This is a subject certainly worthy of its own lesson, as we now have a whole new perspective on chord work after the last few lessons on open G tuning. And open G tuning offers a lot of interesting variations in chords, especially since we now have three D notes in three different octaves, and we’re in G!

What this means is that there are plenty of new opportunities for D position chords that we’ve never worked with before, and they – of course – have new voicings as well, due to the configuration of G tuning itself.

In this lesson, some fingerpicking will also be stressed as a way to create some more interesting variations within the tuning, and some alternating basslines will also be shown. All in all, this is a very informative and important lesson if you want to know a few of the real roots of music forms such as the Delta Blues, which have always drawn so deeply from open G tuning. Enjoy!—Arlen Roth