Dadgad

DADGAD or D modal tuning was popularised by British folk Guitarist Davey Graham. Graham employed the tuning to great effect in his treatments of celtic music, but also the folk music of the East including India and Morocco. The suitability of DADGAD to Celtic music is that it facilitates the use of a number of moveable chords which retain open strings which act as a drone on either the bass or treble strings, approximating the voicings used in traditional celtic pipe music. Other exponents of the tuning include Pierre Bensusan, Bert Jansch and Richard Thompson.

DADGAD tuning was also used by Jimmy page (Led Zeppelin) in the late 60's and early 70's. He used this guitar tuning to produce a song called Black mountain side, which at the time was a revolutionary piece which proved his worth as a rock legend. He revisited this tuning to produce Kashmir later on in Led Zeppelin's booming rock carrer. There is a striking similarity between Jimmy's playing of this piece and Bert Jansch's guitar arrangement of a traditional Irish song called "Blackwater Side."

DADGAD gets its name from the tuning of the guitar strings. Instead of the standard EADGBE tuning (low to high strings), the guitar is tuned to D-A-D-G-A-D. This is done by tuning the first and sixth strings down a whole tone from E to D, and tuning the second string down a whole tone from B to A.