Just tuned my guitar to DADGAD. Can you go back and forth?

Question:DADGAD is great for Celtic/Irish backup. So easy for key of D! But will I be able to go back and forth between DADGAD and standard tuning without going insane? Do you keep two guitars, one for DADGAD, one for standard? What's the real deal with DADGAD?

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: DADGAD is great for Celtic/Irish backup. So easy for key of D! But will I be able to go back and forth between DADGAD and standard tuning without going insane? Do you keep two guitars, one for DADGAD, one for standard? What's the real deal with DADGAD?

i only have one guitar, but i play in standard tuning and DADGAD. tuning is not a problem, and you wont go insane. but I will warn you of one thing. if your brain works anything like mine, when you think of a "D" chord, your fingers immediatly think of the XX0232 shape that they are used to playing in standard tuning. but once you get fluent in DADGAD, when you think "D", your fingers will think XX0232, and 000200, the d chord in DADGAD. this will happen with all the chords, and i can think of numerous occasions where I involuntarily played a DADGAD chord, in standard tuning, and Vice-Versa. it is good to get fluent in multiple tunings, but i seem to run into this problem frequently, and it ticks me off becuase, frankly, i dont know what to do about it. you can always just play in DADGAD, and capo up to a different key. but good luck, and happy playing:)

If you have two guitars then tune each one separately.

But if you have an electronic tuner then there should not be any drama in changing the tunings on the same guitar.

If you have 2 guitars, and like playing them both, then yeah, keep one in normal and one in DADGAD. If not, it's no big deal to retune as needed. Get an electronic tuner to make life easier for yourself. Intelli make a good one that clips on to the guitar and works on vibrations - great in a noisy atmosphere!

DADGAD was invented (discovered?) fairly recently to make playing Celtic music easier.

if you have a floyd rose tremelo you can just use a EVH Drop D tuner

but most people just have two guitars

it should be easy to tune your guitar back to standard its only 2 strings your tuning