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4-String Open G Tuning?

Posted by Tom T on December 21, 2014 at 4:48pm in Building Secrets, Tips, Advice, Discussion

Some days I just feel old.......

I completed a nice fretted 4-stringer and started stringing it up, then the "Senior Moment" hit. What was the correct tuning? I looked at the string package and it showed G major as DGBD. Then I looked at a chord chart for 4-string Open G which showed strings as GDGB (from the top of the guitar to the bottom).

This makes me think that for open G major I need GDGB not DGBD as shown on the package. What am I missing here and what is the correct tuning (before I start breaking strings).

Thanks

Tom T

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Replies

  • Kevin Keating November 13, 2019 at 10:58am
    DGBD is tuning for 5 string banjo minus the high 5th string. I like it. I use it on my cbg because I’m used to it from playing banjo. Both r G tunings actually. It just puts your root note G in a higher postion.
  • jose garcia paredes February 2, 2017 at 3:55am

    ah! i am violin player, the gdae tuning is a good choice?

  • jose garcia paredes February 1, 2017 at 6:26pm

    My idea is to use the tuning that allows me to play accompaniment chords more easily from the maximum number of songs.

  • Tom T February 1, 2017 at 5:29pm

    There are a ton of tuning options for a four string instrument (standard guitar tuning, open tunings, ukulele tuning, etc.). Here is a link to many options Tunings

  • jose garcia paredes February 1, 2017 at 5:48am

    Hello! I would like to know if with these four string guitars, you could play accompaniment chords of any song and style, rock, pop .... and that tuning would be the best. I read that gdgb is good because chords are simple to do. The six string guitars are too complicated for me :) GDGB is the good choice for this? another?
    Thanks for your reply

    • Ron "Oily" Sprague > jose garcia paredes February 1, 2017 at 9:42am
      GDGB is great for songs in G and D. However, you might find it a tad challenging, chord-wise, for songs in Eb, for example. ADF#B gives you the ability for movable chord shapes, and ADGB is the middle 4 strings of a 6-stringer, on which many chords are played...
    • JL > jose garcia paredes February 1, 2017 at 9:12am

      Yes BUT

      It would get a tad interesting accompanying 'any' music with GDGB tuning, which is a G Major chord, a bar chord on that will always be a major chord and it will take some work to figure out how to finger a minor chord.  a song in the key of G could use any of these chords: G Am Bm C D Em F#dim

      that's why the G5 chord/tuning GDG is so popular for the 3 strings, its neither major nor minor and sounds good accompanying either. 

      Fast and easy: GDGG or GDGD

      Easier than 6 string: GDGBb (B flat) which is a G Minor chord and playing the Bb string 1 fret higher than the other strings makes it a major chord.

  • Cause the Blue rat December 27, 2014 at 11:49am

    Thank you for calling them dyads and not 'double stops' like kids do on all the guitar forums I belong to. No idea why people are calling them double stops. Be like calling a triad a 'triple stop'. LOL

    • JL > Cause the Blue rat February 1, 2017 at 9:01am

      A Chord is multiple notes played at once on an instrument intended to do so, such as a guitar, ukulele, mandolin, harp, piano, etc

      A double/triple stop is multiple notes played at once on an instrument not intended to do so, such as a violin/viola/cello

    • ChickenboneJohn > Cause the Blue rat December 28, 2014 at 2:05am

      There is nothing wrong with calling them "double stops" or  "triple" stops", because often that's what they are, but that typically refers to when you are "stopping" or fretting the strings. A double or triple stop is when you hold down and sound 2 or 3 strings together, so it's a name for a playing technique rather than a specific chord. The name comes from the fiddle and bowed instrument tradition....the "kids on the guitar forums" are using the accepted traditional and classical musical nomenclature for what they are doing. And a little point..a "power cord" is what you plug your amp in with, a "power chord" is what you play on the guitar....yes, I know that's being unnecessarily pedantic, sorry.

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