Hi - I want to experiment more with open tunings: What are people's favorite, and why? thanks.

My favorites are the ones in tune.

yeah I hate it when they are out of tune too! 

DADGAD is a good one to try, nice for acoustic folky stuff. Open E is good for slide blues.

Yeah - i have been really liking DADGAD lately - getting hooked on it for some of my songs. Often its been just low D but the extra D at the top is nice and offers some good things for finger picking. One curiosity I had was if there was a certain tuning that tends to be conducive to riffs and chord progressions -or I guess it still boils down to how good you play in the first place no matter what tuning..

I like open E and D tuning the best. You can do a lot of neat things picking or with a slide. Yes, does help to play around with them and get good at it. Just have fun and let it flow. Listened to your first two songs and they sound really nice. Good playing!!
 
Peace and Blessings, John

Thanks ! I need to try open E soon. Thanks for the song listens, that was not expected ! I have not played any live gigs in several years but trying to get my "act together". Thanks 

Hi there!  First, you might want to check out what 'the master' of open tunings uses.  I would say that is 'Don Ross' (Canadian, eh?  Yay!).
 
Check out what he works with and fiddle about. I learned to play (in an Open F tuning) his iconic piece, ''Berkley Springs".
 
www.youtube.com/watch?v=xTE5aCiqMkY
 
Here's a link to his site:  gobyfish.com/Tunings.html
 
But one he's not listed is one I've been having tremendous pleasure working with.  Try, 'DGDGAD' (pronounced, "Duhg-uh-Du-Gad" ... okay, I made that party up).  
 
Try it with a capo on 3rd fret or higher for nice and accessible variants with the C major switch.  For the most part, you'll be playing in G major, but D major is possible too (and minors of both are an option - it's a very flexible tuning!)
 
Best to you,
As Always,
FR