Dan Auerbach of The Black Keys said that he often writes in DADGAD tuning.

Why would he do that?

I really ask the question because he says he plays the same songs in standard tuning live.

So why would he do that? I'm pretty sure he's got the basic chord shapes and barre chords down pat. So why would he write in DADGAD tuning?

I've been meaning to tune my guitar in DADGAD just to mess around but have not gotten around to it yet.

This is interesting (from wikipedia):

DADGAD, or Celtic tuning is an alternative guitar tuning most associated with Celtic music, though it has also found use in rock and other genres. Instead of the standard EADGBE tuning, the six guitar strings are tuned, from low to high, D2 A2 D3 G3 A3 D4. Tuning to DADGAD from standard is accomplished by tuning the first, second and sixth strings down a whole step (two frets). The result is an open D suspended fourth chord (see suspended chord). Being suspended, the open tuning is neither intrinsically major nor minor.

DADGAD was popularised by British folk guitarist Davey Graham.[1] Graham employed the tuning to great effect in his treatments of Celtic music, but also the folk music of India and Morocco. The first guitarists in Irish traditional music to use the tuning were Mícheál Ó Domhnaill and Dáithí Sproule; today it is a very common tuning in the genre. Other proponents of the tuning include Russian Circles, Luka Bloom, Stan Rogers, Jimmy Page, Artie Traum, Pierre Bensusan,[2][3] Eric Roche, Laurence Juber, Tony McManus, Bert Jansch, Richard Thompson, Dick Gaughan, Alistair Hulett, Soig Siberil, Gilles Le Bigot, Imaad Wasif, Jeff Tweedy, Masaaki Kishibe, Paul McSherry, Kotaro Oshio, Ben Chasny, Al Petteway, and Trey Anastasio. English folk musician Martin Carthy now mostly uses a related tuning, CGCDGA, whose explicit evolution from DADGAD he describes in his book.

The suitability of DADGAD to Celtic music stems from the fact that it facilitates the use of a number of moveable chords which retain open strings. These act as a drone on either the bass or treble strings, approximating the voicings used in traditional Scottish and Irish pipe music.

The DADGAD tuning was used extensively by Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin and The Yardbirds in the late '60s and '70s. While with The Yardbirds, Page recorded an instrumental entitled White Summer, itself inspired by the first recorded DADGAD tune, Davey Graham's arrangement of the traditional Irish tune 'She Moved Through the Fair'. On Led Zeppelin's eponymous first album, Led Zeppelin, he used this guitar tuning to perform "Black Mountain Side", though he detuned the entire guitar by one half-step for the recording, so it was really D♭-A♭-D♭-G♭-A♭-D♭ (where the '♭' denotes a flattened note)--the piece which was strongly influenced by Bert Jansch's earlier arrangement of a traditional Irish song called "Blackwater Side" (though Jansch played in 'drop D' tuning). Page later revisited the DADGAD tuning for the song "Kashmir", which appeared on the band's sixth album Physical Graffiti.

Hmmm. Sounds awesome.

Perhaps a better question is, “Why don’t all guitarists simply use DADGAD tuning all the time???”

My best guess is because Jimmy Page did it.

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I have a friend that loved DADGAD and only uses it in his music. Pisses him off to watch a band using standard tuning. It's a state of mind really. Different tunings should be used as a tool in your music, not a statement. My 2 cents.

Tunings are unique to a certain tonal palette. Standard guitar tuning is the notes of an E pentatonic scale. Hmm. There might be some good sense there. I have a guitar that I keep tuned to DADGAD for when I wish to go to an exotic, mystical place. Since I use music as a vehicle for dimensional travel, the different tunings are like keys to these dimensions. Picking only one flavor is needlessly limiting. Although many guitar players have shown that there really are no limits. No matter what tuning you play. Genius can emerge from one string.

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Haven't tried that, if you do give writing in an alternate tuning a try, let us know how it works out for you.

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a couple of suggestions for tunes to help you get your head round the tuning are 'given to fly' by pearl jam and 'kashmir' by zep.

i'm quite fond of the black keys, if you want to do a little deviation 'hold me in your arms' (i think) off thickthreakness is a great DADG#AD tune... though with my ears i'm ready to stand corrected. i believe he uses a lot of open G on recordings too, as they are simple major chords it may give you a better starting point.

Exactly. I have no idea why Dan Auerbach does it, but I like using alternate tunings to write in. For me, it kind of forces me to think outside the box. And sometimes I come up with things that I never would have in standard tuning, or things that are impossible or very hard to play in standard tuning. I wrote a song in DADGAD called Meridian. You can take a listen here, http://www.playcrossroads.com/u/texasguitarslinger , to hear what it sounds like.

I've also play playing in open E a lot lately due to my new discovery of the Rolling Stones, and open G thanks to my Cigar Box guitar.

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I gave up on alternate tunings years ago. No one else can play your guitar, or you have to retune between songs or carry a spare guitar, it just got to be a pain in the backside. Same with those annoying guitarists who tune to E flat or D because they can't bend the strings in proper tuning. Waste of time, too much trouble. EADGBE, that's how guitars are tuned.

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Love this! "...I use music as a vehicle for dimensional travel..." and "Genius can emerge from one string." Very well said.

+100!

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I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say all 3 of the players above were capable of bending their strings in 'proper' tuning.

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I like that song.

I often use DADGAD in playing with acoustic, in an electric setting you tend to lose the sonorities. Unless you are at very low volume. DADGAD is all about the drone strings, it's very similar to a Bagpipe, which of course is why it fits Celtic like a well worn fuzzy slipper....

I would suggest listening to Pierre Bensusan, Al Petteway, Bert Jansch, John Renbourn.
the above have websites with sound clips. As far as instrument, a grand concert acoustic such as a Taylor, Lowden, Larrivee is required, a guitar that is built for fingerpicking, dreadnoughts are awful for this style of music as they are far too boomy and cannot have the clarity needed of open tunings. There is quite a bit of sheet music available for this style, Bensusan and Petteway both have extensive collections...
Also Peppino D'agostino comes to mind, here is a guitarist that makes you believe there are two or more playing but it's only him and his ten fingers....

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I'd recommend taking 90 seconds out of your super busy schedule to re-tune 3 of your strings and see what DADGAD is all about for yourself.

Anyhoo, I'm off to start a thread about what folks think pizza tastes like. I've got one in the kitchen but I can't be arsed to cook it, I'd much rather other people tell me how they think it tastes first.

Enjoy!

Andy

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Would that be a fuzzy Pizza and is it interactive ....

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In all fairness, O.P.'s question was regarding an artists motivation for using DADGAD, not asking for a description of what it sounds like.

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