D-G-D-G-B-E

• OVERVIEW •

A quick-to-reach blend of Standard and Open G, which applies a whole-tone drop to 5str and 6str. This opens up a pair of parallel octaves on 5+3str and 6+4str, ideal for full-bodied vertical movements – while the 4-3-2-1str, unchanged from EADGBE, offer familiar melodic freedoms (n.b. Albert King’s F6 tuning takes the same pattern 2 semitones lower).

Pattern: 5>7>5>4>5

Harmony: G6 | 5-1-5-1-3-6

• TUNING TONES •

• SOUNDS •

Discovered independently by many different guitarists through time, due to its close proximity to Standard, Drop D, and Open G – three of the world’s most popular altered tunings. This stylistic diversity spans Californian indie innovators (Pavement’s Cream of Gold), Seattle grungers (Soundgarden’s Superunknown & Fresh Tendrils), Australian fingerpickers (Tommy Emmanuel’s Antonella’s Birthday, cp.2), and Tennessee legend Chet Atkins’ arrangement of Don McLean’s Vincent.

 

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• Antonella’s Birthday – Tommy Emmanuel (2018):

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“People always ask me, ‘What’s the best string?’…If your guitar sounds great, feels good, and tunes up well, that’s a good string…My small-bodied Maton guitar, I can’t put Martin strings on it. I can’t get it to be perfectly in tune, and the [3str] always feels the wrong gauge. But I put Martin strings on my other guitars, and I love them…” (Tommy Emmanuel)

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A high-quality forum article on Weenie Campbell’s site highlights its varied use in early American blues: “the two players who probably used it the most – Lonnie Johnson and Bo Carter – used it to play in different keys. Lonnie used it to play in D…[with] open-string low roots for both the I and IV chord [D & G]. Bo Carter…used it to play in the key of G, for which it makes available open-string low roots for the I and V chords [G & D]”.

 

Johnson used the tuning on several songs (Blues in G, Got the Blues for Murder Only, To Do This You Gotta Know How), as did Carter (Pretty Baby, Who’s Been Here, Shake ’em On Down, The Law’s Gonna Step On You). The article also covers DGDGBE work by Jesse Thomas (“an almost pianistic sound through the use of clever chord voicings”), and Lil’ Son Jackson (“very pared-back harmonically, hardly chordal at all, linear in the treble, and droning in the bass…powerful, propulsive”).

 

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• Got the Blues for Murder Only – Lonnie Johnson (1930):

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“Down in old Mexico,

The bed is made out of stones and trees,

The pillows out of rocks and stone,

They got rattlesnakes for bodyguards,

Wild cats to watch over ‘em all night long…”

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It also turns up across the wide world of classical guitar, used by pioneers in Spain (Francisco Tárrega’s Tango, which is actually a re-setting of Carlos Garcia Tolsa’s Enriqueta), Paraguay (Agustín Barrios’ Chôro da Saudade, Confesion d’Amor, Un Sueno en la Floresta), and beyond.

 

Further suggestions from a fertile Classical Guitar forum thread include Nicolas Alfonso’s arrangement of Isaac Albeniz’ Sevilla, Enrique Granados’ La Maja de Goya Tonadilla, Christopher Parkening’s Simple Gifts, the second movement of Toru Takemitsu’s Toward the Sea, and many of Atahualpa Yupanqui‘s compositions.

 

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• Chôro da Saudade (‘Nostalgic Song’) – Agustín Barrios (2016):

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“Barrios’ compositions can be divided into three basic categories: folkloric, imitative and religious. Barrios paid tribute [to] his native land by composing pieces modeled after folk songs from South America and Central America, [also] imitating…the Baroque and Romantic periods…” (Richter Guitar)

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• NUMBERS •

	6str	5str	4str	3str	2str	1str
Note	D	G	D	G	B	E
Alteration	-2	-2	0	0	0	0
Tension (%)	-21	-21	0	0	0	0
Freq. (Hz)	73	98	147	196	247	330
Pattern (>)	5	7	5	4	5	–
Semitones	0	5	12	17	21	26
Intervals	5	1	5	1	3	6

• See my Tunings Megatable for further such nerdery: more numbers, intervallic relations, comparative methods, etc. And to any genuine vibratory scientists reading: please critique my DIY analysis!

• RELATED •

—Associated tunings: proximities of shape, concept, context, etc…

• Albert King (this -2): a bend-friendly low transposition
• Open G (this with 1str -2): the far more famous cousin
• Keola’s C (this with 6str -2): going slacker in the bass

• MORE INFO •

—Further learnings: sources, readings, lessons, other onward links…

• Lonnie Johnson: learn more about the multi-talented New Orleans musician’s life in a Musician Guide overview – aside from his DGDGBD experiments, he also recorded with Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington, pioneered the electric violin, and toured London as early as 1917 (“Big Bill Broonzy [recalled] the virtuosity of his New Orleans contemporary: ‘Lonnie was playing the violin, guitar, bass, mandolin, banjo, and about all the things you could make music on, and he was good on either one he picked up – and he could sing too…'”)
• South American strings: the global nature of the guitar’s repertoire remains under-explored by modern musicians (perhaps a meta for the purpose of this entire project): check out the incredible classical guitar composers of South America – e.g. Brazil (Heitor Villa-Lobos, 1887-1959), Argentina (María Luisa Anido, 1907-1996), Paraguay (Agustín Barrios, 1885-1944), and Venezuela (Alirio Diaz, 1923-2016) – and also see an insightful interview with Australian nylon-string legend John Williams entitled Loving That Latin American Zing (“Latin American music is greatly influenced by African music, whether it’s the Caribbean or Brazil, even the West coast of the Andes…Ecuador and Peru. Until the last 20 or 30 years, that’s been very underestimated, very undervalued…”)

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Header image: Agustín Barrios in 1910