Hey guys, Marco here! Today I am going to show you how to play a beautiful melody in DADGAD tuning.I have been experimenting with this tuning for a while, and I really like the number of harmonic and melodic possibilities that this tuning gives.

But why should you tune your guitar differently than standard tuning?

To be honest with you guys, I was never a huge fan of alternate guitar tuning. I always struggled to get my head around the different positions and open chords and for some reasons I would still go back to playing the same chord shapes.

It was always a mess until I discover a straightforward approach that I call “Forget about everything that you learned and start over again.”

You see, my mistake was that I tried to play the things I already knew in a different tuning, which clearly didn’t work at all.

Instead, start with a blank page and rewrite the chords and scales from scratch.

With the DADGAD tuning you can play awesome stuff with just one finger, (not kidding), and after a day or two, you should be able to switch between the standard tuning and DADGAD easily.

DADGAD tuning is probably one of the most famous guitar tuning out there so you will find a lot of lessons and resources. I actually started with an article from guitar player called “DADGAD for dummies” which I really recommend you read.

The chord progression we are learning today is in B minor key, and it is mainly played with open chords. The melody is mostly played within the chord.

I hope you enjoy this lesson guys.
Tab available on my Patreon page.

How to Tune in DADGAD

Now, the very first thing you should do is to tune your guitar in DADGAD. You can do so by playing the low E string in “D,” keep the 5th, 4th, and 3rd string the same with A, D, and G, then change the B string down to an “A” and the top E string down to a “D.”

There you have it guys. The DADGAD tuning.

Chords in DADGAD Tuning

Let’s learn the chord progression first. One of the things that really helped me familiarizing myself with the tuning was to stop thinking which chords I was playing.

What I mean by that is, if you play the first B minor chord, it’s inevitable that you are going to play an extended chord because of the different tuning.

At the beginning though, you shouldn’t really stress too much with trying to figure out which chord you are playing.

So, the chord progression goes as follows.

The Bmin chord is played with the 5th string fret 2, 4th and 3rd string fret 4, the 2nd and 1st string open.

The second chord is a basic A major chord played with the 5th string open, the 3rd string fret 2, the 3rd string fret 4, and the 1st string open.

The third chord is a Gadd9 chord. It is played with the 6th string fret 5, 4th, 3rd, and 2nd string open.

The last two chords are just D major and A major. The D major chord is played with the 6th string open, 2nd string fret 5, and 1st string open. The A major with just the 5th string open, 3rd string fret 2, and the 2nd string fret 4.

Melody in DADGAD

The melody can be easily added to the chords. Most of the time, the melody is played within the chords, so it’s all about the way you pluck the strings.

For the Bm chord, start by plucking the A string, then the 4th string with the thumb, and the 3rd, and 1st string together. Then play the melody by plucking the 3rd string fret 4, followed by the 2nd string fret for, and the 1st string open.

On the A major just pluck the A string open simultaneously with the 2nd string followed by the 3rd string. You want to play the bass note one more time before playing this beautiful melody on the 1st string played on the 2nd fret, hammer-on on the 4th fret, pull-off on the 2nd fret, and the 1st string open. You then have to play the 2nd string fret 4 and the 1st string open.

The next chord is G major, which we are going to pluck simultaneously followed by the 3rd string fret 4 and 2nd string fret 4.
The D is played with 6th and 2nd string together followed by the 1st string and the A chord with 5th and 2nd string together followed by the 3rd string.

You can repeat the same thing with the B minor, the A major with the hammer-on and pull-off phrase but the G major will be played with the 6th string played individually, followed by the 3rd string open and the 1st string fret 7. This position is stretchy on the left-hand so, take it step-by-step.

I hammer the bass note without plucking it. I love the percussive sound that the string makes.

The last two chords are the D major played with the 6th string open and the 3rd string fret 7, followed by the 1st string. You can do the same with the A major chord, this time through the bass note is on the 5h string. Play the 3rd string fret 6, then the 1st string open.

The second part is rhythmically and melodically different. We are going to play a melody on the 4th string.

The melody is played on the fret 12, 11, 9 and 7, then fret 5, 7, and 4. Play this melody with the thumb and add the 2nd and 1st string when you feel ready.

Then we have a G major chord played with 6th string fret 5 together with 4th and 3rd string open. Play the 2nd string alone.
You can then play the D major chord with the 6th string open, 5th string fret 5, and 4th string fret 4 followed by the 1st string open.
The last chord is the A major, played with the A string, 2nd string fret 4, 1st string open, and back to the 2nd string.

We will then repeat the same melody with three notes fingerpicking arpeggio on 4th, 1st, and 2nd string played with thumb, middle, and index finger. Try to play it as evenly as possible.

Each note of the melody gets three notes.

When you get to the fret 7, play the three notes plus the bass note on the 6th string. Then do the same on fret 5, 7, and on the fret 4, play the 4th string with the thumb then the 6th string open.

The G major and D major are played just like we learned it followed by the A major chord played with the A string open, 4th and 3rd string fret 2, and 2nd and 1st string open. Strum the chord three times with a downstroke, upstroke, and downstroke again. Strum all the strings.
You can than stum three more times with down, down and up before getting into the last chord which is played with the strumming technique.

Strum the 6th, 5th, and 4th string and play the fret 2, 4, and 5 on the A string followed by the fret 4, 2, and open string on the 6th string.
The last chord is a beautiful Gadd9 chord played with 6th string fret 5, 4th string open, the 3rd string fret 4, and the 2nd and 1st open string.
Strum and let it ring out.

You can then repeat the same Bm7, A, and finish the music on the G chord.

Let’s Wrap This Up

Beautiful and simple melody in DADGAD tuning. I hope you enjoy this lesson guys.

Learn the different chords before you try to come up with your DADGAD chord progression.

Marco.