Open G tuning....instant Keef!

[duhvoodooman]

I'm ashamed to admit that, after playing guitar lo these many years (though I did take about 25 off in the middle there, to catch my breath ), I have never played around with open tunings to any real extent.

While poking around YouTube the other day, I happened to come across the video below, showing the use of open G tuning (DGDGBD). After listening through to about 6:30, my eyes were opened. As the instructor shows, you just bar across the neck with your index finger, strum the open chord, and then drop your middle finger onto the 2nd string one fret up and your ring finger on the 4th string two frets up. Hammer it on or finger it & then strum. Suddenly, you are privy to about half of the Rolling Stones catalog! Well, that's a bit of an exaggeration, but there are many of their best know tunes where Keef is playing in that open G mode, including:

Start Me Up
Brown Sugar
Sway
You Can't Always Get What You Want
****** Tonk Woman
Tumbling Dice (capo @ 4)
Happy (capo @ 4)
Beast Of Burden
Mixed Emotions​

....and prolly several more. And you can do a lot of the early Black Crowes catalog that way, too. Hmmmm, I always wondered why a bunch of their tunes reminded me so strongly of '70s Stones stuff! I'm sure all of this is "old news" to a lot of you guys, but I'm having a ball with it right now.

Anyway, I have my CV 50's Tele tuned to open G now, and will probably leave it that way for a while. Seemed only fitting that I should use a Tele for it. Now all I need is a humbucker at the neck....

Here's that lesson I stumbled upon:

 

[piebaldpython]

Cool little vid. Good stuff and not taught in a way that makes you feel dumb either. I like Open G but never got to THIS stuff as I use Open G for slide. So, now I have new stuff to learn. Thanks DVM.

 

[Eric]

I bumbled upon this sort of thing for a time when I wanted to learn "Brown Sugar." It's easy to make it sound pretty cool, actually.

Now I guess that's a reason to own more guitars, considering I don't currently own enough to keep one in a different tuning...

 

[riverrick]

Thanks for that voodoo. I love the Stones. Gonna grab my Tele and give it a try:thumbsup . I've seen that guy on you tube before. He has some really neat lessons....easy to follow.:rockya

 

[DeanEVO_Dude]

Hey, was it just me, but does the part around 8:58, where he is talking about on the open strings, sound like the Black Crown "She talks to Angels"?

 

[duhvoodooman]

It's not just you--I hear it in there, too. Which makes sense, since Rich Robinson of the Crowes plays in open G a lot.

 

[Eric]

It's not just you--I hear it in there, too. Which makes sense, since Rich Robinson of the Crowes plays in open G a lot.

IIRC, that particular song is in open E, but I see your point. I wonder how different they are...

EBEG#BE (151351)
DGDGBD (515135)

Well OK...so maybe they're not the exact same. I'll shut up now.

 

[DeanEVO_Dude]

IIRC, that particular song is in open E, but I see your point. I wonder how different they are...

EBEG#BE (151351)
DGDGBD (515135)

Well OK...so maybe they're not the exact same. I'll shut up now.

That's good stuff Eric, same tones... playing it in Open G would be like transposing it up 3 half-steps. I have never tried open tunings (still trying to get competent on standard tuning!). Another guy that dabbles in open tunings is Alex Lifeson, check out "Hope" from Snakes and Arrows, I think I read that he used "Nashville" tuning on that (I just love the way he plays!).

 

[piebaldpython]

IIRC, that particular song is in open E, but I see your point. I wonder how different they are...

EBEG#BE (151351)
DGDGBD (515135)

Well OK...so maybe they're not the exact same. I'll shut up now.

Don't be SO HARD on yourself. The fact is, you hit on something profound. Look at the Open G strings 4-1 (5135).....they are the same intervals as strings 5-2 (5135) in Open E........which means you can play the exact same licks in Open G that you play in Open E, only up one string to strings 4-1 (of course at the correct fret depending on what chord you want). So, you can take your favorite Open E licks on strings (2-5) at the 12 fret and play them in Open G on strings (1-4) on the 9th fret.

 

[Kazz]

The advent of YouTube is simply awesome....as we go from Keef to some pretty hot blond playing slide in open G



In all seriousness....she may not be that hot....but the tone out of that Les Paul is smoking at least to me

 

[jpfeifer]

This open G tuning was a recent discovery for me too, after trying to play Stones tunes in normal tuning for so long. One of my friends (who is into the Stones) showed me this tuning.

After trying it out, I was amazed at how easy it was to get the Keith Richards sounds with only a couple of fingers. It was almost like cheating (this explains why Keith could play drunk

--Jim

 

[Tig]

This open G tuning was a recent discovery for me too, after trying to play Stones tunes in normal tuning for so long.

After trying it out, I was amazed at how easy it was to get the Keith Richards sounds with only a couple of fingers. It was almost like cheating (this explains why Keith could play drunk

LOLz By removing 1 sentence above, I could have written the exact same thing... In fact I was about to, and you saved me the time!

I may need to tune the Tele in open G again, just for fun.

 

[duhvoodooman]

...After trying it out, I was amazed at how easy it was to get the Keith Richards sounds with only a couple of fingers. It was almost like cheating...

