“Reminiscent of Joni Mitchell’s jazzier moments… but no strings were retuned to create it!” 5 chords that sound like they’re in an open tuning (but aren’t)

Keith Richards plays Micawber: The inclusion of open strings within chords played in standard tuning can produce unique and inspiring sonic variations, as players such as Richards have shown.

As discussed last time, open/alternative tunings are a great way to expand our chordal horizons without getting our fingers in a twist. However, we also mentioned that there are quite a few expansive voicings available without having to retune.

There’s no doubt that open/alternative tunings facilitate some unique sounds, but in a world where artists such as Davey Graham (who introduced us to the DADGAD tuning in the 1960s) plus Joni Mitchell, Nick Drake, Jimmy Page and Keith Richards have all given their unique spin on multiple angles of this idea, perhaps exploring regular tuning is equally interesting!