 Hello everyone and welcome to Blackstar Potential. My name is Lee Fuge and I'm here today with MGRMusic.com and in this video we're going to start talking about alternate tunings and we're going to start with a tuning called Open G. An alternate tuning is when we retune the open strings of a guitar to match those of a specific chord. So this is used a lot in blues rock music and also in slide guitar. So if you're a fan of bands like the Rolling Stones or the Black Crows you've probably heard this particular tuning we're going to talk about in this video in action. Like I said this is called Open G tuning. So what that means is the open strings of the guitar are now tuned to a G major chord. So if you've learned any chord theory you will know about major triads and you'll know that there's only three notes that make up a G major chord which is a G note, a B note and a D note. So I have retuned all of these strings to match that. So in this video we're going to explore how to get your guitar into Open G tuning and some basic principles and tips that you can use as you start out on your alternate tuning journey. All the tones you're hearing in this video is this Les Paul Junior right here plugged straight into the Black Star Studio 10 6L6 which is mic'd with a Luit Audio LCT 440 condenser mic. I've got the amp on the drive channel with a crunch dial in. So the first thing we need to talk about is how to get your guitar into Open G tuning. So from standard tuning which low to high is E A D G B E we need to retune a couple of strings that we have. So the string that we previously knew as the low E is getting tuned down a full tone to a D. The string that was A is now getting tuned down a full tone to a G. The next three strings on the guitar remain the same so they stay as D G and B and the high E string also gets tuned down a full tone to a D. So low to high we have D G D G B D. So the only notes we're going to get now from any open string are one of the three notes that make up a G major chord. So the second thing we need to talk about is root notes and how this new tuning affects the mapping of the fret board. So the chances are if you've started learning scales and chords you've probably started learning a little bit of the notes and layout of the fret board. This is so that you can find your way around easy and know exactly where to place things. In this alternate tuning we are going to have to move some of the previous reference points in order to facilitate certain chords and certain scales. So this tuning does have one minor quirk that doesn't appear in all open tunings which is that our lowest string is actually tuned to a D not a G. Typically we would tune the open chord so that the lowest string is the root of the chord but in this case we're actually taking the A string which is now the G string as our root note string. So we're actually using the low D string here as like an extension so we can extend the chords into a lower register by adding what's known as a fifth below the root note. This just adds some extra depth. Many players that use open G never use this string so if you look at players like Keith Richards from The Rolling Stones he actually takes the string off his guitar all together so he's just got the G as his root. So this means we're going to be rooting all of our chords off this string as well. So previously obviously the open string would have been an A note but now it's a G. So what this means is all of the notes have moved up by two frets so our A note isn't now an open string it's actually the second fret and our C which was previously the third fret is now the fifth and the D which was previously the fifth is now the seventh. This principle is echoed across the entire string. The same is true on the low D if you are going to look to root anything from that string the notes are going to be two frets higher than where they were in standard tuning. The root notes are very important for this third tip which is how to play a major chord in an open G tuning. Now this is where the fun starts because the open strings are tuned to the notes of a G major chord we can play any major chord we want with one finger so if I just completely ignore the lowest string for now which is the D I'm just going to root everything here from this G so if I just play the open strings I get a G major chord. So anywhere I place my first finger and bar across the five strings from the G down I get the major chord from that root position so for instance the fifth fret is a C so if I bar across the fifth fret and play those five strings that is a C major chord likewise if I go to the seventh fret it's a D major so this is really great because we can move major chords around very easily and create chord progressions so the fourth little tip for getting started with open G tuning is a really cool fun type of chord that you can play which is known as a six sus four now this sounds a lot more complicated than it really is this is the chord that is heavily associated with the sound of people like Keith Richards from the Rolling Stones he will take those major chords that you've just learned and add a six sus four extension which gives him that unique sort of rhythm sound that he has so six sus four is very easy to play if you've started learning chord extensions in standard tuning you may recognize this shape as a minor seven but because of the new interval structure based on the new tuning obviously those intervals change now this is a six sus four not minor seven so let's start with a G just because that's the open strings so G major if I want to turn this into a six sus four I first of all need to add the six from the major scale which is the second fret here on the D and the sus four which is the first fret on the B so it's a very easy chord shape to start with it's basically like playing a minor seven chord so if we're going to route this chord from let's say a C so I've got my C major here and I'm going to turn that into a C six sus four I need to add the six which is the seventh fret in this case on the D string which I'm going to use my third finger four and then the sus four which is the sixth fret on the B which I'm going to use my middle finger four so anyway you shift that chord shape it becomes the root note that you play with a six sus four extension on it so I could play G six sus four C six sus four D six sus four it's a transposable shape so you can move this all around one thing that people like Keith Richards do and actually a lot of plays that play an open G will do is they will alternate between the major chord and the six sus four extension as part of a riff and the final thing to be aware of when you play in an open tuning is the position of where your scales have gone so let's say I'm playing off the back of a C based riff so I'm playing C major with that six sus four extension and over the top of that I want to add some lead guitar licks I'd instinctively go to my C minor pentatonic but obviously that's not going to sound right now because of the shift in root notes so what this means is notes on the EA and E strings which were previously there have all been shifted up by two frets so my first pentatonic shape is actually now going to be this it's going to be rooted from the tenth fret then I'm going to shift back to the eighth fret on the D string and then back to the tenth fret on the high D now this shape isn't overly intuitive for soloing in because of those weird position shifts but it is possible but here is a quick little tip you can use to help with that so if you know you're playing in C so let's say your riff is going C with the six sus four on the top and you want to play minor pentatonic licks over the top without remapping too much of the fretboard what you can do is you can play the minor pentatonic scale just on the D G and B strings in the position that it would be in standard tuning so for a C it would be in that position so my riff is going C and then my licks can come in here I can play all my usual bluesy licks just on the D G and B strings there in the position that my C minor pentatonic scale would be if I was playing in standard tuning so there you go there is a little overview of open G tuning how you guys can get started with that and a few little tips to get you playing some stuff let us know down below in the comments what your favorite open G tuned guitar songs and riffs are thank you all so much for watching I hope you've enjoyed this video don't forget to check out black star amplification on youtube for more lessons just like this and if there are any topics you'd like to see us talk about in these videos please let us know down below in the comments if you're looking for a guitar teacher please head to mgrmusic.com check out the database of music teachers there's a great network of teachers all around the UK waiting to help you guys out thanks so much for watching and I'll see you soon