flow" and "Oceans", from their Ten album. Broadbay use this tuning in all their songs. Mumford & Sons also use this tuning on their tracks "The Cave", "Awake My Soul" and "Roll Away Your Stone" from their album Sigh No More. Needtobreathe used it on some of their songs, most notably "Something Beautiful" from The Outsiders. Laura Marling uses the tuning on the title track of her 2010 album, I Speak Because I Can. Kevin Shields of My Bloody Valentine uses this tuning and its variations on many songs.^[3] Also, Alessio Frusta uses this tuning on the track "Freedom Island" from his 2015 album Pen Siero. Additionally, Switchfoot uses this tuning on the track "Daisy" from its 2005 album Nothing Is Sound, albeit lowered a half step (giving an open D♭ tuning with the same intervalic relationships as open D). Mitski uses this tuning for almost all the songs,^[4][5] while guitarists performing with her live often use standard tuning.^[6]