Guitar Sessions 24: Play Mumford and Sons’ “The Cave”

Lessons

Sep 7

Written By

“The Cave,” from Mumford and Sons’ debut album, is a powerful song that makes a great intro to open-D tuning—plus it’s a great rhythm and picking workout. Learn the song as played by Marcus Mumford in this episode of Guitar Sessions.

In open-D tuning, you tune your open strings to a D major chord: D A D F# A D. You lower the sixth, second, and first strings a whole step, and you lower the third string a half step.

This tuning is used in lots of kinds of music, notably blues, and in classic songs like Joni Mitchell’s “Both Sides Now” and “Big Yellow Taxi” and Duane Allman’s “Little Martha.” Actually, as noted in the video lesson, those three songs just cited are in open-E tuning: E B E G# B E. The intervals between strings are the same in open E as in open D, just a step higher—so you can play the same fingerings in either tuning.

But here’s the catch about open E: it requires you to raise the fifth, fourth, and third strings above standard tuning. Depending on your guitar and your string gauge, it might not be a good idea to ratchet up the tension on your guitar neck like that. So a safer strategy if you want to play in open E is to tune to to open D and add a capo on the second fret. That’s what Marcus Mumford does in “The Cave.”

Download the charts for the lesson, and all the other episodes of Guitar Sessions, on Patreon.

Download the charts