Open Tunings?

[kitara]

I just bought a guitar magazin which contains some cool melodies from John Lee Hoker.
The text says, that he used an "Open Tuning".
I'd just like to know a bit more about that tuning. How did it develope? Is it used for blues and boogie in general, or is it just some kind of "J.L.Hooker-touch"?

Thanks

[Andrew]

An open tuning is a tuning that spells out the notes of a chord. The most common open tunings are
open A E A E A C# E
open G D G D D F# D
open D D A D F# A D
open E E B E G# B E

open E and open D are actually the same to play, so are open G and open A, you just tune some strings up instead of others down. It is probably advisable to use open G and open D, since these put less tension on the neck.

Open tunings are used in lots of types of music, but the most common is probably blues. Especially when a slide is involved.

[Smitty]

Hey there. Andrew spelled everything out nicely there. My question is what magazine did you just buy with JL Hooker in it? I am a huge fan of his and would like to get it.
Thanks in advance

Smitty

[kitara]

It's an article from a german magazin called "guitar" and contains some informations, some little tab pieces and stuff to show the "JL Hooker" style ...

I don't know if you can get it somehow ...
Perhaps the homepage might be useful, but it's also in German:
www.guitar.de

[Smitty]

Thanks a bunch. As luck would have it my girlfriend is German so she can read the web page for me and help out. Thanks a bunch.
btw, I went and saw Kelly Joe Phelps last night. If you like blues, slide or acoustic music you should see him. Amazing!


Smitty