, or Celtic tuning is an alternative guitar tuning most associated with

Celtic music Celtic music is a broad grouping of music genres that evolved out of the folk music traditions of the Celtic people of Northwestern Europe. It refers to both orally-transmitted traditional music and recorded music and the styles vary considerab ...

, though it has also found use in rock, folk, metal and several other genres. Instead of the standard tuning () the six guitar strings are tuned, from low to high, Tuning to from standard is accomplished by tuning the first, second, and sixth strings down a whole step (two frets). The result is an open D, ''suspended fourth chord''. Being suspended, the open tuning is neither intrinsically

major Major (commandant in certain jurisdictions) is a military rank of commissioned officer status, with corresponding ranks existing in many military forces throughout the world. When used unhyphenated and in conjunction with no other indicators ...

nor

minor Minor may refer to: * Minor (law), a person under the age of certain legal activities. ** A person who has not reached the age of majority * Academic minor, a secondary field of study in undergraduate education Music theory *Minor chord ** Barb ...

History

D A D G A D was popularized by British folk guitarist

Davey Graham David Michael Gordon "Davey" Graham (originally spelled Davy Graham) (26 November 1940 – 15 December 2008) was a British guitarist and one of the most influential figures in the 1960s British folk revival. He inspired many famous practitioners ...

. Inspired by hearing an oud player in Morocco, Graham experimented with detuning some of the guitar's strings from standard tuning (), arriving at He employed the tuning to great effect in his treatments of Celtic music, but also the folk music of India and Morocco. The first guitarists in Irish traditional music to use the tuning were

Mícheál Ó Domhnaill Mícheál Ó Domhnaill (; 7 October 1951 – 7 July 2006) was an Irish singer, guitarist, composer, and producer who was a major influence on Irish traditional music in the second half of the twentieth century. He is remembered for his innovativ ...

and Dáithí Sproule; it has become a very common tuning in the genre. Other proponents of the tuning include Roy Harper, John Martyn, Ben Howard,

Andy Mckee Andy McKee (born April 4, 1979, in Topeka, Kansas) is an American fingerstyle guitar player who has released six studio albums, two extended plays, and one live album to date. A number of YouTube videos featuring McKee's highly-technical guitar ...

Russian Circles Russian Circles is an American instrumental band based in Chicago, Illinois. The band was originally formed by childhood friends Mike Sullivan and Dave Turncrantz after their previous musical projects dissolved. After parting ways with their ori ...

Mike Dawes Mike Dawes is an English fingerstyle guitar player known for composing, arranging and performing multiple parts simultaneously on the guitar. Biography Dawes experimented with keyboards before picking up his first electric guitar at age twelve ...

Alejandro Aranda Alejandro Aranda (born August 11, 1994), known by his stage name Scarypoolparty, is an American singer, musician, and reality television personality from Pomona, California, and runner-up on the American Idol (season 17), seventeenth season of ...

, Rory Gallagher, Luka Bloom,

Stan Rogers Stanley Allison Rogers (November 29, 1949 – June 2, 1983) was a Canadian folk musician and songwriter. Rogers was noted for his rich, baritone voice and his traditional-sounding songs which were frequently inspired by Canadian history and th ...

Jimmy Page James Patrick Page (born 9 January 1944) is an English musician who achieved international success as the guitarist and founder of the rock band Led Zeppelin. Page is prolific in creating guitar riffs. His style involves various alternative ...

( The Yardbirds' " White Summer" and Led Zeppelin's "

Black Mountain Side "Black Mountain Side" is an instrumental by the English rock band Led Zeppelin. It was recorded in October 1968 at Olympic Studios in London, and is included on the group's 1969 debut album ''Led Zeppelin''. Composition and recording "Black Mo ...

" and "

Kashmir Kashmir () is the northernmost geographical region of the Indian subcontinent. Until the mid-19th century, the term "Kashmir" denoted only the Kashmir Valley between the Great Himalayas and the Pir Panjal Range. Today, the term encompas ...

" use this tuning), Neil Young,

Artie Traum Arthur Roy Traum (April 3, 1943 – July 20, 2008) was an American guitarist, songwriter, and producer. Traum's work appeared on more than 35 albums. He produced and recorded with The Band, Arlen Roth, Warren Bernhardt, Pat Alger, Tony Levin, J ...

Pierre Bensusan Pierre Bensusan (born 30 October 1957) is a French-Algerian acoustic guitarist. As Sephardic Jews, his family came from Spain, Spanish Morocco, and French Algeria. His music has been characterized as Celtic music, Celtic, folk music, folk, world ...

