In my many years of teaching I can safely say, that the open D tuning and even (horror of horrors) the small four string plectrum guitar, have allowed at least seven or eight of my students to begin playing at all.

I once spoke to another Toronto Teacher about how he handled those folks who simply had no ability or co-ordination whatsoever to learn. His reply was. "So they don't learn, Rick. You can't teach EVERYONE to play." I've managed to show most (not all) of those folks how to have a lot of fun with the guitar. One of our Mudcat friends now uses open D and G exclusively and knows a TONNE of guitar. He played regular tuning for thirty years and still could not change chords fast enough for even the slowest of songs. When needed, The D tuning is a Godsend to me.

Rick