DADGAD IS DEADGOOD 

By Tony Wilson

There were, however, guitar clubs which I thought would be a bountiful well of ideas and a meeting place for like-minded people to share their experiences and skills. I was wrong… mostly they consisted of everyone sitting around talking and looking at each other’s guitar, their construction, materials and decoration rather than playing them. I made the cardinal sin, (a sin of the ‘flash’), by taking my own guitar out and playing something… I was never asked back. Something in my playing was eluding me. I found it difficult to make a traditional folk song sound ’right’ using standard chords. Standard tuning is not a chord as such. It’s a kind of an A/E cross with 9th/4th/minors and discordant notes thrown in for good measure (I’ve no idea what that means either but persevere and work with me). I’d heard about this ‘magical’ tuning that was called DADGAD, (it is what it says on the tin 3 strings that are D, two strings that are A and a thrown in for good measure a string tuned to G. DADGAD isn’t as chord either but it only has three notes, and... when I was playing on stage, I would always be struggling to get into tune in standard tuning. 

All of the this was coupled to an over-use of capos to get the sound I was after, and it left me always in the fear that I was interfering with the one string that was actually in tune and just making all of the rest sound worse. My motto was later to become 3 notes good, 5 notes more difficult (for me). To be honest… I would be putting capos on, completely re-tuning about 4-5 times in an evening and spending more time fiddling with the machine heads (the twisty turny things at the top) than actually performing. This was at a time when all you had were pitch-pipes and tuning forks as your most reliable means of getting a note (digital had not been invented then and modern tuners just show you how accurately out of tune you are.) We’re not all guitar genii like Richard Thompson, Isaac Guillory or Albert Lee and I think that standard-tuning can make finding an empathetic accompaniment more difficult. This is mostly because traditional folk songs aren’t written like a lot of pop songs in strictly major and minor keys, they are modal. I’m glad you asked…think Julie Andrews and “Doh a deer” (c’mon, you weren’t expecting that now were you?). That’s a standard scale, it’s what we’re used to in Western music and it makes for pleasing and predictable combinations of notes. A lot of traditional folk songs are written in what are known as modes and in essence it is what you get from starting on a white key on a piano and playing every white key in order (another 7), until you reach an octave higher. In DADGAD, especially in D modal (D-D) you have the ideal set of 3 droning strings to fill out the sound of the backing. For the completists, There are other folks songs that are written in a pentatonic scale (just the black notes on a piano. Think “Auld Lang Syne”). So, I started playing in DADGAD after being inspired by the playing of Gordon Tyrall when we were touring in Germany in and around the mid 1970’s. He took the time to show me a few chords and that was it, and I was off. Later, in 1980, when I played with Mick “Mighty” Doonan his Uillean pipes were in D and all of my arsenal of tunings and use of capos became redundant and I have used exclusively DADGAD from then until this day. There is nothing you can’t play in this tuning but you get to make your own chords up and the fact that there are notes that shouldn’t work or even be there is all the better. It just adds a rich palette to the sounds you can make and… if it isn’t challenging then it isn’t worth doing. To play a song, I have found, that once you have picked out the melody of the song, (the dotty-swirly things on the telegraph wires), you then try to fit chords around the melody and the beauty of using a tuning is… you can make up chords or two-string harmonies that sound right to you. You have made a personal choice that makes the most sense to you and you have experimented. You have been on a thrilling journey to be sympathetic to the essence of the song, and are in danger of developing your own style because you have invested so much time in perfecting your accompaniment. 

Rather than fill this edition with chord charts and lengthy explanations about how to play in this tuning, in Facebook put “DADGAD DEMO TWX” and it will lead you to a series of explanations and lessons. What made me want to write this in the first place is… I can’t be the only one who is lacking in enthusiasm or motivation to play or sing in the current situation and it was when I was tuning my granddaughter’s ¾ sized guitar that I had to put it into standard-tuning… and it was like a revelation and an impetus to try and challenge myself to play in a different style and tuning. It felt like a different approach that had once seemed so difficult. Now that we all have time on our hands, we have the opportunity to try something different and I’m letting you know about my own, recent personal, journey about an opportunity to try and revitalize your playing. 

• Give DADGAD a try and see where it can take you. It’s all smoke and mirrors and gives you results that can surprise and make you think more closely about your own playing. 

• Try flat-pick picking where you use the pick as you would your fingers, if nothing else to save your nails. I don’t know about you but my nails over the last year have regularly looked like something from the bottom of a well-neglected aquarium and as for trying to do the gel nails at home I have only just recovered from having sunburnt fingertips. 

• Concentrating on using a flat-pick has saved me from having to go on my bimonthly trips to the nail bar to have wonderful conversations with Vietnamese or Korean nailistas… then having to run the gauntlet of curious and sometimes threatening stares on King Street. I find myself coming out of the salon saying very loudly, “I play the guitar… that’s why I get my nails done”, whilst waving the three varnished nails of my right hand high in the air and rushing into the next-door local pound shop and buying something for a car or an oversized screwdriver. 

• Try using ‘standard’ chords, in DADGAD and other different tunings and manipulate them until they fit with what you’re trying to do. 

• Try using DADGAD chords in standard tuning and see where it takes you. 

• Experiment with your approach to how you play the guitar be radical and open to how you can get a different sound. 

• As a tip, when I am looking at a song, I try to find at least two different ways of playing it so that I can make it more interesting for me and the listener. Good luck don’t despair we’ll meet in better times! So… back to the club, I wasn’t just going to stand there and be insulted by a stranger on a first meeting, before I’ve even entered the place (I can sit down if I want and be insulted by a houseful of people I know very well, in and out of the bubble). 

“So, you’re telling me that I’ve wasted the past 52 years playing and perfecting my instrumental skills?” He sucked at his gums, paused and then replied, “Yep! Pretty much! It’s £5 and everybody pays.” There’s no pleasing some folk. In fact, it reminds me of the time I was in Accrington and, after a long drive and a concert ahead of me that evening, I was starving. I saw a pub that had, in 6-foot letters, a poster boasting, “Food all day! Every day!” “This is the place for me.” I thought. I went expectantly to the bar and, with the well-thumbed menu in my hand, I said, “I’ll have the steak and chips please.” “No, you won’t!” was the reply. “Oh…. if it’s off, then I’ll have the ploughman’s please.” “No, you won’t!” I could see a pattern emerging here as the locals were highly amused at my “out of towner” antics. “There’s no food!” “Any particular reason?” I was letting the hunger do the talking. “It’s just the sign outside says food all day….” “Well, it’s Tuesday!” was his curt reply as he snatched the menu from my hand and returned to serving beer. Life’s like that sometimes.