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Q&A: How to learn a song played in open tuning?
Lesson #409 • Jan 8, 2022
Video lesson
Instructional PDF 1 page
Editor’s notes
I’d never messed with Open D tuning until this video! Patreon supporter Michael asks about learning a song that isn’t in standard tuning, and I show him how I’d go about it.
In the video I’ll reference the song Michael sent in – “Wild Child” by Ghost of Paul Revere – and give my reaction & advice in real time, as I watch the video. I show my process of figuring out which key the song is in, what chords the song uses, and then wrap my head around open D tuning, which admittedly is 100% new to me. If you want to see what it’s like for a relatively experienced guitarist (me) to figure all this out on the fly, with zigs and zags included – give this a watch!
The question that inspired this lesson
Patreon supporter Michael asked the following question:
“I am a big fan of the song Wild Child by Ghost of Paul Revere (below) and wanted to learn it but haven’t found a tab that looks accurate. Does it look like he is in different tuning to you? It does to me since he plays a lot of open in between riffs/chord changes. Don’t need a full tab or lesson (all though it would be nice lol) but if you get a chance could you take a look and see if you can tell what tuning he is in and what the chords are?”
The song that I’m referencing during the lesson
Here’s the song I’m watching during my video. It’s called “Wild Child” by Ghost of Paul Revere.
Related lessons I’ve made about tuning and the fretboard
Lessons about tuning:
- How to Tune to Drop-D By Ear, Without a Tuner (Lesson #110)
- Playing Around in Drop D Tuning (Lesson #162)
- Two-finger acoustic blues in Drop-D Tuning (Lesson #163)
- Practicing Double-Drop D with “The Chain” (Lesson #168)
Lessons about the fretboard:
- Learning the 12 notes (Lesson #356)
- How to use FretMonster to Understand the Fretboard (Lesson #363)
Browse Related Lessons
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About Song Notes
Hey there! My name is David Potsiadlo, and I'm the creator of the 400+ weekly lessons here at Song Notes, going back to 2013. Here’s my guitar story »
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