A Word About Open Strings
You will have noticed that open strings are often used when playing in open tunings. This is a great advantage of these kinds of tunings because it affords the player new chord shapes and voicings that aren’t available in standard tuning. Open tunings are said to have a "big" or "open" quality of sound, meaning the harmonic range of many chords is often wider than those common to standard tuning.
The "sound" of an open string is different to fretted notes in that there is no division of the string by any finger, and therefore no subtle variations such as vibrato or bending can occur. Consequently the player has no control over the ringing of an open string after it is plucked, and any subtlety in timbre or nuance is made by the guitar, not the guitarist.
The following Blues song makes good use of open strings and techniques you have learned throughout this book, including one-fingered chords, playing in thirds and playing in fifths. Try to play it with a "gritty" feel and let the open strings ring-out as much as possible.
