Open G Guitar
Strumming open strings plays a G major chord. Iconic for blues and slide guitar.
Open G gives you a full G major chord when you strum all six strings open. Keith Richards built the Rolling Stones' rhythm sound on this tuning (often removing the low 6th string entirely). Slide guitar blues players from Robert Johnson onward have used Open G as their home base.
The tuning rearranges the fretboard so that barre chords become single-finger affairs and slide work follows simple, logical patterns up the neck.
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Open G Technique
For rhythm playing in the Keith Richards style, try removing or muting the low D string and working with five strings. Power chords become two-finger shapes, and major chords are full barres across all strings. The root notes sit on the 5th string.
For slide guitar, the open chord lets you play melodies by sliding a glass or metal tube to different fret positions. Major chords appear at single fret positions, making the slide approach more intuitive than in standard tuning.