Guitar DADGAD Tuner — Tune to DADGAD in Your Browser
Mic-based chromatic tuner pre-set to DADGAD. No download, no sign-up, works in your browser.
Tuning summary
- Notes (low to high)
- D2 · A2 · D3 · G3 · A3 · D4
- Instrument
- Guitar
- Difficulty
- Intermediate
- About this tuning
- Modal Celtic tuning popularised by Davy Graham. Strums an open Dsus4 — drone-friendly and ideal for fingerstyle.
Start tuning
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About DADGAD on guitar
DADGAD is a modal tuning: DADGAD, low to high. It is built around the open Dsus4 chord — there is no third anywhere in the open strings, which is what gives the tuning its haunting, neither-major-nor-minor character. Strum it once and you hear why Celtic players adopted it.
Davy Graham brought DADGAD into Western fingerstyle in the early 1960s after a trip to Morocco, where he was looking for a way to play oud-style modal lines on a guitar. From there it spread through the British folk revival via Bert Jansch, John Renbourn, and Pierre Bensusan, and it became the default tuning for Irish and Scottish guitar accompaniment. Pierre Bensusan plays almost exclusively in DADGAD; Andy McKee and Don Ross use it for instrumental fingerstyle composition.
The big harmonic gift of DADGAD is the drone. Because the low D, A, and high D are constantly available as open strings, you can play single-note melodies on the middle strings while the open strings ring underneath, instantly suggesting an accompaniment. This is exactly how Irish backing guitar works behind a fiddle or pipes.
If you are coming from standard, expect to relearn everything — chord shapes do not transfer. Start with the open strum (Dsus4), then learn the I-IV-V triads in D (D, G, A as simple barre or partial-barre shapes). Once those three chords are in your hands you can play hundreds of trad tunes, and the modal voicings will start sounding natural rather than alien.
Frequently asked questions
- Is DADGAD a major or minor tuning?
- Neither — the open strings spell Dsus4 (no third). The 'colour' depends on what you fret over the drones.
- Who popularised DADGAD?
- British folk guitarist Davy Graham in the early 1960s, after studying oud music in Morocco.
- Can I capo DADGAD?
- Yes — capoing transposes the entire tuning. A capo at fret 2 gives EBEABE, useful for songs in E or A modal.
- Is DADGAD harder than standard?
- The chord shapes are different but not harder; many beginners find the open-string drones make rhythm playing easier than standard.
- Do I need new strings for DADGAD?
- No — the changes are all downward by a whole step or less, so standard gauges work fine.