How to Tune an Acoustic Guitar to Open D

Open D tuning is a modification of open E tuning that is often used in slide guitar for its full vibrant sound and is also popular in fingerstyle playing. The following steps will show how to tune an acoustic guitar to open D.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderate

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.
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.
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.
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.
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.