Hi welcome to lessonswithtroy.com and today’s lesson is going to be volume 3 of all about open D tuning. So we’re diving back into open D tuning again, this is going to be a dozen licks in open D. And some of these licks are just scales—a really useful scales. And another thing about this video is most of these licks are real common open G licks and I’m going to show you how to take open G tuning licks and how you think about open G and think about an open D.
For right now, let’s review over the3 tuning, make sure we’re in tune. Lowest six strings to D. Okay, fifth string. That’s an A. Fourth string is a D. Third string is an F sharp. Second string is an A. And the first string is a D.
Okay let’s go and get started. Okay, so I’m zoomed on my left hand here because I want to show you an easy way to start converting things that you already know in open G tuning to this open D tuning. And the first thing we have to do is to compare the two different tunings and see what they have similar to them, okay.
So in open G tuning which is G, B, D, G, B, D, E, okay so on the sixth string, that’s G, B, D, G, B, D. If we think about that from an interval standpoint, we have root, third, fifth, root, third, fifth. Going from my sixth string that a root, just a G, third which is a B, fifth which is a D. Root, third, fifth and then just repeat them root, third, fifth.
Okay it doesn’t work like that in open D tuning. In open D tuning we have a D, A, D, F#, A, D, okay, that’s root, fifth, root, third, fifth, root which is totally different but they do have something in common and what that is going back to that open G tuning, we’re starting on our fourth string and look at that, that’s once again, that’s D, G, B, D, that’s fifth, root, third, fifth, okay. That’s really important here because what we’re going to do is we’re going to take our ideas on these four strings, first to fourth, in open G and we’re going to switch them just moving down the string, move all of our ideas down the string because in open D tuning, it’s the same as up here, it’s going to be fifth on your fifth string, root, third, fifth, okay. It’s A, D, F#, A, once again that’s fifth, root, third fifth. Right here on this four middle strings, whereas in open G tuning it was fifth, root, third fifth, on this higher four strings. What that means is, is that licks—normal G licks that you play maybe like this [Demonstration].
You can’t play an open D, that sounds really weird. I’m playing basically a lick that would consist of these four strings, my first, second, third, and fourth. However, if I take that same lick and move it here to my middle four strings in open D tuning, it sounds awesome [Demonstration] right?
So basically, all I’m doing is switching ideas. In normal open G tuning which consists of these higher four strings to open D tuning and I’m just going to move them all down to these four strings and what’s really cool about that is that leaves me another root note here on my first string so I can play a cool lick and then end on this higher root note, open, which in open G tuning, normally you’d have to play a higher root note, you have to go up here to your fifth fret on the first string. With that being said, let’s go ahead and start learning some licks that are normal; common licks in G but we’re going to switch them to these four strings and play it in open D.
Okay, if you’re following along in your tablet, this is going to be lick number one and this is going to be basically measures one and two, okay. Slowly it sounds like this [Demonstration]. It’s a real diatonic sounding lick and what I did is just took a normal open G lick that would normally look like this [Demonstration]. But you can’t play it in open D, it sounds really weird so I move that exact same shape down the string, everything down the string and it looks like this [Demonstration].
Okay, what I’m doing there is I’m going, first well zero to zero on second string [Demonstration] And then I’m going one on my third string and then an open second string [Demonstration] and then I’m going, doing a pull off, went to zero on my third string [Demonstration] and then two on my fourth, open third, two to zero, and then four on my fifth string, then open fourth.
Once again, zero to zero, one of my third, open second string, one to zero, two on my fourth, back to open third, two to zero in my fourth, four my fifth, then open fourth. Play it slow so you’ll get it [Demonstration].
Okay, that’s good, we’re working the right hand. Okay the right hand slowly looks like this; I’m starting off with my middle finger, index, the middle, index, thumb, index, thumb, thumb, and index. Great, let’s go and move on to lick number two.
Transcription by:
Scribe4you Transcription Services