Fingerstyle and open tunings: the American Primitive spirit

In the late 1950s a young guitarist from the Washington area, John Fahey (1939–2001), began recording solo pieces on a steel-string acoustic guitar that blended the rural blues of Charley Patton or Skip James, hymns, classical music and, later, Indian ragas. With a touch of humour he called the style American Primitive Guitar. Robbie Basho, Leo Kottke, then Jack Rose (1971–2009) and many others carried it on. It is ideal music for improvising alone: a drone in the thumb, an open tuning that rings, and a free melody on top.

The ingredients

• Open tuning: the open strings form a major chord. Everything rings, and a single finger (or a barre) is enough to change chords.
• The independent thumb: it plays the bass on every beat, either on a single string ("monotonic" bass) or alternating between two strings.
• The drone: open strings sounding under the melody, like bagpipes or the Indian tanpura.
• Repetition that transforms: a motif comes back, shifts, grows longer; the piece moves forward through small variations.

Two historic tunings

The nicknames come from two 19th-century parlour pieces, The Siege of Sebastopol and Spanish Fandango, which were played in these tunings and known to every guitarist in the American South. To tune up, open the tuner and pick "Open D" or "Open G" from the Tuning menu.

Map of the treble strings in open D

C natural gives the Mixolydian colour, very bluesy and very Appalachian. C♯ gives the major colour, brighter.

1. The monotonic thumb

The thumb plays the open 6th string on every beat, never stopping; index and middle fingers improvise on strings 1 and 2. The staves below show the real pitch written an octave up (like all guitar music); the hand-written tab is in open D.

M:4/4
L:1/8
Q:1/4=100
K:D clef=treble-8
[D,d] A [D,d] e [D,f] e [D,d] A | [D,f] g [D,a] g [D,f] e [D,d]2 | [D,d] =c [D,A] c [D,d] e [D,f] e | [D,d]2 [D,A]2 [D,A,DFAd]4 |]

d |-0-----0--2--4--2--0----|-4--5--7--5--4--2--0----|-0-----------0--2--4--2-|-0-----------0----------|
A |----0-----------------0-|------------------------|----3--0--3-------------|-------0-----0----------|
F#|------------------------|------------------------|------------------------|-------------0----------|
D |------------------------|------------------------|------------------------|-------------0----------|
A |------------------------|------------------------|------------------------|-------------0----------|
D |-0-----0-----0-----0----|-0-----0-----0-----0----|-0-----0-----0-----0----|-0-----0-----0----------|

2. Drone, slurs and slides

A slower approach, close to a raga: the 6th string sounds as a drone, and the melody sings on string 3 with hammer-ons from the open string and a slide. The C natural in bar 3 brings the modal colour.

M:4/4
L:1/8
Q:1/4=66
K:D clef=treble-8
[D,F]2 (F G) A2 [Ad]2 | [D,B]3 A G2 F2 | [D,=c]2 B2 [Ad]2 G2 | [D,DFAd]8 |]

d |--------------------0----|------------------------|-------------0----------|-0----------------------|
A |--------------------0----|------------------------|------------------------|-0----------------------|
F#|-0-----0--h1--3----------|-3/5------3--1-----0----|-6-----5-----3-----1----|-0----------------------|
D |-------------------------|------------------------|------------------------|-0----------------------|
A |-------------------------|------------------------|------------------------|------------------------|
D |-0-----------------------|-0----------------------|-0----------------------|-0----------------------|

3. Improvising within a frame

Pieces by Fahey or Jack Rose are open forms: composed sections alternate with passages where the guitarist lingers, repeats, develops. A simple plan for your own improvisations:

1. Theme (8 bars): a fixed motif over the monotonic thumb.
2. Drone: on D alone, slowly explore two or three notes, then gradually widen the range and the rhythmic density, like the alap and then the jor of a raga.
3. Elsewhere: a barre at fret 5 (G) or 7 (A) for a few bars, with the same motif.
4. Return to the theme, then to the open chord, left ringing until silence.

Step-by-step exercise

1. Tune to open D. Play the thumb alone on string 6 with the metronome for two minutes, until it becomes automatic.
2. Without stopping the thumb, add a single melody note per beat on string 1 (frets 0, 2, 4, 5, 7).
3. Add string 2 and the off-beats. Then improvise four bars, repeat them, vary the ending.
4. Try the drone: let the open 6th and 1st strings ring and improvise slowly on string 3, with slurs and slides.
5. Build a three-minute piece with the "theme – drone – elsewhere – return" plan. Record it.