Guitar Open D Tuner — Tune to Open D in Your Browser
Mic-based chromatic tuner pre-set to Open D. No download, no sign-up, works in your browser.
Tuning summary
- Notes (low to high)
- D2 · A2 · D3 · F#3 · A3 · D4
- Instrument
- Guitar
- Difficulty
- Intermediate
- About this tuning
- Open D major across all six strings. Rich for slide blues and early folk.
Start tuning
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About Open D on guitar
Open D is DADF#AD, low to high. The unfretted strings spell a full D major chord — root, fifth, root, third, fifth, root — which gives the tuning a lush, immediately-resolved sound. It is the open tuning of choice for slide blues and a long tradition of acoustic fingerstyle.
The blues lineage starts with Mississippi pioneers like Elmore James and Robert Johnson and runs through Bonnie Raitt, Ry Cooder, and Derek Trucks. On the acoustic side, Joni Mitchell wrote dozens of songs in Open D variants, and Richie Havens built his entire technique on it. The reason is the same as Open G — a slide or barre at any fret gives a major chord — but Open D has a slightly fuller voicing because the third is on a higher string.
Harmonically, Open D excels at I-IV-V songs because the I (D) is open, and the IV (G) and V (A) are clean barres at frets 5 and 7. Sus chords and minor variations require fretting the F# down a half step — easy on the 4th string at fret 3 — which is how players move from D major to D minor or D7 without leaving the tuning.
Coming from standard, expect to retrain your left hand. Three strings change pitch (6, 3, 1) and one (4) drops to F#. Start with the open strum, then practice moving a barre between frets 5, 7, and 12. Once those three positions feel natural, dive into slide playing — a glass slide on the 12th fret gives you a D major chord an octave up, which is the entire foundation of Delta blues.
Frequently asked questions
- Is Open D the same as Vestapol tuning?
- Yes. 'Vestapol' is the older 19th-century parlour name for the same DADF#AD tuning.
- What is the easiest way to switch from standard to Open D?
- Drop the 6th to D, the 3rd (G) to F#, the 2nd (B) to A, and the 1st (E) to D. Leave the 5th (A) and 4th (D) alone.
- What songs use Open D?
- Joni Mitchell's 'Big Yellow Taxi', Bob Dylan's 'Blood on the Tracks' tracks, Bonnie Raitt slide work, and many Delta blues classics.
- Is slide guitar always in Open D or Open G?
- Most often, yes. Standard tuning slide is possible but harder because no fret position gives a clean major chord.
- Will Open D damage my guitar?
- No — every string drops in pitch from standard, which means lower tension on the neck, not higher. It is gentler on the instrument than standard.