I finally get the attraction of DADGAD tuning!

[Rosewood99]

I’ve had my Lowden guitar for a couple of months now. I finally got around to tuning it to DADGAD. Oh my gosh, what a difference. The guitar seems transformed into something way more better than it was. Call me a convert.

[ascotia]

For someone like me who is finally beginning to solve the puzzle of standard tuning, "re-learning" another tuning seems daunting. But maybe it's not as difficult as it seems. Is there anyone who would like to take a shot explaining how they visualize the fretboard in DADGAD?

[rmp]

Is there anyone who would like to take a shot explaining how they visualize the fretboard in DADGAD?

No doubt, there are other guys on the forum (eg: Doug Young, who is definitely a masterful and brilliant guitarist) can probably help more, I can only offer what worked for me..

Start off by studying and learning some pieces in that tuning. Using the tab for the fingering and hand positions of those arrangements and listen (a lot) to the recording of the arrangements you have chosen so you're familiar with them. Work your way through those arrangements. Get them down so you are comfortable with them w/out the aid of the sheet music. (Doug's arrangements in fact, had a big part to do with my own understanding and comfort in this tuning. Imagine my delight when I discovered he lurked in this forum regularly)

Eventually you get the basics down, then you will start to understand how it all works, so that when you pick up a guitar tuned to DADGAD, you'll have some idea of where the sweet spots are.

There are many tunings to explore, DADGAD is probably one of the more popular and easier ones (IMHO anyway)

[TBman]

Originally Posted by ascotia

For someone like me who is finally beginning to solve the puzzle of standard tuning, "re-learning" another tuning seems daunting. But maybe it's not as difficult as it seems. Is there anyone who would like to take a shot explaining how they visualize the fretboard in DADGAD?

I've been playing in a few tunings for years and I never really "learned" the fretboard in any of them. Sometimes ignorance is bliss. Seriously though I am trying to learn more about the nuts and bolts of DADGAD .

I do write some of my own instrumentals in various tunings and I try to build off of simple melodies using open strings, intervals and triads that I create on the fly.

[Rosewood99]

Originally Posted by ascotia

For someone like me who is finally beginning to solve the puzzle of standard tuning, "re-learning" another tuning seems daunting. But maybe it's not as difficult as it seems. Is there anyone who would like to take a shot explaining how they visualize the fretboard in DADGAD?

I guess I’m not understanding what there is to re-learn. Isn’t it just tuning it and then learning songs that use it? What is there to visualize?

[edcmat-l1]

Originally Posted by paulzoom

I guess I’m not understanding what there is to re-learn. Isn’t it just tuning it and then learning songs that use it? What is there to visualize?

Scales. Half notes and whole notes. The difference between knowing what notes are what (and more importantly WHERE) and just finger and fret position.

I by no means have the fretboard memorized in any particular tuning. But I visualize the fretboard in relation to a piano keyboard. I started playing piano and learned to read music at a very young age. I haven't played piano seriously in decades but I still can half-way read music and I use the keyboard layout in my head in relation to the fretboard constantly. Kind of hard to explain. Others that have played both probably get it.

[David Eastwood]

Originally Posted by paulzoom

I guess I’m not understanding what there is to re-learn. Isn’t it just tuning it and then learning songs that use it? What is there to visualize?

Here’s an example. Let’s say you wanted to try something that had a simple alternating D-C-D-C chord sequence. Most folks who’ve been playing for a little while would know exactly how to approach that in standard tuning.

Now, you want to try the same tune in DADGAD - to get a different feel, to take advantage of the different intervals between strings that the tuning can give you.

Where’s your C chord? Do you know where to put your fingers to get a recognizable C voicing? If you want to play your D chord with an F# in it, do you know where to find that?

That’s what I think the question is aiming at.

[TBman]

Originally Posted by eatswodo

Here’s an example. Let’s say you wanted to try something that had a simple alternating D-C-D-C chord sequence. Most folks who’ve been playing for a little while would know exactly how to approach that in standard tuning.

Now, you want to try the same tune in DADGAD - to get a different feel, to take advantage of the different intervals between strings that the tuning can give you.

Where’s your C chord? Do you know where to put your fingers to get a recognizable C voicing? If you want to play your D chord with an F# in it, do you know where to find that?

That’s what I think the question is aiming at.

Harvey Reid DADGAD chord book

I have the Orkney tuning book too.

But this is all extra. Any finger style player can put their guitar in DADGAD and play a finger style piece without knowing a single chord in the tuning.

