This page contains a short descriptions on G and D major/minor tunings. These tunings are opened tunings which means that when you hit all strings on guitar (opened), you'll get a major (dur) quintachord, i.e., in open G major tuning you'll get G major chord.

Hit the strings of your guitar in some opened tuning (put the left hand in your pocket) and you'll get a picture. Anyway, there is also a good reason called bottleneck.

So, when you play in some opened tuning, all you have to do is: play few bars without your left hand, then put your first finger (left hand) across the all strings on the fifth fret (play few bars), and then do the same thing, but put your finger on the seventh fret (play few bars) and then repeat the whole procedure. Now, you can sing almost 90% of popular songs in this way.

But, when you go deeper in opened tunings, the things change. You'll find soon a whole new world of music.

Have you ever heard the song Police Dog Blues ? Wonderfull ! Such a simple chord progression and such a beautifull fingerstyle pattern . The song is written in open D tuning and while listening to this song, you can really learn a lot. In my opinion, this song is still number 1. in open D tuning. There are versions and versions of this song (I myself play it in my way), but I prefere Ry Cooder's version.

I have neglected this essential question, but one letter remind me on that. In normal tuning(EADGBE) you can check if your guitar is properly tuned by pressing the 2nd string on the 5th fret and playing it. It must have the same tone as the 1st string opened (free string). Then you press the 3rd string on the 4th fret and it must have the same tone as the 2nd string opened. All other strings are checked by pressing the 5th fret.

The same "tuning pattern" can be found in other alternative tunings, but the frets are different. Also, one other question arises here. What is the shortest way of retuning your guitar from normal to alternative tuning and, of course, back ? First we have to locate (if it's possible) which strings do not change when returning your guitar. That strings will be our referential strings.

We will number the string from 6 to 1 (bass to treble).
Now, find the first referential string (the string that is same as in normal tuning) by going from bass strings. If we want to retune our guitar let's say to Open G major (DGDGBD), our first referential string is the 4th string. This string is the same as in normal tuning.

So, to be clear we will denote this string with symbol ref_string and we will first retune our bass strings:
Retune first lower string near ref_string. This string is ref_string + 1. In case of open G major this is the 5th string. Check it by pressing adequate fret and let ref_string ring free. Then we go to ref_string + 2 and check it by pressing adequate fret and let ref_string + 1 ring free. In case of open G major this is the 5th string. We go on until last bass string.

Now, we retune treble strings. If next string ref_string-1 is the same as in normal tuning, we proceed forward to higher strings. In case of open G major tuning, we'll find that we have to retune only the 1st string, as we already have retuned the bass strings. So, our new referential string is the 2nd string and we'll denote it as a new referential string ref_string. Now, we have to retune ref_string - 1, press the ref_string on adequate fret and let ref_string - 1 ring free. Repeat the procedure until last treble string. In case of open G major, this is our last string to retune.

Thus, when retuning bass strings we performe "fret checking" on the string just retuned. When retuning treble strings, we perform check on previous string.
Do you think I've complicated too much ? I think the tables will clear the things out .

To get back from alternative tuning to normal, repeat this procedure backward, but watch out : start again by the first string retuned and so on. We retune our guitar back to normal in the same order we tuned it in alternative tuning !!!

Here are the tables, describing the retuning order for various alternative tunings. Referential strings (the strings that do not change their tone) are marked with red colour. The direction column specifies are we tuning the string up or down from normal. The fret column specifies which fret is pressed on that string when checking it with the next higher free string. Of course, the order column specifies order of retuning, i.e. which string we retune first, second etc..