5 Songs You'd NEVER GUESS Are In OPEN G Tuning

Exploring what open G tuning is capable of beyond the basic Rolling Stones songs. Open G is great for simple songs with cool feel and vibe, but these examples show unexpected applications of the tuning.

Radiohead's "My Iron Lung" starts picking a G chord with open strings but features a signature whammy pedal effect that moves all notes an octave up. Without the effect, the verses use clean sound with reverb. Johnny Greenwood plays G major triads (root-third-fifth), G dominant 7th, then two diminished chords with the same shape - they could all keep going and essentially be the same chord. The whammy effect gives this riff an otherworldly quality Radiohead excels at. The chorus uses cranked overdrive (or Marshall Shredmaster for authentic flavor), and the lead parts use G minor pentatonic with notes from Dorian mode, plus a chromatic riff descending one fret at a time from fret eight.

Jeff Buckley's "Last Goodbye" starts with a slide from second fret to fifth, then frets 12 and 7, kicking into an alternative '90s riff that sounds grunge-influenced. The voicings are beautifully jazzy - not traditional open G tuning stuff, especially since the root note is D (D major chord, Dsus4 to D, then B minor-A-E minor-G-D-A at second fret). Those slides are a dead giveaway for open G, but these voicings subvert expectations.

Led Zeppelin's open G song (no capo) subverts traditional expectations with its first chord featuring a second fret note - an augmented fourth (tritone) in relation to the open G root. This tritone idea is used a lot in rock but rarely in open G tuning. The verse goes more traditional Rolling Stones-style but immediately subverts it again with augmented fourth intervals.

The White Stripes' "Death Letter Blues" (their interpretation of the Son House blues standard) offers a nice alternative to "Little Red Rooster" for beginners wanting to use a slide in open G.

Dire Straits' "Romeo and Juliet" on acoustic uses F-C-B♭ (the one-four-five in F key) but plays it unconventionally with Mark Knopfler's signature fingerpicking pattern - not what you'd typically associate with open G tuning.

To get started with open G tuning, begin with day three of the Play Guitar Like the Rolling Stones in 10 Days course, which also covers open E tuning songs starting at day four.