Guitar chords in open g tuning

Of all the alternative tunings in use today, open G must be a contender for ‘most popular’.

But before we continue, please allow me to be pedantic for a moment and point out that ‘altered’ and ‘open’ tunings can mean different things. 

An open tuning is where the open strings of the guitar are tuned to a chord: in this case, G major (low to high: DGDGBD).

Open g tuning chord chart pdf

D chord in open g tuning

Open g chords blues

Open g tuning chords keith richards

Open g chords slide

An altered tuning can be almost any combination of notes; Jimmy Page, Nick Drake, and Joni Mitchell have all used both altered and open tunings. 

With the examples below, you could say I’m coming from the Keith Richards’ school of thought, but open G is also very popular with slide players.

Robert Johnson used this tuning on several of his most famous tunes, too. 

So, like Mr. Richards himself, I haven’t used the sixth string. In fact, he doesn’t even fit a sixth string to his open G-tuned guitars anymore&helli

how to play c chord in open g tuning

how to play d chord in open g tuning