Yup, that was EXACTLY my reaction, too. It's just ridiculously easy to sound like Keef. Was just playing Twice as Hard by the Black Crowes using this tuning, too. About as much fun as ya can have with your clothes on! :rockya :thumbsup

 

[aeolian]

Many years ago I tried to learn the intro to "Can't You Hear Me Knocking" but it only sounded close. Later after I discovered that Keith used open G I finally got it to sound almost like the Stones.
Keef imitation

 

[Commodore 64]

I'm going to listen to the Stones all day at work, since I haven't ever really been into the Stones. Then I'll put one of my guitars into Open G tonight.

 

[Katastrophe]

Yup, that was EXACTLY my reaction, too. It's just ridiculously easy to sound like Keef. Was just playing Twice as Hard by the Black Crowes using this tuning, too. About as much fun as ya can have with your clothes on! :rockya :thumbsup

Yep, Keef ain't about technical ability. It's more about attitude, and beating the absolute snot out of the strings while playing.

Open tunings are awesome!

 

[markb]

It's said that Keef learnt the open G thing from Ry Cooder during the Beggars Banquet sessions.

On a side note, Otis Redding wrote Dock of the Bay on a guitar Steve Cropper lent him tuned to open G. Try it and you'll go :thwap after about 8 bars.

 

[duhvoodooman]

Just for the purpose of a little audio comparison, I dashed off the clip linked below. This is the intro to Brown Sugar, played (1) the way I played it in standard tuning for years, and (2) in open G tuning. Recorded through Line 6 Gearbox emulation software into Audacity. I forget exactly what preset I tweaked to get what sounded to me like a vintage Stones tone, but I remember that the amp emulation was a tweed Bassman. The first time through is with my Strat Plus (standard tuning) on the neck pickup, and the second time is my Squier CV '50s Tele, also on the neck pickup, in open G tuning. The tone control on the Strat was set quite a bit brighter than the Tele, so try to ignore that factor.

I think you'll hear that the 2nd time through sounds a lot more "authentic". Some of that is due to playing 5-string bar figures on the open G guitar, where a lot of the 1st run-through on the Strat is double-stops on the 2nd & 3rd strings, so not as full sounding. But I assume the rest of the difference comes from the different position on the neck for some of the chords and the altered note relationships from detuning the 1 and 5 (and 6) strings by a full tone. In open G tuning, this entire section of the tune can be played by moving the two "Keef" chord figures up and down the neck--the straight bar across the 5 strings, and then dropping the middle finger down a fret on the 2nd string and the ring finger down 2 frets on the 4th:

5 4 3 2 1
X X X X X


5 4 3 2 1
XX X X X
XXXXX
ttX

Here's the clip link--see what you think:

http://www.box.net/shared/omuj57vd5e

 

[Eric]

Yup, that sounds better. I bet it was a good bit easy to play sloppily and still have it sound good, yes?

On a related note, I find that please-ignore-the-extra-brightness (or whatever the difference may be that I'm supposed to ignore) type of statement in comparisons a lot, and while my goal isn't to single you out, I will say that I have a hard time doing it. Really, the main difference in the two recordings for me was the tone of the guitar, you know? That's interesting to me that I can't necessarily choose what I want to hear.

Thanks for the clip!

 

[duhvoodooman]

On a related note, I find that please-ignore-the-extra-brightness (or whatever the difference may be that I'm supposed to ignore) type of statement in comparisons a lot, and while my goal isn't to single you out, I will say that I have a hard time doing it.

Yeah, I hear you and I agree with your point. Chalk it up to my laziness. I should have recorded both sections on the Tele, but I didn't want to be going back & forth between the two tunings. My bad....

 

[Eric]

Well, I didn't mean to accuse you, so I'm sorry about that. It was just another one of those thoughts that flew through my head.

I once saw a comparison of a Strat and Godin (I think), and with the Godin he forgot to turn off the reverb, delay, and turn the bass down for the recording. It sounded more like a tornado than a guitar, and his whole point was that the Godin played better. I just walked away from that thinking that the Strat had a nice tone...

 

[duhvoodooman]

No offense taken, really. I thought you raised a valid point. When I recorded the two sections of the clip, I was keeping the volume down for the rest of the family. I didn't hear how big the difference in brightness was between the Strat and Tele until I dialed up the final clip through headphones!

 

[Rotor]

I'm ashamed to admit that, after playing guitar lo these many years (though I did take about 25 off in the middle there, to catch my breath ), I have never played around with open tunings to any real extent.

You and me brother. This was EXACTLY the type of of really great info I was hoping for when I signed on. Thanks a million for that link. Excuse me while I rock out to the Stones!

 

[kidsmoke]

Another band who's entire catalog is in Open G is Little Feat, and of course Lowell George was a slide guy as well.

Stock Strat with an 11/16 deep well socket...

Cool stuff.

 

[cedwards]

Fantastic! I've been on this forum for two days and already you folks have opened a huge window for me. Tuned the Univox LP to open G yesterday and, already, I'm turning into Keef. Smoke dangling from the corner of my mouth as I write this.:thankyou

 

[Commodore 64]

Finally got around to doin' this. Tuned my Samick Jazzmaster (P90s) to Open G this morning and took a gander at some Honky Tonk Women Tab.

Pretty nifty.