Open Tunings Intro

In this open tunings intro, we'll also briefly discuss the I-IV-V progression. A huge amount of folk, blues, jazz, country, Latin, calypso and pop music use this progression. Most of the tunes in the free lessons use it. You'll learn to recognize it in a lot of the music you hear.

If you were forced to choose only one progression to use the rest of your days .... thankfully that's not so .... your best choice would be the I-IV-V.

The I, IV, and V are chords. It's easy and fast to learn them in open tunings. For a deeper and more informative look at where they come from, click here: fun theory for guitar

Almost all music starts and finishes on the I chord. Let's say the song is in the key of C. Then the song starts and ends in C. Some tunes don't begin with and resolve to the I, but for now let's keep it simple----with a view to faster learning!

In ALL open tunings, the IV chord (the subdominant) can be had just by laying your finger (barring) across the 5th fret. The V chord (the dominant) likewise by barring at the 7th fret. And the I chord? Recall that you already have a chord without fretting anything. That's the I chord .... aka the tonic.

Using just those might get a bit stale after a while, but you'll learn lots of ways to spice it up with interesting fingerstyle techniques that are simple to learn and great to play.

This open tunings intro leans toward acoustic fingerstyle guitar, but if you happen to prefer electric or you prefer rhythm and strumming, you'll have a blast. Same stuff applies.

You may know a few folks who have acoustic .... or electric .... guitars hanging around that they started to learn to play, but gave up. There are different reasons, but one I come across often is that it was taking them too long to get to where they could play a song.

Now that's sad. Why? Because some really fun tunes can be played with just two chords! That's right----only two chords. Such as the I-V progression. And if you're into blues, some really powerful blues only use one chord----and yes, it's the I. Often played in open D or G.

Open tunings fingerstyle basics can be learned fast, and taken to any level you wish. For the solo guitarist who stays with it, you can play melody, bass and rhythm, all at the same time!

Whether you just want to play for yourself, or you look forward to playing for others, it's always encouraging when learning takes less time. We're all busy.

Open tunings allow you to simplify your whole approach to learning to play the guitar. That's great when you're trying to speed up the learning curve. When you're ready to go further you can add any degree of complexity in any style or genre you wish.

This open tunings intro leads to your open tunings setup. You may or may not need one.