Blue Monday Guitar

Sponsored by Taylor Guitars: Indian rosewood is a classic acoustic guitar tonewood for good reason. It has wonderfully full-spectrum musical properties—beautiful top-end clarity, strong midrange character, and bell-like low-end complexity. Paired with a spruce top, it offers players a versatile and richly expressive tool. That’s one reason why Taylor features the solid rosewood/Sitka spruce tonewood pairing in several series across its guitar line. The most accessible is the 400 Series, where players can enjoy the premium features of an all-solid acoustic with a tastefully distilled appointment package that speaks to the utility of the guitars. That said, Taylor recently leveled up the aesthetic of…

Sponsored by Elixir® Strings: Altered tunings can provide a wealth of inspiration when it comes to composing and exploring new avenues on the guitar, forcing you to think differently about chord voicings and making possible parts that are unplayable in standard tuning. Open D – where the guitar is simply tuned to a D chord – is a fantastic, rich-sounding tuning and the perfect place to start the journey if you’ve never tried alternate tunings. In this easy-to-follow tutorial, Elixir Strings artist John Connearn takes you through the chords built on the notes of the D Major scale, with the Open D tuning allowing…