Guitar tuning

Open D Tuning (D-A-D-F#-A-D)

Open D is D-A-D-F#-A-D. All six open strings form a full D major chord, so strumming without fretting anything already sounds like D. Four strings come down from standard — the sixth, third, second and first — and none goes up, which means the total tension on the neck is lower, not higher.

The tuner opens already preconfigured; you only need to allow microphone access.

Strings and frequencies

Is Open D tuning bad for a guitar?

No, and it is worth saying why, because the question comes up constantly and is almost always answered with a bare "it is fine" and no argument.

In Open D four strings go down and none goes up. Total tension on the neck and on the top is lower than in standard tuning, not higher. A guitar built to hold standard tuning has no trouble with something that pulls less.

The opposite case is Open E (E-B-E-G#-B-E): the same intervals a whole step higher, reached by raising three strings. There the tension really does go up — 26 % on the fifth, 26 % on the fourth and 12 % on the third, because tension grows with the square of the frequency — which is where the idea that it is unsafe on a nylon-string guitar comes from.

It turns out to be safe, and we measured it. What decides whether the instrument suffers is not the jump on one string but the total load on the top. On a classical guitar with a normal-tension nylon set, going from standard to Open E takes that load from about 86 pounds to about 95: the same as fitting a high-tension set, which is ordinary, expected use on a classical.²

So neither Open D nor Open E strains a nylon-string guitar. The difference between them is one of sound, not of risk.

How to tune to Open D

Four strings move and all of them go down. The fifth and the fourth are left alone.

Sixth: E to D, a whole step. Slacken it until it matches the open fourth string an octave below. It is the same move as Drop D.

Third: G to F#, a half step. This is the delicate one of the four, because a half step is a small move and overshooting is easy. As a reference, that string should match the fourth string fretted at the 4th fret.

Second: B to A, a whole step. It should end up matching the open fifth string an octave above.

First: E to D, a whole step. It should match the open fourth string an octave above.

When you are done, strum the open strings: you should hear a clean D major with nothing odd in it. If something is off, it is nearly always the third string, which moves least and resists most.

What is Open D tuning used for?

It is one of the great slide tunings, and the reason is direct: if the open strings already form a major chord, then laying the bar straight across any fret gives you another major chord. There are no shapes to fret and no fingers to line up; the whole neck becomes a run of chords.

At the 5th fret you have G. At the 7th, A. At the 12th, the same D an octave up. That alone will carry a whole blues.

A few practical points if you are starting slide in this tuning:

• The bar goes directly above the fret, not behind it the way a finger does. Put it where you would put a finger and the note comes out flat.
• Rest, do not press. The slide does not push the string down onto the fret: it sits on top of it.
• Use the fingers trailing behind the bar to mute the strings you do not want ringing. With six open strings resonating, everything smears without that damping.
• Many slide players go up a gauge for more firmness under the bar. It offsets the tension lost by dropping four strings.

What is Open D tuning good for beyond slide?

Its natural ground is blues, roots rock and folk. The tuning comes out of the Delta blues tradition and from there passed into fingerstyle and modern acoustic folk.

Away from slide, Open D is very rewarding for drone-based accompaniment: with the low D and the high D ringing open, you can move around the neck on one or two notes and keep the sound of the key underneath the whole time.

There is also a variant that comes up often: Open D minor, which is D-A-D-F-A-D. One note changes — the F# drops to F — and the open chord goes from D major to D minor. Everything else plays the same.

What is Open D tuning also called?

You will run into the name Vestapol, sometimes written Vastapol, used for this exact tuning. It is not a mistake and not a different tuning: it is what Open D was called in the old blues and country traditions.

The name comes from a piece of music. In 1856 Henry Worrall published Sebastopol, a "descriptive fantasie" for parlour guitar that he introduced as an imitation of military music, with harmonics standing in for bugles. It is played in Open D, and the title refers to the siege of Sevastopol, which was in the news at the time.¹

What fixed the name was how the piece travelled. Mail-order guitars in the United States shipped with instructional pamphlets, and Worrall's pieces were in a great many of them: you learned the tuning by learning the tune. Among blues guitarists in the 1920s the title became the name of the tuning itself, worn down by ear into Vestapol or Vastapol. The same happened to his other hit, Spanish Fandango, which gave its name to "Spanish" tuning, or Open G.¹

One caveat: some players now use Vestapol for Open E as well, which is the same set of intervals a whole step higher. The name belongs to Open D originally.

