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Step 1
Examine the standard E chord used in concert tuning. The six strings of a guitar are most often tuned as EADGBE, going from the lowest string to the highest. The E chord familiar to most guitarists using this tuning frets the G string at the first fret and the A and D strings at the second fret.
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Step 2
Study the notes produced by the E chord given in Step 1. Proceeding from low to high string, we see that the E chord produces the notes EBEAbBE. This voicing gives the root note, third note, root note, fifth note, third note and root note of the chord.
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Step 3
Tune the guitar to produce the E chord in Step 1 with all open strings. Tune the third string up one half-step, the D string up a full step and the A string up a full step. The guitar is now in open E tuning.
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Step 4
Modify the open E tuning in Step 3 to open D tuning. All six strings are lowered a full step, giving the open tuning of DADGbAD for a D major chord.
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Step 5
Observe the net change in open D tuning from standard concert tuning. The sixth string is tuned down a full step, the fourth and fifth strings are left unchanged, the third string is tuned down a half-step and the first and second strings are tuned down a full step.
