D-A-D-F^#-A-D

• OVERVIEW •

Resembles EADGBE’s famous ‘0-2-2-1-0-0’ Emaj shape in terms of intervals – a general pattern sometimes known as ‘Vestapol’ (after The Siege of Sevastopol, an earnest 1854 American folk song about the Crimean War, popular in parlor guitar instructional manuals of the 19th century: more below). Thus, the tuning represents a logical ‘first step away from Standard’: as this Emaj shape tends to be the first major chord we learn when starting out on the instrument (the same applies to Open Dm/Em, both of which mirror the ‘0-2-2-0-0-0’ shape).

 

Offers a tasty power chord across 6-5-4str, and a major triad across 4-3-2str, as well as easy facility for various extensions and suspensions – plus a powerful parallel octaves on 6+4+1str and 5+2str. Fantastic for folksy fingerstyle, percussive techniques, and acoustic slide blues, the layout fully deserves its longstanding global fame – used to multifaceted effect by countless guitarists over the ages. (n.b. Also see my Menu page for Open E: the same interval shape raised by two semitones).

Pattern: 7>5>4>3>5

Harmony: Dmaj | 1-5-1-3-5-1

• TUNING TONES •

• SOUNDS •

Open D has an strangely specific history, traceable to long before the advent of recorded sound. As explained by blues historian Jas Obrecht: “During the latter 1800s, the Lyon & Healy company in Chicago pioneered the mass production of acoustic guitars…sold [in] catalogs issued by companies such as Sears, Roebuck & Co. and Montgomery Ward. Many of these catalog-bought guitars arrived with a tutorial pamphlet featuring tuning instructions and music for rudimentary instrumentals. Two of…these instructive instrumentals – Spanish Fandango and The Siege of Sebastopol – predated the Civil War”.

 

The latter melody – written by schoolteacher Henry Worrall (1825-1902) – specifies tuning to Open D [whereas Spanish Fandango calls for Open G: credit to these early educators for putting altered tuning on the curriculum right from the very start!]. According to fingerpicking legend and global guitarologist John Renbourn, this material became highly influential across North America: “In the early recorded blues…the harmonic language, right down to specific chord shapes…is straight from parlor music…Fascinating stuff, and fairly controversial, but it fills in the missing gap between the steel-string guitar coming into circulation and the highly developed styles that appeared on recordings in the 1920s”.

 

Listen to these early pioneers put Open D to use at various transpositions: e.g. Tampa Red (Mama Don’t Allow No Easy Riders Here), Furry Lewis (Falling Down Blues), Blind Boy Fuller (Homesick & Lonesome Blues), Blind Willie McTell (Travelin’ Blues: on 12-string), Blind Willie Johnson (John the Revelator), Dark Was the Night, Cold Was the Ground), and Robert Johnson (Preachin’ Blues: Up Jumped the Devil) – and, a few years later, Elmore James, for the iconic slide riff of Dust My Broom. Hear an artfully spiced-up arrangement of the original parlor melody which lies somewhere in the DNA of all these artists (and all those who have followed them…which, I guess, if you’re still reading, is you too…):

 

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• The Siege of Sebastopol – Macyn Taylor (2012):

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“Worrall was gripped by daily newspaper reports of the bloody Siege…where Russian troops held the line against a three-nation onslaught…[which] continued to haunt Worrall after the war’s end in 1855. [He] wrote a tune inspired by the conflict. He called it, ‘Sebastopol: A Descriptive Fantaisie’..a simple piece, meant to evoke a military march, with…a sprightful melody played on two strings.” (Alexander Zaitchik in a sadly-prescient Salon piece)

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Sonic explorers of the 1960s picked up from where these blues legends left off, with countless guitarists winding to Open D for its spacey, psychedelic open drones. Richie Havens used it to open Woodstock in 1969, strumming at his steel-string with wild abandon on the aptly-named Freedom – alongside a multitude of other users from the subsequent era, including the Allman Brothers (Little Martha), Keith Richards (Street Fighting Man), George Harrison (Your Love is Forever), and Joni Mitchell (Blue on Blue, Amelia -2, Both Sides Now cp.4, Cactus Tree cp.5, Night in the City cp.5: while Big Yellow Taxi is in Open E, and Chelsea Morning & Court & Spark simulate the same with a 2fr capo).

 

Also used by artists proximate to these traditions, including Nick Drake (One of These Things First), Donovan (Colours, cp.2), Christopher Cross (Sailing), Jackson Browne (All Things Good -1), Ry Cooder (Prodigal Son cp.4: on electric slide), Leo Kottke (Watermelon: on acoustic 12-string slide), and Pearl Jam (Even Flow: Stone Gossard’s part) – as well as many more since, such as blues/rock revivalists Seasick Steve (Walkin’ Man) and Shakey Graves (Late July). Also Jon Gomm‘s Weather Machine & Tempest (part of the Swan Song project: songwriting with the terminally ill).

