DADGAD Tuning Part 3

Rob Schumann: So we already looked at some of the chord fingerings that we would need to play in the key of D major with DADGAD tuning. Let's change it up a little bit and say that we are in the key of D Minor that will change obviously the chords that I am going to use but I can use fingerings, we already looked at, and just move them to the appropriate position to make the chords that we need.

For instance, we would need an F Major chord instead of F# minor. To make an F Major just take the G Major we already learned and move that fingering to the 3rd and 2nd fret. Then we have an F Major. To do the B Flat Major out of that key, take the A Major we have already looked at on the 7th and 6th frets, move it up one fret to the 8th and 7th frets. There is my B Flat Major. To do C major take that same fingering move it up two frets to the 10th and 9th frets. So that will give me all the major chords I need in that key.

The same principle can be applied to my minor chord fingerings. Just use that fingering and move it to the appropriate position for the chord. These droning notes will still sound good over the key of D Minor but they may not work with some other keys if the notes clash with notes in the major or minor scale of that key. So you would have to either abbreviate your chords or try some other voicing which should be easier and easier as you experiment with this tuning.

Let's take some of the fingerings we already looked at, and apply them to a musical idea. And if you are interested in learning the exact notes and rhythms that I am playing you can refer to the tab appearing in the video but this will just give you an idea of some of the sounds and possibilities of DADGAD tuning.

So you can see we used some of the fingerings we already used and then augmented some other ones to add different tensions. The first thing is we have is this D which really brings like a D add 11 sound. Then we use this E Minor shape which really makes like an E Minor add 11 with some of the drones on there. We then went up and used an application of this G Major, except we used note on the top which produce like a G major 9, but you can see how it's very easy to add tensions to these chords just by adding or subtracting a finger.

This chord down here is a Bb 6-9 chord, and then the last chord that we played ends up being a C6 kind of chord. So a lot of possibilities and a lot of the fingerings are fairly simple. Well have fun experimenting and that's DADGAD tuning.

Pierre Bensusan: My name is Pierre Bensusan. I would like to play for you a tune dedicated to Michael Hedges which I wrote some years ago. I am going to put my index on that 15th fret and I am going to pick that string either with my ring finger or with my little finger.


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