D-A-D-F-A-E

• OVERVIEW •

A spacious Open Dm variant, which retains Standard’s E1str tone to give a minor 9th open harmony. Great for chord voicings which combine intricate high extensions with robust bass structures – with note-shuffling added by the tuning’s irregular interval sequence (a 4th, min. 3rd, and a maj. 3rd, sandwiched by two 5ths). Hear how the tighter 1str stands out.

Like its major counterpart (D-A-D-F#-A-E: Yvette’s Dadd9), this layout retains many of the Open D family’s strengths – including one-finger power chords across 6-5-4str, dextrous harmonic possibilities on 4-3-2str, and general low-side solidity – while also opening up a variety of new shapes. See how the wide jump at the top recolours your improv…

Pattern: 7>5>3>4>7

Harmony: Dmin(add9) | 1-5-1-b3-5-2

• TUNING TONES •

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ragajunglism

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Guitar & global musicology on Instagram:

Raag Jog: exploring different ways the electric guitar can support a Dhrupad-ang nomtom (syllabic improvisation)…

(From ‘Around the World in Eight Ragas’: my show with Ashwin Baliga & Marc Clayton at Mehfil Space on 11 Jun 2026) @ashwinbaligaofficial @marc_plays_tabla @mehfilspace

#dhrupad #raga #indianmusic #icm #worldmusic

Jun 28

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Raag Kafi: Electric guitar improv around the adha bandish ‘Aaj Khel Shaam Sang Hori’

(From ‘Around the World in Eight Ragas’: my show with Ashwin Baliga & Marc Clayton at Mehfil Space on 11 Jun 2026) @ashwinbaligaofficial @marc_plays_tabla @mehfilspace

#raga #indianmusic #icm #worldmusic #ragaguitar

Jun 22

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Raag Jog: some sawal-jawab (‘question-answer’) fun with Marc Clayton on tabla

(From ‘Around the World in Eight Ragas’: my show with Ashwin Baliga & Marc Clayton at Mehfil Space on 11 Jun 2026) @ashwinbaligaofficial @marc_plays_tabla @mehfilspace

#raga #indianmusic #icm #worldmusic #ragaguitar

Jun 15

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Some tintal improv around a wonderful Durga bandish I’ll be playing at @mehfilspace @the_rose_hill in Brighton on Thu 11th June! with vocalist @ashwinbaligaofficial and @marc_plays_tabla

https://therosehill.co.uk/event/the-mehfil-space-presents-around-the-world-in-8-ragas/

‘Around the World in 8 Ragas’: exploring cross-cultural melodic forms (e.g. scales that turn up independently in Japan, India, Mali, etc)

#indianmusic #raga #icm #brightonmusic #ragaguitar

Jun 10

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Come see me play some bendy raga-guitar at @mehfilspace @the_rose_hill in Brighton on Thu 11th June! with vocalist @ashwinbaligaofficial and @marc_plays_tabla

https://therosehill.co.uk/event/the-mehfil-space-presents-around-the-world-in-8-ragas/

‘Around the World in 8 Ragas’: exploring cross-cultural melodic forms (e.g. scales that turn up independently in Japan, India, Mali, etc) – including this piece, a famous Bhairavi bhajan by Pt. Bhimsen Joshi (Jo Bhaje Hari Ko Sada)

#bhajan #raga #indianmusic #brightonmusic #ragaguitar

Jun 5

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tomato can jungle/DnB (distracted while cooking)

#drumming #percussion #dnb #jungle

May 23

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A great Jaunpuri gat from Senia-Shahjahanpur sarod legend Pt Buddhadev DasGupta, full of fast bends and slides (originally released for Joep Bor’s 1997 Raga Guide, in many ways a precursor to my own raga index)

Raag Jaunpuri: a late morning raga, likely originating in the Sultanate-era music of Jaunpur in Uttar Pradesh (as per Subodh Agrawal: “The rulers of Jaunpur were keen patrons of the arts, and the last one – Sultan Hussain Sharqi – was himself a distinguished musician; it is probable that the Jaunpuri flavor of Asavari was developed by him, or under his patronage“). Rajan Parrikar elaborates on its “Asavariant” status, noting that some (including Omkarnath Thakur) see it as essentially indistinguishable from Shuddha Re Asavari, while others consider Jaunpuri to follow more ‘rounded’ melodic motions…

#sarod #ragaguitar #stratocaster #worldmusic #jaunpur

May 6

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just for fun…I had to defend the honour of my main instrument against my second instrument (many thanks to @mountainhead for the original video, as well as some tasty bends) – still no match for the surbahar’s meend range though!

