This unique tuning, aptly named "d minor 11," transforms your guitar into a resonant sound canvas, perfect for creating rich, atmospheric soundscapes. The open strings themselves form a D minor 11 chord (D-A-C-G-A-F), providing an immediate sense of melancholic depth and harmonic complexity. It's a fantastic tuning for blues, folk, alternative rock, and cinematic compositions, offering a darker palette than standard tunings.

Technical Analysis

Compared to standard EADGBe tuning, "d minor 11" features significant alterations:

• The low E (6th string) is dropped a whole step to D.
• The D (4th string) is dropped a whole step to C.
• The B (2nd string) is dropped a whole step to A.
• The high E (1st string) is raised a half step to F.
• The A (5th string) and G (3rd string) remain at their standard pitches.

The resulting open string notes are D2-A2-C3-G3-A3-F4. This creates a powerful D minor harmony with the root (D), perfect 5th (A), minor 7th (C), perfect 4th/11th (G), and minor 3rd (F). The presence of the open A (perfect 5th) and G (perfect 4th) on adjacent strings offers great drone possibilities, while the minor 3rd and 7th intervals provide an immediate minor tonality.

Open Chords and Playability

• Open Dm11: Strumming all open strings produces a beautiful D minor 11 chord, establishing an immediate rich, melancholic foundation.
• Power Chords: The D-A on strings 6 and 5, and the C-G on strings 4 and 3, offer easy access to powerful root-fifth intervals, making power chords simple to form on these pairs.
• Drone Tones: The open D and A strings are excellent for droning, providing a solid bass foundation over which you can play melodies or chord fragments on the higher strings.
• Movable Shapes: Barring across all strings at various frets will yield interesting minor 7th and sus4 voicings due to the inherent intervals (D-A, C-G, A-F). For example, a full bar at the 5th fret would produce a G-minor 7 (with added C) flavor.
• Fingerstyle: This tuning is particularly rewarding for fingerstyle players, allowing for complex harmonic textures with minimal effort, especially with the open D minor voicing.

How to Tune

To achieve the "d minor 11" tuning from standard EADGBe, follow these steps. Always tune carefully, especially when increasing string tension. None of these changes are extreme (all within +/- 2 semitones), so a string gauge change is not strictly necessary unless you prefer different string tension.

1. 6th String (Low E): Tune down 2 semitones from E to D2.
2. 5th String (A): Keep as is; no change (0 semitones) at A2.
3. 4th String (D): Tune down 2 semitones from D to C3.
4. 3rd String (G): Keep as is; no change (0 semitones) at G3.
5. 2nd String (B): Tune down 2 semitones from B to A3.
6. 1st String (High E): Tune up 1 semitone from E to F4. Take care when tuning up, especially with older strings.

6th String: D2

5th String: A2

4th String: C3

3rd String: G3

2nd String: A3

1st String: F4