C-G-D-G-C-D

• OVERVIEW •

Forms a Csus2 (or Gsus4) voicing, with intervals that ‘narrow’ as you go higher in pitch (two 5ths > two 4ths > one maj. 2nd). Like a ‘Drop D’ version of Open Gsus, with the 6str providing added intrigue via creating a ‘C-G-D’ stack of 5ths on the low side. Each tone appears exactly twice – make full use of all three of these parallel-octave possibilities. Named and popularised by ‘clawhammer’ guitar pioneer Steve Baughman.

Ties to the remote Orkney Isles of Northern Scotland are, umm, rather indirect: Baughman “thought ‘CGDGCD’ was too hard to say…and [it] needed a cool, pronounceable name to compete with tunings like DADGAD” [fair enough: ‘CGDGCD’ sets six syllables over nothing but ‘ee’ vowels, whereas ‘DADGAD’ is a quick ‘two-beat’ word. OK then…which Menu tuning has the most melodious title? I like Rakotomavo, Equilibrium, and the ‘Dulcimeric’ Zen Drone].

Oddly, CGDGCD does enjoy popularity amongst guitarists of a different island folk tradition – located off Southern Africa’s tropical Indian Ocean coast rather than in the cold Scottish North Sea. In Madagascar, the layout has found widespread independent use for generations: Malagasy musicians may refer to it as a ‘Tana’ tuning (an abbreviation of ‘Antananarivo’, the country’s capital city) – with variants and transpositions abounding (e.g. Haja’s Bb drops the same pattern two semitones).

Pattern: 7>7>5>5>2

Harmony: Csus2 | 1-5-2-5-1-2

• TUNING TONES •

• SOUNDS •

Used most prominently by steel-string ‘clawhammer’ pioneer Steve Baughman: e.g. listen to his CGDGCD arrangements of Shady Grove and Danny Boy. His website advertises the tuning as ‘making you sound better than you are‘ (I concur, although the same statement applies to most altered tunings). He also lists other guitarists who have recorded with it, including Anton Emery (O’Carolan’s Welcome, Flying to the Fleadh, both cp.2), Thom Adams (covers of I Will Survive, Imagine, & Close to You), and his own collaborator Dylan Schorer (Lord Inchiquin).

Also Martin Simpson (Never Any Good), Doug Young (Second Chances, Miss MacDermott), Bill Hammond (Mark’s Motorbike, Hector the Hero), Stephen Wake (Slip Jig Medley), and Nic Jones (Canadee-I-O, -1) – who jestingly called it a “fake way of playing” for its easy-at-hand beauty. Chris Proctor (Nights in White Satin) describes how it “plays well in C, in G, and in Gm, and other related keys…[by] avoiding the 3rd of the chord, and thereby making the ‘obvious’ choice of keys less obvious” – and Topher Gayle has even released a 58-page Orkney Companion Book (“tips for the DADGAD guitarist looking for something new”).

And, as kindly highlighted by reader Andy Latham in Dec 2022, “CGDGCD is one of the primary tunings used by Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth” (e.g. most of Murray Street, much of Sonic Nurse, and some of Rather Ripped). Also check out Latham’s own electric experiments in the tuning (e.g. Watertight, from the brilliantly named Stellar Watermelon song collection…which definitely deserves more views!

• Shady Grove – Steve Baughman (2012):

“I was once asked to play on an album…I declined. The album then won a Grammy. Sometimes I console myself by saying that if I had participated, it would not have won…The truth is that I really think music awards are silly. Like [a] sausage…they’re cool only if you don’t really know how they’re made. Maybe I’ll change my mind if I ever win something…” (Steve Baughman)

• 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…

• Haja’s Bb (this -2): the lower, slacker Malagasy transposition
• Kabosy (‘Leonard’s C’) (this with 2str -1): Madagascar’s DIY lute
• Coyote: disparate acoustic songwriting, a few oceans away

• MORE INFO •

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

• Steve Baughman: hear more from CGDGCD’s inventor (e.g. Three Celtic Songs, Loch Lomond), and watch his clawhammer demo – also read more about his mix of musical influences (“Baughman…draws on Celtic, Appalachian, and various ethnic and folk traditions, as well as…old-time fiddle tunes, with an infectious groove and rhythm…Steve is a pioneer of the unique ‘clawhammer guitar’ technique…[from] old-time banjo, [adapting it] as a folk, rock, funk, and blues technique…”)
• Orkney Isles: the actual folk music of the outlying Scottish archipelago is markedly diverse for such a small society (just ~20,000 residents as of 2022) – find out more via a playlist by Eric Whollem, an overview from the Orkney Folk Festival, and an article by fiddlologist Ed Pearlman (“sounds that might have been heard throughout 5000 years of Orkney history: using shells, whistles, drums, Pictish and Viking tunes, and a variety of harps, pipes, and songs. A charred hazelnut shell from a human fire, found last year, appears to push Orkney’s earliest settled history back to 8500 years ago…”)

Header image: Orkney’s Yesnaby Cliffs sea stack

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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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