This Tuning = Automatically Beautiful Chords

[00:00:00]Hey there, Steve here. Hope you're doing well. So, this is D A [singing and music] D F sharp A E tuning. It's a beautiful tuning that you commonly find in math rock and Midwest emo that I've been learning recently.

[00:00:12]And I want to share with you today some beautiful chord shapes that I've discovered in this tuning that can get you started [music] straight away with crafting some beautiful ideas and get you playing in this beautiful tuning.

[00:00:26]And I've also made a handy tuning guide for you for D A D F# AE E. So just check the link in the description to grab that one. All right, so let's take a look at those chords. So the tuning of D A D F A E is a D major chord with an ninth in it. So a D add 9 chord, let's say. And I'm going to use two different movable shapes for minor and major chords. But keep in mind, these technically aren't the correct names. So in the key of D major, we'll have this [music] D chord. Uh so next is D. So, next we've got E minor. [music] I love that as well, that triad. That sounds nice. And obviously you can add open strings, [music] any of these chords to get a really wide, bright, open sound with your chords as well. The D E next is going to be F sharp minor. [music] So that same movable shape.

[00:01:20]Now we're going to have D E F sharp. So now your G chord [music] or just then a your fifth [music] sounds lovely that one right then your minor chord [music] then this minor chord for the diminished space.

[00:01:44][music] A lovely bit of tension and then a lovely release back to the octave higher of that D.

[00:01:53]>> [music] >> And I found once I worked out these chord shapes, I could instantly start coming up with ideas. And what I heard straight away was a song by The Hotelia, which isn't a similar tuning to this, but you instantly start hearing these [music] [music] [music] You can start making some chords and melodies and stuff just with those chords alone. Now we can start including the potential of the beautiful noodles that you can do in this tuning.

[00:02:33][music] And like I said, I'm fairly new to this tuning, so I'm still working out where all those noodles are. And I know that's one of the biggest frustrations with alternate tunings. When we change, we kind of lose that knowledge of where everything is, and it kind of feels like we're walking blind on the fretboard.

[00:02:48]But I want to share with you my method that I use that makes learning the fretboard a lot easier in any different alternate tuning. Because we're in the key of D major, all we need to really focus on here is just learning where all those D major notes are across the fretboard. Here's how it looks like superimposed over from the, you know, open to the 12th fret. And what I like to do, and this is a good test to see if I can remember where all of the positions are of D major from open to the 12th fret, is I like to hammer on.

[00:03:15][music] And then I'm going to go to the next two available notes like so. Now I'll do the same for the next string going across this way.

[00:03:26][music] Then I'll move up to the next two and I'll play open again. [music] And I'll come back down again. [music] And then next we've got this lovely symmetrical shape here.

[00:03:45]And then [music] and then the next slope.

[00:03:54]And this is where it gets a little tricky. Let's see if I can remember.

[00:03:57][music] There we go. [music] And then last.

[00:04:07][music] So yeah, I'm almost there myself. And that's after a few practice sessions.

[00:04:12]And I found just after a couple of sessions of that, I've started to ingrain where these little noodle clusters are. So when I start to play like I can start to know the where the notes are under my fingers around that particular chord.

[00:04:27][music] I can start to even think about like finger tapping stuff as well.

[00:04:40]>> [music] [music] [music] >> Like I said, I'm really new to this tuning, but after like a week of doing this already, I'm starting to find like some beautiful inspiration and song ideas that I can work on. And hopefully I've communicated the same for you. So make sure you don't forget to download that D A D F A AE guide that I've put down in the description for you. And if you found this video useful, then I'm sure you'll find this alternate tuning video here on the beautiful tuning of F A CGC useful as well, while I walk you through my riff writing process. Right, thanks for watching. A big thanks to the patrons that make this content possible, and I'll see you in the next video.

[00:05:30]Goodbye.