rkdjones - Posted - 04/23/2026:  13:11:06

I'm messing around with alternate tunings for playing rhythm in multiple keys (without a capo). Open G is what I would usually use. I'm wondering if anyone routinely uses guitar tuning: gDGBE? Are there advantages to this tuning for playing in a different keys?

trapdoor2 - Posted - 04/23/2026:  13:19:35

Not unless you're guitar trained. I don't see an advantage otherwise.

Nopix - Posted - 04/23/2026:  14:27:38

Yea, I use open G continuously. I only drop the fat E string sometimes if I'm playing in D. But generally, I simply lower the fine E string to a D. Finger/chord formations similar to open G banjer. Sometimes I have a bass man covering the bass line anyway. If it's good enough for Kieth Richards, and Charlie Starr of Blackberry Smoke, it's OK by me.

My YouTube channel

It's all open G

Edited by - Nopix on 04/23/2026 14:31:59

rkdjones - Posted - 04/23/2026:  16:56:30

To avoid any confusion, I am playing a banjo. gDGBE does give the instrument a little more range in the first position. Mostly, I am trying to find a tuning with easy chord shapes for every common key.

Tim Jumper - Posted - 04/23/2026:  16:57:51

I use what I call "guitar-C" tuning (gCGBE) with guitar chord fingerings to facilitate picking the "ragtime" blues songs and tunes of such guitarists as Libba Cotten, "Mississippi" John Hurt, and Rev. Gary Davis. It works well for the key of C -- except for capoing I've never tried it for other keys -- but gDGBE should work equally well for the open (uncapoed) keys of G and D.

Bill Rogers - Posted - 04/23/2026:  17:52:21

OTOH, “Classic style” players have always used standard C (gCGBD) for all keys without usidng a capo. Don Reno, of course, played out of G tuning without a capo. He was also a top-drawer guitarist.

Nopix - Posted - 04/24/2026:  10:11:53

Whoops! I think I got snookered into a similar clawhammer thread.
Sorry.

JanetB - Posted - 04/28/2026:  09:59:20

I was arranging a tune and taking lessons from Adam Hurt at the same time. He suggested I use guitar tuning and it certainly made a difference in the ease of fingering, especially going up the neck on the first string. I still use that tuning occasionally for the same reason, especially useful if you play that style of melodic banjo.

carlb - Posted - 04/28/2026:  11:44:28

An article and tabs written in 1980.

banjohangout.org/tab/browse.as...p;v=17959

EEB - Posted - 04/29/2026:  01:17:06

Isn’t gDGBE just an alternative G tuning for banjo? I’ve also heard it referred to as ‘Sandy River Belle tuning’, but never ‘guitar tuning’.

carlb - Posted - 04/29/2026:  04:47:21

quote:

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Originally posted by EEB

Isn’t gDGBE just an alternative G tuning for banjo? I’ve also heard it referred to as ‘Sandy River Belle tuning’, but never ‘guitar tuning’.

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I originally learned "Sandy River Belle" in gDGDE and was told it was a tuning named after that tune. However, that tuning now called "Old G". Adam Hurt now says that "Sandy River Belle" tuning is gEADE (A modal tuning with the 5th string G) a tuning I use to play "Back Cat in the Briar Patch".

Sandy River Belle

Black Cat in the Briar Patch 2