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    DADGAD

    aspguitarsaspguitars Posts: 40Member
    edited August 2016 in Technical or Theoretical Questions
    Hi! all. After playing guitar for many years, I thought that I would like to give DADGAD a go. Does anyone know of any online resources or maybe a good Tutor in the Portsmouth, Hampshire area. I've looked at some on Youtube, but they all seem to be american. Any info would be gratefully accepted.Ade
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    • Reg SoxReg Sox Posts: 3,121Member

      When you say "give DADGAD a go" what do you actually mean?  What sort of help are you looking for?  When I first played around with it 30 years or so ago I just transposed some basic chords from EADGBE and went from there.  These days you can just google and download a whole bunch of DADGAD chord charts to get you started.

       

      These days I tend to use a lot of two finger chords shapes and single note runs.  Don't ask me what the chords are, I wouldn't have a clue - much as I've always done beyond very basic chords that I know the names of I tend to just play around until something sounds good.  Years of doing this and it becomes more instinctive these days even when playing in new tunings.

       

      If you have some theory (I have very little) it shouldn't be too difficult to work out if you have a good ear.

       

      Cheers, Reg.

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    • Derek_RDerek_R Posts: 1,721Member

      The classic response is to get Doug Young's awesome book on DADGAD :-) In a shameless plug of one of my very own DADGAD tunes I can safely say it's all from Doug's book (and the first couple of chapters at that!):

       



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    • aspguitarsaspguitars Posts: 40Member
      Originally Posted by Derek_R:

      The classic response is to get Doug Young's awesome book on DADGAD :-) In a shameless plug of one of my very own DADGAD tunes I can safely say it's all from Doug's book (and the first couple of chapters at that!):

       



      Many thanks. This is just what I need.

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    • Mark PMark P Posts: 2,314Member

      I would say with an altered tuning like DADGAD a lot of getting the most from it involves trial and error and experimentation - seeing what sound good and what doesn't. AKA improvisation when it works and terrible discord when it doesn't!   The more you try it the less discord occurs and there is so much more to tickle the jaded ears from DADGAD than standard tuning.

       

      So much DADGAD instruction seems to consist mainly of how to play standard types of chords that are also used in standard tuning. It's a route I tried a few times and I never got anywhere because I tried to just play the same sort of progressions that I was stuck in using standard tuning.  

       

      I feel that that route means a lot of DADGADs unique sounds and resonances are not allowed to make their presence felt in full. It's good to maximise use of the open strings (except the 3rd) to increase extra resonances - fretting some notes for a chord higher up the fretboard.

       

      Also useful to use the fact that 5 of the strings have octaves on another string at the same fret to bring in doubled up notes and a fuller sound.

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    • ChristoefurChristoefur Posts: 20Member
      Hi there

      One thing a wise man once said to me is that the best sound out of an acoustic is an open string. Dadgad and other open tunings let you minimise the amount of fretted strings which is partly why they sound so good. I find that messing around with different tunings is half the fun. Currently on DADGCE migrated to that from FADGCE

      C
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