Brent Robitaille

Open G Tuning - Celtic Guitar Flatpicking Brent Robitaille

Tune your guitar to Open G (DGDGBD), grab your pick, and let's play some jigs and reels!

Tuning your guitar to "Open G" (DGDGBD) compliments Celtic music brilliantly. The open tuning allows the strings to vibrate, creating drones and overlapped notes that sound reminiscent of a harp or bagpipe.

The tunes represent a good selection of well-known Celtic session tunes, including jigs, reels, hornpipes, waltzes and songs. Each tune shows notation, tablature and chords. Some tunes are arranged in the chord melody style (with pick), while the faster tunes just have the melody line with fingerings, chords and articulations.

There is a selection of audio tracks on the author's website to help learn the tunes quickly or jam along with the accompaniment tracks.

If you are new to this style, check out my twelve tips for Flatpicking and how to use ornamentation to further embellish the tunes.

I have also included an open G chord page with 96 of the most common chords, fingerboard charts, and the major and minor scales with standard and Campanella fingerings. There are also Celtic strumming patterns in 4/4 and 6/8 time to become proficient at accompanying.




The Tunes:

After the Battle of Aughrim Black Velvet Band Blind Mary Cape Breton Jig Carolan's Concerto Connaughtman's Rambles Danny Boy Drowsy Maggy Eleanor Plunkett Flowers of Edinburgh Haste to the Wedding Hector the Hero Hewlett High Road to Linton Humours of Whiskey I'll Tell Me Ma Irish Washerwoman John Ryan's Polka Kesh Jig Lark in the Clear Air Loch Lomond