Keith Richards is reputed to play his guitar in an open G tuning. Could someone explain to me what this means?

Answer 1

to understand the idea of open tuning, it helps to understand what notes make up a chord.

for a chord to actually BE a chord, it needs to have 3 different notes. a major chord is made up of the 1st note, the 3rd note, and the 5th note from the major scale. when you play a G major chord, you're playing G, B, and D.

if you tune the strings so that they play those notes when you're not fretting a note, you're in "open G" .

the same can be accomplished in using the notes in any chord. by doing this, you can just lie one finger flat across all the strings on any fret, and you'll get a major chord.

and, in case you didnt know, Keith doesnt use the thickest string, he only plays with the other 5.

Answer 2

Standard tuning is EADGBE (from heaviest string on top to lightest, top E string). You tune both E's down to D. And you drop the A to G, and that gives you open G tuning. It's basically a banjo tuning originally, I think and I heard Keith picked it up from Ry Cooder. Your fingerings are different though, of course, for chords. Try to find online TAB for Start Me Up, Honky Tonk Women. That'll explain some of the fingering.

Answer 3

The strings are tuned to a G chord.