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4 string Celtic tunings

Posted by Glenn Reither on June 29, 2012 at 11:29am in Performances, How to Play, Lessons, Concerts

I've been playing a round with tunings a bit. Personally I prefer modal tunings to triad tunings, so I usually tune a 4 string to GDGD. That tuning has a lot of possibilities, and for someone like me (who can't really play) it has a lot of easy stuff that is a great source of inspiration.

There is a drawback - reaching the major 3rd is a big stretch on the basic shapes. So I thought, hey, tune GDAD and that does two things.

1) your open chord and all the straight-across bar chord versions of that are no longer just open fifth, which can sound a bit empty. Now you have an open fifth added 2nd chord. It is still harmonically ambiguous (neither major nor minor) but is a bit richer.


2) both the minor 3rd and major third in root position are easily reachable.

Anyhoo...my mate Peter Murphy said yeah, that's Celtic. So I looked it up and it is sort of a 4 string version of Celtic. On a six string, Celtic tuning is DADGAD. I would say with the D in the bass, Celtic tuning is more like a sus4 chord than an add2 chord.

There are a lot of really nice melodic, droney things that are right there under my stoopid fingers in GDGD, but for chordal playing, GDAD is much better.

What do you think?

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Replies

  • Glenn Reither June 29, 2012 at 1:11pm

    Oh, I forgot to add that in GDAD, your 3 high strings are standard 3 string. So by not playing the low string, you have a standard DAD 3 string. Neat, huh? Thanks to Dave Onastik for pointing out to me that the Irish Bouzouki is tuned GDAD. The Greek tin whistles is tuned in...I don't know what.

    But therein lies another bonus because there's a chord list for it. http://hspeek.home.xs4all.nl/bouzouki/gdad/gdad.pdf

    which is totally fab. Thanks Dave!

    • The Phrygian Kid > Glenn Reither June 30, 2012 at 5:43am
      I really like the idea of viewing this as a D tuning blind g.. Gives u a handy root note for your iv chord down bottOm there... GDG fans like me, this equates to a low c string down bottom ;)

      ...
      And cranking the highest by two gives you Mandola tuning rather than mandolin.. Same tho
      • Glenn Reither > The Phrygian Kid June 30, 2012 at 6:00am

        Yep. Talking of 3 string tuning, I'm liking DAD better anyway. GDG is a bit low for sparkly goodness.So yeah, to have a DAD sitting there ready to go in this Irish bouzouki tuning is a big plus.

        Your mando tuning puts the gat in 5ths GDAE, which is also the same as tenor guitar. One of the Chimera necks is tuned like that. It's pretty cool and of course there are plenty of chord chart resources.

        • The Phrygian Kid > Glenn Reither June 30, 2012 at 6:19am
          Not 'my' mando tuning by any means...
          All 5ths really wants a shorter scale length..
          It's why after the cello the upright bass switches to 4ths..
          I was just pointing to the versatility, I really think you're onto something with this tuning..
          It can be played in g or d..
          It's only two steps on one string from mando tuning, two steps on another (2) from open g.. (or 1 for Gm)
          It even presents some interesting Am7 ideas to me too..
          Good one..

          I wanna talk to you about a DIY harp lever, pick your brains a little. Seeing youre sitting around on nation on a saturday night your phone might be about to ring
    • The Phrygian Kid > Glenn Reither June 30, 2012 at 5:40am
      You could also crank the high d string two to e and have mando Or octave mando tuning, two fOr one. Rock fans may be interested that jimmy page was messing around with tunings like this one around the time of te mostly acoustic led zeppelin III record
  • Dave Onastik June 29, 2012 at 12:42pm

    GDAD is a very common tuning for Irish Bouzouki.  Look for Donal Lunny, Andy Irvine, Zan Mcleod (sp?), to name a few.

    • Glenn Reither > Dave Onastik June 29, 2012 at 1:00pm

      OK, I've heard of Greek shamrocks, but have never heard of Irish bouzouki! Thanks for the tip!!

      • Glenn Reither > Glenn Reither June 29, 2012 at 1:12pm

        and thanks to you have found a chord list for it too. Now I totally folk!

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