Sometimes called "alternative" guitar tunings, open tunings basically mean tuning your guitar strings just like how a guitar chord would sound like when played. Blues "slide" players usually use open tunings so that they can freely play their slides. Several Rolling Stones songs are played in "Open G tuning".
How do you tune your guitar into an "open" tuning"? First, know which open tuning you want to adapt. Then, adjust the tuning of each of the guitar strings as needed. For instance, if you want to have an "Open G tuning":
e > lower this string's tuning to D tuning
b > retain
g > retain
d > retain
a > lower this string's tuning to G tuning
E > lower this string's tuning to D tuning
In short, from the standard tuning of "EBGDAE", an "open G tuning" would mean tuning your guitar strings to "DBGDGD".
Here's a short list of the other open tunings typically used for blues guitar.
Open D
D-A-D-F#-A-D
Open E
E-B-G#-E-B-E
Open G
D-B-G-D-B-D
TIP: If you want to have an open A tuning for your guitar, tune your strings to open G tuning and place a "capo" on the second fret. Same principle applies to the rest.
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