Feb 252010
Hi guys,
I am a beginner guitarist. I just emailed the leader of a band asking him to tell me which key they play a certain song in. He emailed me back saying that they play the song with a guitar tuned to an open Dbm chord. I do not understand how to tune my guitar to an open Dbm chord. Can someone explain to me how to do it and why sometimes a guitarist would tune their guitar to a diffent chord?
Does this leader of the band play guitar?
He may not know what he’s talking about? Perhaps he meant the “key” of the song is in Dbm?
At any rate, to actually tune your guitar to an open Ddm…we have to find out what notes are in a Ddm chord…
There are only 3 notes in a Ddm chord…Ab, E and Db.
So…since standard tuning is E-A-D-G-B-E (lowest to highest, or ceiling to floor strings)
Leave your low E the same pitch
Tune your A to Ab (down a half step)
Tune your D to Db
Tune your G up one fret to a G#, or Ab
Tune your B up to a Db
And leave your thinest, high E stringt the same pitch.
This makes your strings look like this…
E-Ab-Db-Ab-Db-E
There are many reasons for tuning guitars differently…often it makes the song easier to play, or sing to, and changing string tunings can open up the fretboard for different guitar ‘licks’ and song writing ideas..etc.
Best of luck and keep practicing till those fingers bleed!