playing guitar with DADGAD tuning.. is it really easier?

Note: I posed the question in the title hoping that someone might answer it. I was considering playing in DADGAD, but decided to write this post first. Fortunately, one helpful reader did answer my question. Scroll to the bottom of this post to see his comment.

The vast majority of guitar players out there, whether they are playing acoustic or electric guitars, use standard tuning : EADGBE.

The best way to remember the notes for the 6 strings on the guitar.. standard tuning.. is this:

Eddie

Ate

Dynamite

Good

Bye

Eddie.

I love that phrase.

Besides standard tuning, there are many alternate tunings that can be used on guitar. Some guitarists like to play blues and Americana music with a slide. They often use open tunings such as open E and open G. Keith Richards of The Rolling Stones made open G very popular.

There is another tuning, mostly used by acoustic players, which is called DADGAD. Those are the notes the strings are tuned to.

The disadvantage of using an alternate tuning is that the notes are on different places on the fretboard compared to standard tuning, Learning the notes on the fretboard can be a real drag. It takes some people, like me, a long time to learn. Each string that is re-tuned puts the notes in a different spot than they once were.

For example.. the lowest sounding string in standard tuning is tuned to E. That string, played open (not holding the string down anywhere) produces an E note. Put your finger on the first fret, and you get an F note.

Drop the E down to a D.. the note you are playing on the open string is D. Fret the first note, and you get a D# (or Eb.. same fret, but two different note names), not an F. All down the string, the notes are at a different place than they were when the string was tuned to E.

As far as I know, most alternate tunings do not require that every string be re-tuned.. but most probably require re-tuning at least three strings. So.. to learn the fretboard in an alternate tuning, you have to figure out where the notes moved to on those strings.

Fortunately, many players do not find it necessary to learn the fretboard. Some of us don’t want to bother with soloing or theory, and just want to play basic chords that we can sing along to, or use to jam with friends.

I have read that playing chords using DADGAG tuning is easier than playing chords using standard tuning. I have briefly checked some DADGAD chord charts online, and have tried a few chords. As of yet, I cannot determine whether using DADGAD is really easier.

I have had tremendous trouble learning how to play the guitar in standard tuning. I still want to play guitar, and so I am looking into playing with a slide (so I don’t have to fret chords at all with the fingers of my left hand) or using DADGAD, which might have easier chords.

I would like opinions from guitar players who use DADGAD, especially if they are using this tuning for Celtic or Americana music.

Thanks.

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edit 11/5/13:

Here is a comment I received from reader MartynWylde that is quite helpful:

“I have used DADGAD as an alternate turning for many years. I perform “folk music of the British Isles”, sometimes referred to as “Celtic”, including English, Irish and Scottish folk tunes.
Is DADGAD “easier”? Perhaps, for the simplicity of the basic chords, but playing melodies in DADGAD requires as much technique as it would in standard tuning.
Good luck!”