D A D Cigar Box Guitar: Common Chord Shapes Part 1

Although many people tune their 3-string Cigar Box Guitar to G D G, there are many other tunings available and a fairly popular tuning is D A D. Lots of people like to sing in the key of D and this tuning makes it really easy to play in this key.

I’ll show you a few useful chord shapes and how to work out the 1-finger barre chords by using a chart which I provide. I’ll also suggest what strings to use for various ways of playing in this tuning.

3 Useful Chord Groups For A Cigar Box Guitar Tuned To D A D

1. D Major Chord Family Using Power Chords On a Cigar Box Guitar Tuned D A D

Just to get you started with finding your way around this tuning, I have a graphic below to illustrate how you can use power chords to play the I, IV and V chords and the relative minor or vi chord. These make up the family of chords that all go together with D:

These are all power chords and if you want to find out more about this you can read my article on 1-finger barre chords for tips. https://beginnercbg.com/power-chords-on-a-guitar-with-3-strings/

I have suggested 2 different fingerings for the B power chord used in place of B minor. This is because some people struggle to make 1- finger power chords without a slide. If this is you, try lining up 3 fingers across the frets, 1 finger on each string. You could use fingers 1, 2 and 3 if you prefer.

Bear in mind that the power chord names are different for a G D G . I have a chart below to help you work out what these chord names are on D A D tuning if that’s important to you.

2. G Major Chord Family On A Cigar Box Guitar Tuned D A D

The graphic below shows the chord shapes for the family of chords that go with G Major on a Cigar Box Guitar tuned to D A D:

The G7 position shown above can be mirrored to play 5 2 3 instead of 3 2 5 if you prefer. ( See the graphic below for clarification.) In fact all these shapes can be mirrored, it just depends which sound you prefer and which fingering you find easier.

3. The Chord Family Of A Major On A Cigar Box Guitar Tuned D A D

These chords can all be moved up the fretboard by 2 frets giving these chords on a Cigar Box Guitar tuned to D A D:

You will notice that I have given you the easier shape for A this time ( based on the D alternative for a Cigar Box Guitar tuned to G D G but you could use the shape 7 4 2 if you prefer. This time I have mirrored the A7 shape ( see note above about G7) to give the root in the bass. I prefer the sound of this shape but I find it a bit trickier to play. It’s up to you which you choose – I tend to choose on a song by song basis.

Which String Gauges Should I Use For D A D Tuning On Cigar Box Guitar?

There are a few ways of achieving this, depending on how large you want the range of notes to be:

For the bass string, you could use the 6th or 4th string of a standard 6 -string set ( the 6th string would be tuned down to D from E; the 4th string is designed to be played at D)
For the middle string, you could use the 5th or 3rd string of a standard 6 -string set ( the 5th string would be tuned as designed to an A; the 3rd string is designed to be played at G but we would tuned up to an A)
The top string could be the 1st, 2nd or 4th string of a standard 6 -string set ( the 1st string would be tuned down from E to D, the 2nd string would be tuned up from a B to a D- this string is at risk of breaking so I personally would avoid this option), the 4th string would be tuned as designed to D

Typical Gauges For Strings For D A D Tuning On Cigar Box Guitar

These are my suggestions based on medium weight strings for fretted instruments. For slide guitar you may want to go a bit heavier:

46 for the lowest string,17 for the middle and 10 for the highest string for a really wide range where the top D string is 2 octaves above the bottom string: D2 A2 D4

46, 36 and 26 for a closer range with a lot more bass: D2 A2 D3. The top D is just one octave above the low D

26, 17,10 for a closer range with a more treble sound: D3 A3 D4. The top D is again one octave above the low D , but all of the pitches are an octave higher than the 2nd option I have given.

When choosing what combination of strings to use, you need to think what kind of sound you would like- Section 2 of my article here will help you to see what options I recommend for different sounds: https://beginnercbg.com/9-different-tunings-for-a-cigar-box-guitar/

Notes On The Fretboard Of A Cigar Box Guitar Tuned To D A D

If you find that you like this tuning, you might want to invest a bit of time learning the notes of the fretboard, particularly those of the bass string. This is not only the same as the notes on the top string, but also the same as the name of the power chord of that fret.

If you can manage to learn the names of the frets on the middle string, you will be able to play the alternative power chord shape with the root note on the middle string.

Here is a chart showing all the notes of the fretboard of a Cigar Box Guitar tuned D A D:

fret

power chord

note on D ( top and bottom) strings

note on A (middle) string

NOTE THAT G# = Ab, Bb = A#, C# = Db, F# = Gb

Tuning My Cigar Box Guitar To D A D – What Happens To The Chords I Have Learned On A Guitar Tuned G D G?

Any chord, whether that is a power chord, a minor or Major chord or a 7th chord can be played with the same shape as you played on your Cigar Box Guitar tuned G D G. It will sound at a different pitch i.e. it will be transposed.

The chart below shows you what happens to the actual pitch that you will hear when you use the same shape on a D A D tuned Cigar Box Guitar:

chord on G D G

chord on D A D