Hello and welcome to Friday night’s journey into another alternate tuning – this time with the lovely and talented Open D 7add11 Tuning with the following open string notes:

D G C F# A D

In the song/idea below, called “Majestic Sprinkles,” I’m only playing the notes of the D 7add11 chord.

Majestic Sprinkles? Indeed.

Here are the chord notes, numbers and intervals of the D 7add11 chord:

The chord D 7add11 has a total of 5 notes, which is the same number of notes in the pentatonic and blues scales. No wonder there are so many ideas that flow from just a single chord!

I love hearing new interpretations of old “standard” chords. Even a typical “1, 4, 5 progression” sounds unique when you play in alt tuning.

I hope you get as much enjoyment in D 7add11 as I did today.

May these daily alt tunings continue to inspire you as you explore songwriting beyond the limitations of standard tuning. If you’d like to learn more about making alt tuning a part of your songwriting, give me a call at 888-7-GUITAR or reach out to me here.

Until next time…

~Scott Quillin

Did you know? Scott started playing guitar when he was 14 years old back in 1982. A Pittsburgh native, Scott resides in Rhode Island where he teaches guitar, bass, music and songwriting. He also records and mixes songs for local bands and artists as well as his own music. He writes and records nearly every day and has a real passion to help others hear their “inner voice” and express that in songs.

You can listen to more of Scott’s music at https://soundcloud.com/scottquillin.