“Create wide-ranging, piano-style chord voicings that aren’t available in regular tuning”: Loved by Joni Mitchell and Keith Richards alike, essential to slide players, here’s how you can explore chords in open D

A classic sepia-toned live shot of Joni Mitchell playing her Martin dreadnought and singing live in 1974.

Open tunings are very popular with slide players as they offer the facility of playing triads with one finger (or slide), giving convenient groups of notes with which to build licks and patterns.

In this way, open tunings differ from ‘alternate’ tunings, which don’t give us an open chord. Either way, open or alternative tunings provide the opportunity to create wide-ranging, piano-style chord voicings that aren’t available to us in regular tuning.