| DADGAD, or D modal tuning gets its name from the tuning of the guitar strings. Instead of the standard EADGBE tuning (low to high strings), the guitar is tuned to D-A-D-G-A-D. This is done by tuning the first and sixth strings down a whole tone from E to D, and tuning the second string down a whole tone from B to A. DADGAD was popularised by British folk guitarist Davey Graham. Graham employed the tuning to great effect in his treatments of celtic music, but also the folk music of India and Morocco. The first guitarists in Irish traditional music to use the tuning were Mícheál Ó Domhnaill and Dáithí Sproule; today it is a very common tuning in the genre. Other proponents of the tuning include Stan Rogers, Jimmy Page, Pierre Bensusan, Eric Roche, Laurence Juber, Tony McManus, Bert Jansch, Richard Thompson, Dick Gaughan, Soig Siberil, Gilles Le Bigot and Paul McSherry. The suitability of DADGAD to Celtic music stems from the fact that it facilitates the use of a number of moveable chords which retain open strings. These act as a drone on either the bass or treble strings, approximating the voicings used in traditional Scottish and Irish pipe music. DADGAD tuning was also used by Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin and The Yardbirds in the late '60s and '70s with one minor adjustment: He detuned the entire guitar by one-half a step, so it was really Db-Ab-Db-Gb-Ab-Db (where the 'b' denotes a flattened note). While with The Yardbirds, Jimmy Page composed White Summer. On Led Zeppelin's eponymous first album, Led Zeppelin, he used this guitar tuning to perform "Black Mountain Side", a piece which was strongly influenced by Bert Jansch's earlier arrangement of a traditional Irish song called "Blackwater Side" (though Jansch actually used a simpler 'drop D' tuning). Page later revisited the DADGAD tuning for the song "Kashmir", which appeared on the band's sixth album Physical Graffiti. |
| How to tune your guitar to D.A.D.G.A.D Learning to use the DADGAD tuning Part 1 Learning to use the DADGAD tuning part 2 DADGAD Overview - chade2112 Introducing DADGAD (D modal tuning) - Pierre Bensusan DADGAD Tutor 1 - meymic18 DADGAD Tutor 2 - meymic18 |
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