 

An Apr 2024 email from guitarist, poet, playwright, puppeteer, and journalist Benito Di Fonzo also highlighted the 12-string suitabilities of Open D’s lower transpositions – in particular the ‘tone-down’ layout of CGCEGC (I can also attest to this tuning’s facility, having used it on a cheap, ultra-heavy-strung acoustic to play along with Hindustani sarod and male khayal vocal recordings, which are often rooted around a low C). In Di Fonzo’s words, “12-string is a strange and interesting beast, that makes us do things we might not otherwise consider…”.

 

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• Freedom (Woodstock) – Richie Havens (1969):

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“Sometimes I feel like a motherless child…
Sometimes I feel like I’m almost gone,
A long, long, long, way, way from my home”

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Other modern Open D users include Ani DiFranco (Evolve, Small World, Anticipate -4), The Tallest Man On Earth (Like the Wheel), Alt-J (Interlude 2), Bombay Bicycle Club (Fairytale Lullaby cp.4), Message to Bears (Mountains cp.4), Third Eye Blind (Graduate), Bon Iver (Re:Stacks cp.6), Angus & Julia Stone (Santa Monica Dream), and Animal Collective (many of Dave Portner’s parts on the Sung Tongs album: discussed here). And, while I can’t vouch for its entries directly, Conrad Mercad’s DADF#AD Songs playlist is full of good sounds.

 

Around the world, it turns up in Madagascar (e.g. Acoustic Gasy’s Voasary Dama), and Hawaiian slack-key (e.g. Dennis Kamakahi’s accompaniment on ‘Ulili E) – although nowhere near as frequently as Open G (reflective of Hawaii’s general preference for having their major triads set across 3-2-1str). Lap slide players of various shades also favour similar arrangements (e.g. Troy Brenningmayer: Sittin’ On Top of the World). And – as kindly highlighted to me by slack-key supremo George Winston – modern fingerpicker Tim Arnold has used it on several recent songs (e.g. Hypnogogic Logic, Dream in Tight, & Questioning Answers).

 

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• Watermelon (Leo Kottke) – Ewan Dobson (2013):

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“The three bass strings…can be used as steady drones beneath a shifting harmony. Almost every chord type has an easy [barre] fingering: maj., min., 7th, sus4, maj. & min. 6th, and 7sus4. This makes it possible to play in a variety of styles and keys…For more chord fingerings, note that [it] is sandwiched between Open Dm and Modal D [DADGAD].” (Bill Sethares)

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NUMBERS

	6str	5str	4str	3str	2str	1str
Note	D	A	D	Gb	A	D
Alteration	-2	0	0	-1	-2	-2
Tension (%)	-21	0	0	-11	-21	-21
Freq. (Hz)	73	110	147	185	220	294
Pattern (>)	7	5	4	3	5	–
Semitones	0	7	12	16	19	24
Intervals	1	5	1	3	5	1

• 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 E (this +2): the tigher, ‘electric’ transposition
• Open Dsus (this with 3str +1): the famous ‘DADGAD’
• José González (this with 1/2str +2): ‘crossed’ with Standard

• MORE INFO •

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

• Henry Worrall: learn about The Siege of Sevastopol’s author – and the tune itself – via a (sadly) extra-relevant Salon article by Alexander Zaitchik (Talkin’ Siege of Sebastopol Blues: “At the time of the siege, Worrall was composing music and teaching guitar at the Ohio Women’s College. He made extra cash publishing some of the first popular instructional booklets for guitar, with names like Worrall’s Guitar School and The Eclectic Guitar Instructor…Sometime during the presidency of Ulysses S. Grant, [Sebastopol] became the standard starting point for learning guitar: the Stairway to Heaven of the Gilded Age [n.b. they’re both pretty tough beginner tunes!]. If a person began playing in 1870 or 1890, [they] likely spent [their] first lessons with Worrall’s ode to the Crimean War dead, or learned from someone who did…”)
• North American guitar roots: more on the context and influence of the parlor guitar manuals in my Open G writeup (including some Robert Johnson graveyard tales) – plus a rundown of Pre-War Blues Guitarists Who Used Vestapol on Jake Shane’s Open D site, and the above-linked WBER article from Jan Obrecht (“In rural areas, many young players started out on homemade stringed instruments. The most common of these, the diddley bow, probably originated in Africa [also see Banjo tuning]…typically fashioned by attaching broom or baling wire to nails in a wall or doorframe, and using bottles or rocks as bridges. One hand plucked the wire, while the other fretted or glissed the string with a bottle. Many outstanding blues guitarists – Robert Johnson, Elmore James, Muddy Waters, B.B. King, Buddy Guy, and Johnny Winter among them – began this way. Others fashioned primitive guitars by attaching a tin can or cigar box to a rough-hewn neck…”)

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Header image: Richie Havens opens Woodstock in 1969