Open G tuning for slide guitar

[G chord]

I have been playing slide for about a year now, and primarily stayed in Open D tuning. It just seemed like the "traditional" tuning for this sort of thing. I learned a few songs, but it just never really felt "right" to me.

For starters, I had trouble finding the perfect slide. Tried loads of them...brass, glass, ceramic, thick-walled, thin, etc. I have small fingers so I finally settled on a relatively short, thick-walled glass slide (dunlop 212). Still, I found it difficult to cover all the strings at once. Could usually only manage 5 at a time. Also, playing "dead thumb" style bass notes on the lower D string, while trying to simultaneously finger pick notes on the high strings felt like a big uncomfortable stretch for my hand.

Decided to try Open G tuning on a whim. Man I wish I did this sooner. By essentially taking the lowest string out of the equation, the fact that I can only cover 5 strings at once is no longer an issue. Something about the overall tension of open G tuning just feels way better to me. The slide just zips around the fretboard, whereas it used to feel sort of "bogged down" when I tried to include the low D string in open D.

I played the main riff from Led Zeppelin's version of "Traveling Riverside Blues" about a hundred times last night and had a blast doing it.

Can anyone else recommend some good songs to learn in open G?

[NormanKliman]

Originally Posted by G chord

...Can anyone else recommend some good songs to learn in open G?

I have zero experience with this, but I thought I'd mention Robert Johnson because I know some of his stuff is in open G and maybe someone who actually knows will recommend some of his recordings.

In relation to the other thread about popular guitar keys, I've always thought open G is the guitar's mother tongue.

[raysachs]

I’ve had my SG in Open G for a while and this morning I committed to it by yanking the low E string off - round core, so pretty much no going back until I change all the strings. I’ve been getting reacquainted with a lot of Keef riffs I knew well in my youth. And trying to get a handle on Honky Tonk Woman, which I never got around to. Been messing around a little bit with slide too, but I have absolutely no idea what I’m doing with a slide. Still fun.

-Ray

[FrankHudson]

I'm under the impression that open G is perhaps the most common blues slide tuning, but even if that detail is off, there's a lot of material out there that uses or can be adapted to open G.

I've played some other slide tunings, but mostly I'm in open G.

There's a lot of slide technique that isn't based on covering all the strings. In fact about a year or so ago after watching some Fred MacDowell videos linked here on the AGF, I bought a stubby slide so I could mess-around a bit with concentrating on only the two highest pitched strings.

As Ray points up upthread, some Keith Richards uses open G for a great deal of his playing (not just slide) and just leaves off the lowest (6th) string.

[JonPR]

Originally Posted by NormanKliman

I have zero experience with this, but I thought I'd mention Robert Johnson because I know some of his stuff is in open G and maybe someone who actually knows will recommend some of his recordings.

This guy too (who supposedly taught Robert Johnson):

[slide496]

"Can't Be Satisfied", "Roll and Tumble", "Come on in My Kitchen"

[PHJim]

These are my two favourite open tunings, Vastopol (open D) and Spanish (open G)
I have a bunch of octave licks in open G using the 3rd and 5th and the 4th and 6th, so I would really miss the 6th string.
Dobro open G tuning (GBDGBD) is also handy at times.

[raysachs]

Originally Posted by FrankHudson

As Ray points up upthread, some Keith Richards uses open G for a great deal of his playing (not just slide) and just leaves off the lowest (6th) string.

Mostly not for slide. Most of the classic riffs he came up with, at least by the late 60’s, were in open G. The low E is basically irrelevant, generally tuned town to D just in case you accidentally hit it.

-Ray

[JonPR]

Originally Posted by PHJim

These are my two favourite open tunings, Vastopol (open D) and Spanish (open G)

I discovered just last year where those terms come from. (History lesson follows, for those that don't know...)

In the late 1850s a guitar teacher named Henry Worrall published two pieces, titled respectively "Sebastopol" and "Spanish Fandango". The former was inspired by the samous siege of the town during the Crimean War.

Naturally, in being passed down aurally, the names got contracted into "Vestapol" or "Vastopol", and "Spanish Flangdang" or just "Spanish".

It won't surprise you to learn that Sebastopol was in open D tuning, and Spanish Fandango was in open G. Because both pieces were relatively accessible to beginners (or near-beginners), they became extremely popular in the following decades, giving their name to those tunings, at least among folk and blues players.

The pieces are not blues tunes at all, of course - this was well before blues existed as a genre - but in the popular "parlour" style of the time, a kind of "classical lite".

Here's a nice young lady in appropriate costume (and a parlour guitar) playing Sebastopol:


The siege wasn't mentioned in the original title, btw - it was called "Sebastopol - a Descriptive Fantasy" - but many elements of the tune were supposed to evoke sounds of battle, such as "drum" or "distant bugle" (indications on the notation itself).

[Bikewer]

I keep my cigar-box guitar in open G, and don’t worry about the low strings as I only have four to worry about....

[Howard Emerson]

Originally Posted by G chord

I have been playing slide for about a year now, and primarily stayed in Open D tuning. It just seemed like the "traditional" tuning for this sort of thing. I learned a few songs, but it just never really felt "right" to me.

For starters, I had trouble finding the perfect slide. Tried loads of them...brass, glass, ceramic, thick-walled, thin, etc. I have small fingers so I finally settled on a relatively short, thick-walled glass slide (dunlop 212). Still, I found it difficult to cover all the strings at once. Could usually only manage 5 at a time. Also, playing "dead thumb" style bass notes on the lower D string, while trying to simultaneously finger pick notes on the high strings felt like a big uncomfortable stretch for my hand.

Decided to try Open G tuning on a whim. Man I wish I did this sooner. By essentially taking the lowest string out of the equation, the fact that I can only cover 5 strings at once is no longer an issue. Something about the overall tension of open G tuning just feels way better to me. The slide just zips around the fretboard, whereas it used to feel sort of "bogged down" when I tried to include the low D string in open D.

I played the main riff from Led Zeppelin's version of "Traveling Riverside Blues" about a hundred times last night and had a blast doing it.

Can anyone else recommend some good songs to learn in open G?

I can't really suggest anything in open G, although I play a LOT of compositions in that tuning, but as far as playing slide goes, I've been doing it since 1969, over 50 years, so I do have a some experience with it.

I went through chrome plated steel slides, brass, test-tube glass slides, PVC over brass slides, you name it.

As some point simple observation suggested that I find a slide that was concave to better conform to the radius of a typical guitar fingerboard. My main bottleneck acoustic is a 1930 Gibson L-5 which does have a 12" radius board.

I cut my most recent bottleneck from a magnum champagne bottle, so it's got all the mass required to firmly hold a set of .012-.053 bronze strings so as to get a lot of fundamental tone.

Here's an older video clip that shows it in action, in open D tuning, my usual. Please fast forward to 22:03. I tried to mark that time on the share, but it keeps negating that preference........unless a moderator can help me out?



Don't be afraid to experiment and challenge yourself when it comes to slide!

Happier New Year,
Howard Emerson

[GBS]

Of course, there is always:

[Woolbury]

I don't play a lot of slide, but the most accessible tine I know is in open G, Walkin Blues via Clapton Unplugged. I think ts a great open G vehicle, easy to learn, and for me relatively easy to sing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DNaexHNq0Lc

The other tune I've enjoyed is a Mike Dowling exercise, Blues in G. Its not a slide tune, but pens up some shapes for a basic blues in G. Really worth checking out.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F1X7egd8Us0