How to get Open E with a capo, without touching the tuners

If you are in Open D and you need Open E, put a capo at the second fret. The capo raises all six strings by two semitones at once, so the intervals are preserved exactly and what rings above it is an E major chord.

It is quicker than retuning four strings and it spares you the drift of raising them and bringing them back down. What you lose is everything below the capo, which in this tuning is precisely the low open D; if that bass drone is the point of what you are playing, then it is worth retuning properly.

How it sounds

It is one of the classic open tunings of blues and slide guitar. The open chord and the one-finger barre make it very expressive for sliding and for playing over ringing drones.

Styles and genres

Example songs

• Dust My Broom — Elmore James³
• You Got to Move — Mississippi Fred McDowell³

Recommended string gauges

With four strings dropped, the tuning sits softer than standard. A 0.012-0.053 acoustic set responds well.

If you play slide, consider going up a gauge: the bar needs something to push against or the strings give and the note goes flat as you lean on it.

On a nylon-string classical guitar it works without trouble, and with even less effort than on steel, because nylon starts from lower tension. As always with nylon, it takes longer to settle.

Tuning tip

It is a great tuning to start slide on: place the bar directly above the fret (not on it) and rest your free fingers behind it to mute the strings and clean up the sound.

Frequently asked questions

Is Open D tuning bad for a guitar?

No. In Open D four strings go down and none goes up, so tension on the neck is lower than in standard tuning. It does not harm a nylon-string classical guitar either: if anything it sits looser than usual.

What is Open D tuning used for?

Mainly for slide playing and for accompaniment with open strings ringing. Because the open strings form a chord, a one-finger barre or the slide bar gives you any other major chord.

What is Open D tuning good for?

Blues, roots rock and folk above all. It is also very effective for drone-based fingerstyle, since the low D and the high D keep sounding while you move around the neck.

What is Open D tuning also called?

Vestapol, sometimes written Vastapol. It is the traditional name for Open D in old blues and country playing, and it comes from Sebastopol, a parlour-guitar piece Henry Worrall published in 1856 and played in this tuning. It shipped in the instructional pamphlets that came with mail-order guitars, and among blues guitarists the title wore down by ear into Vestapol and became the name of the tuning. Some players now use the name for Open E too, but it belongs to Open D originally.

How do you tune to Open D with a capo?

You do not tune to Open D with a capo, but you can go the other way: from Open D, a capo at the second fret gives you Open E without raising the tension of any string. The capo lifts all six strings two semitones at once, so the intervals stay the same. What you lose is the low open D below the capo.

How do you tune to Open D minor?

Open D minor is D-A-D-F-A-D: tune to Open D and then drop the third string one more half step, from F# to F. The open chord goes from D major to D minor and nothing else changes.

What is Open D tuning on a 6 string guitar?

On a standard six-string it is D-A-D-F#-A-D, from the sixth string to the first. The sixth, third, second and first strings come down from standard; the fifth and the fourth stay where they are.

What string gauge works well in Open D?

A 0.012-0.053 acoustic set works well. If you play slide, going up a gauge gives more firmness under the bar and offsets the tension lost by dropping four strings.

Related tunings

• Open E: the same intervals a whole step higher, but reached by raising strings
• Open G: the other great open slide tuning, in G major
• DADGAD: the same low D, but with no third: suspended rather than major
• Drop D: only the sixth drops to D, and the top strings stay standard
• Open C: another open-chord tuning, lower still
• Celtic C-G-D-G-A-D: a modal D tuning with a deeper low C
• F-A-C-G-C-E: another uncommon open tuning for exploring voicings

Sources

1. Alex Abramovich, "Tune the Guitar thus", London Review of Books, April 2022. The source for the history of Sebastopol, its corruption into Vestapol, and the parallel with Spanish Fandango and Open G.
2. Our own measurement on a real nylon-string classical guitar, August 2026, for the load figures on the top when going from standard tuning to Open E.
3. Our own confirmation by ear against the recordings, September 2026, for the two slide songs.

Updated 2026-09-03