[Rosewood99]

Originally Posted by eatswodo

Here’s an example. Let’s say you wanted to try something that had a simple alternating D-C-D-C chord sequence. Most folks who’ve been playing for a little while would know exactly how to approach that in standard tuning.

Now, you want to try the same tune in DADGAD - to get a different feel, to take advantage of the different intervals between strings that the tuning can give you.

Where’s your C chord? Do you know where to put your fingers to get a recognizable C voicing? If you want to play your D chord with an F# in it, do you know where to find that?

That’s what I think the question is aiming at.

I guess I’m more of a functional illiterate. I just read the tabs and learn the songs. If there’s a need to do a C or D chord, then I guess I’ll learn it as I learn the song.

[jklotz]

Originally Posted by TBman

Harvey Reid DADGAD chord book

I have the Orkney tuning book too.

But this is all extra. Any finger style player can put their guitar in DADGAD and play a finger style piece without knowing a single chord in the tuning.

Sure, if all you want to do is play somebody else's song solo. If you want to be able to improvise at all or play with other people, at least a basic knowledge of chords and intervals on the fb is mandatory.

[Skip Ellis]

My major problem is that I don't want to learn other people's arrangements - I never have and I (hope) never will. I also don't like TAB. I can play anything I want to in standard tuning and have been reading music for 65 years - I know where the notes are in standard and can read a chart just like reading a book.....but....DADGAD is different because the notes are all in the wrong places on the neck. As much as I like some of the DADGAD material and the overall sound of it with the drones, etc. of it, I'll probably stop pursuing it unless I can work out some of the pieces in standard tuning. I can produce a chord melody arrangement of a jazz standard off the top of my head with just a lead sheet (or even sometimes out of my head) but I can't do that with DADGAD and I don't have enough years left to completely learn a new tuning that I'd probably use for only a few tunes. Good luck to all who try it.

[TBman]

Originally Posted by jklotz

Sure, if all you want to do is play somebody else's song solo. If you want to be able to improvise at all or play with other people, at least a basic knowledge of chords and intervals on the fb is mandatory.

Solo is where a lot of us are.

[Doug Young]

Originally Posted by ascotia

For someone like me who is finally beginning to solve the puzzle of standard tuning, "re-learning" another tuning seems daunting. But maybe it's not as difficult as it seems. Is there anyone who would like to take a shot explaining how they visualize the fretboard in DADGAD?

You know, one really interesting thing about DADGAD vs standard tuning is that DADGAD is basically a subset of standard. If you know the notes in standard, you can easily know (or already know!) the notes of DADGAD. Why? Because strings, 3,4,5 are the same in both tunings. In fact, those strings are ADG. The remaining strings are dups (in a different octave). Assuming you actually want to know what you're playing - not just learning geometric shapes or tab fingerings, this is a big help. Find any note on strings 4,5,6, and you can find the same note (an octave up or down) on the remaining strings. So unlike standard where there are the notes on two E strings and a B string, in DADGAD, D A and G strings are it!

You can also think of it as the same as standard, but you have to shift fingerings up by 2 frets on strings 6,2,1. Mostly this will result in impossible fingerings, but it's a way to visualize it, and then you adjust fingerings as needed.

Of course, if you're more of a "show me chord shapes" kind of player, then there are chord charts out there, and you can also just learn lots of songs, and things will sink in by osmosis, probably.

With any tuning, there are benefits - things that lay well, cool sounds you can't get in other tunings, and also downsides - things that are harder to do than in some other tuning. Really learning your way around any particular tuning takes some, and one could write a book about it... :-)

[rick-slo]

Originally Posted by eatswodo

Here’s an example. Let’s say you wanted to try something that had a simple alternating D-C-D-C chord sequence. Most folks who’ve been playing for a little while would know exactly how to approach that in standard tuning.

Now, you want to try the same tune in DADGAD - to get a different feel, to take advantage of the different intervals between strings that the tuning can give you.

Where’s your C chord? Do you know where to put your fingers to get a recognizable C voicing? If you want to play your D chord with an F# in it, do you know where to find that?

That’s what I think the question is aiming at.

Probably the best things to take advantage of in DADGAD are the use of open strings, letting some notes drone on and on, and the easier use of incorporating harmonic notes that fit into the piece nicely.

[Andyrondack]

Originally Posted by paulzoom

I guess I’m not understanding what there is to re-learn. Isn’t it just tuning it and then learning songs that use it? What is there to visualize?

To answer your question on scotia's behalf, think about the process you would have to go through to convert an arrangement of a melody with harmony in dadgad to one in standard tuning without using someone elses tab.