#sitar #guitar #raga #bends #ragaguitar

May 4

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• SOUNDS •

Used by eclectic Swedish metallers Opeth – particularly on their eighth album, 2005’s Ghost Reveries (e.g. on Ghost Of Perdition, Isolation Years, Baying of the Hounds, and all six of the electric/acoustic/12-string guitar layers on Reverie Harlequin Forest). In the words of frontman Mikael Åkerfeldt, “I love experimenting with tuning…which [on Ghost Reveries] I got from folk players like Bert Jansch, John Renbourn and Nick Drake” (although he also cautions that: “I don’t want to get [too] lost in tuning…we’re comfortable with Standard“).

Also used by Australian rockers Karnivool on a few tracks (e.g. All I Know, Set Fire to the Hive: although they generally prefer B-F#-B-G-B-E) – as well as a sparse scattering of others (e.g. a quick sketch by NathanKGx, and an anonymous improv captured in a Gilmore Guitars workshop). Broader use, however, remains surprisingly rare, despite the tuning lying only a few twists away from Standard, the Open D family, and many others (…before long, my search-query results were getting clogged up by hits for hex colour ID ‘#dadfae’: a very light green).

• Ghost of Perdition @ Red Rocks – Opeth (2017):

“You’d compare yourself [to] old classmates…they’d have flourishing careers: even if I thought their careers sounded boring, at least they had something to survive on. I was bitter and beaten down…I didn’t have much hope for us. All I knew was that I liked the music I’d written.” (Mikael Åkerfeldt)

• NUMBERS •

• 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…

• Open Dm (this with 1str -2): taking out the high ninth
• Yvette’s Dadd9 (this with 3str +1): the major variant
• Equilibrium: same strings altered, by different intervals

• MORE INFO •

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

• Opeth: Learn more about the evolution and eclectic influences of the three-decades-old group via fan-selected lists of top-10 tracks on Reddit – and also check out interviews with leader Mikael Åkerfeldt in Rolling Stone (on his all-time favourite metal albums) and Guitar World (“Martin Lopez ended up playing me something by [Turkish Arabesk singer] İbrahim Tatlıses. I guess it was Kurdish pop music, but to my ears it sounded evil! It had notes…that you didn’t really find in Western scales, with bends that were inbetween notes. I immediately rewrote the beginning of Bleak…”)
• Folk to metal: Åkerfeldt, who mentions taking inspiration from “Bert Jansch, John Renbourn, and Nick Drake”, is far from the only heavy guitarist to delve deep into these quieter realms: famously, Led Zeppelin took detours into the folk mythology of the British Isles, both real & imagined (e.g. The Battle of Evermore references Lord of the Rings, and Gallows Pole is an updating of the centuries-old melody The Maid Freed from the Gallows: although Page based his version on American 12-stringer Fred Gerlach’s arrangement) – also see a rundown of modern folk-metal by Grimner‘s flautist and bagpipe player Johan Rydberg in Louder Sound: “For a very long time, the folk-metal scene has been dominated by bands [that] focus on Norse, Celtic, Gaelic, and similar themes…Now we have seen new bands rise…bringing their culture and mythology: Myrath (Tunisian power-folk), Wagakki Band (Japanese folk-metal), [and] Tengger Cavalry (Mongolian folk-metal)…”

Header image: Ghost Reveries album cover (2005)

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George Howlett is a London-based musician, writer, and teacher (guitars, sitar, tabla, & santoor). Above all I seek to enthuse fellow sonic searchers, interconnecting fresh vibrations with the voices, cultures, and passions behind them. See Home & Writings, and hit me up for Online Lessons!

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