Welcome to the captivating world of the Open DADA Drone tuning! This unique setup transforms your guitar into a resonant soundscape, perfectly suited for crafting big, lush chords with a powerful, sustained drone. It’s a tuning that encourages deep listening and expansive musical ideas, making it ideal for genres ranging from ambient and folk to heavy rock and experimental soundscapes.

Technical Analysis: Open D5 Power

At its core, the Open DADA Drone tuning sets your guitar strings to D-A-D-A-D-A, creating a massive Open D5 Power Chord when strummed open. This is a highly resonant and harmonically stable tuning, built entirely on the root (D) and its perfect fifth (A) across multiple octaves.

• Harmonic Structure: The intervals between strings are primarily perfect fifths and perfect fourths (or octaves of these intervals). This repetitive pattern of D and A across all six strings provides an incredibly rich, sustained drone that underpins any melody or chord played.
• Open Chords: Strumming all open strings produces a powerful and unambiguous D5 power chord. This makes it incredibly easy to create strong, driving rhythmic figures or spacious, droning textures with minimal effort.
• Accessible Chords: Due to the open D5 structure, many common chord shapes become simplified. A single finger barring all strings at any fret will instantly yield a power chord (e.g., 2nd fret for E5, 3rd fret for F5, 5th fret for G5). With the D and A acting as constant harmonic anchors, it’s also straightforward to imply full D major or minor chords by fretting the relevant third or seventh on the D strings. This tuning is fantastic for slide guitar, as it naturally harmonizes with the D major scale.

How to Tune Your Guitar for Open DADA Drone

To achieve the Open DADA Drone tuning from standard E-A-D-G-B-E, follow these specific string adjustments:

• String 6 (Low E): Tune down 2 semitones from E2 to D2.
• String 5 (A): Keep as is; no change (0 semitones) from A2 to A2.
• String 4 (D): Keep as is; no change (0 semitones) from D3 to D3.
• String 3 (G): Tune up 2 semitones from G3 to A3.
• String 2 (B): Tune up 3 semitones from B3 to D4.
• String 1 (High E): Tune down 7 semitones from E4 to A3. Important Note: This is a significant drop in tension (7 semitones). If you plan to use this tuning frequently, consider using a heavier gauge string for the first string to maintain optimal tension and tone.

Here are the open notes for the Open DADA Drone tuning:

• String 6: D2
• String 5: A2
• String 4: D3
• String 3: A3
• String 2: D4
• String 1: A3