Eric Roche Eric Roche (4 December 1967 – 6 September 2005) was an Irish fingerstyle guitarist. Biography Roche was born in New York City, after which his family moved to Tralee, County Kerry, Ireland. He was an accountant, but practised only for a short t ...

Midnight Midnight is the transition time from one day to the next – the moment when the date changes, on the local official clock time for any particular jurisdiction. By clock time, midnight is the opposite of noon, differing from it by 12 hours. ...

Laurence Juber Laurence Ivor Juber (born 12 November 1952) is an English musician, fingerstyle guitarist and studio musician. He played guitar in the rock band Wings from 1978 to 1981. Biography Early life Born in Stepney, East London, Juber was raised and ...

, Tony McManus,

Stephen Wake Stephen or Steven is a common English given name, first name. It is particularly significant to Christianity, Christians, as it belonged to Saint Stephen ( grc-gre, Στέφανος ), an early disciple and deacon who, according to the Book of Ac ...

, Bert Jansch, Richard Thompson,

Dick Gaughan Richard Peter Gaughan (born 17 May 1948) is a Scottish musician, singer and songwriter, particularly of folk and social protest songs. He is regarded as one of Scotland's leading singer-songwriters. Early years Gaughan was born in Glasgow's Roy ...

Alistair Hulett Alistair Hulett (15 October 1951 – 28 January 2010) was a Scottish people, Scottish acoustic music, acoustic folk music, folk singer best known as the singer of the folk punk band, Roaring Jack. Early life Born in Glasgow, Hulett discovered tr ...

, Steve von Till (along with its modified form, ), Imaad Wasif,

Mark Kozelek Mark Edward Kozelek (born January 24, 1967) is an American singer, songwriter, guitarist, record producer, and occasional actor. He is known as the vocalist and primary recording artist of the indie folk act Sun Kil Moon and founding member of ...

Jeff Tweedy Jeffrey Scot Tweedy (born August 25, 1967) is an American musician, songwriter, author, and record producer best known as the singer and guitarist of the band Wilco. Tweedy, originally from Belleville, Illinois, started his music career in high s ...

Masaaki Kishibe Masaaki Kishibe (岸部真明, born January 13, 1964) is an acoustic guitarist from Japan. Biography Masaaki Kishibe was born in Suita, Osaka, and began studying piano at a young age, eventually picking up the guitar by the time he was 14. Kis ...

Paul McSherry Paul McSherry is a guitarist from Northern Ireland who began playing in 1982, aged 14. He was inspired by two guitarists from his native West Belfast, Maurice McHugh and Mark Kane, and was self-taught on DAGDAD tuning. He was a member of a ba ...

, Acle Kahney (uses a 7 string variation, ), Sevendust (although downtuned),

Kotaro Oshio is an acoustic guitarist from Japan. Born in Suita, Osaka, on February 1, 1968, he is best known for his work on the steel string guitar. Oshio is a part of Sony Music Japan's SME Records division. Oshio was voted the second greatest Japanese gui ...

Ben Chasny Ben Chasny is an American indie rock and psychedelic folk guitarist. His primary projects are Six Organs of Admittance (his solo psych folk project) and Comets on Fire (a psychedelic rock band). Biography Chasny made his recording debut in 19 ...

Al Petteway Al Petteway was an American guitarist known primarily for his acoustic fingerstyle work both as a soloist and with well-known folk artists such as Amy White, Tom Paxton, Jethro Burns, Jonathan Edwards, Cheryl Wheeler, Debi Smith, Bonnie Rideout, M ...

Justin Currie Justin Robert Currie (born 11 December 1964) is a Scottish singer and songwriter best known as a founding member of the band Del Amitri. Career Del Amitri Justin Currie was born in Glasgow and established the band Del Amitri in the early 1980s ...

, Lankum and Trey Anastasio. English folk musician

Martin Carthy Martin Carthy MBE (born 21 May 1941) is an English folk singer and guitarist who has remained one of the most influential figures in British traditional music, inspiring contemporaries such as Bob Dylan and Paul Simon, and later artists such as ...

now mostly uses a related tuning, , whose evolution from he describes explicitly in his 1987 book. The suitability of to

stems from the fact that it facilitates the use of a number of moveable chords, which retain open strings. These act as a

drone Drone most commonly refers to: * Drone (bee), a male bee, from an unfertilized egg * Unmanned aerial vehicle * Unmanned surface vehicle, watercraft * Unmanned underwater vehicle or underwater drone Drone, drones or The Drones may also refer to: ...

on either the bass or treble strings, approximating the voicings used in traditional Scottish and Irish pipe music.

Notes

References

External links

* * {{Authority control Guitar tunings ru:Гитарный строй#Строй «DADGAD»

History

See also

Notes

References

External links