As much as you might want to argue that The Rolling Stones is all about the chemistry between all of the members, it’s fair to say that without Keith Richards, they’d be nothing.
Of course, the absence of Mick Jagger would probably also prove to be a proverbial nail in the coffin for the band, but when you remove either of their signature styles, then you’re removing part of the essence of what made them great in the first place.
While there have been moments where the band have experienced slight dips in quality, and where both Jagger and Richards have been at odds with each other both on a creative and personal level, when they’re both working on each other’s wavelength, they’re only capable of producing gold.
The thing is, Richards’ style is not necessarily about being flashy, and he instead takes a less-is-more approach to crafting riffs that other guitarists of his ilk would tend to steer clear of. This is somewhat unusual for a guitarist to have as part of a signature, because often we tend to look at the flair that’s involved rather than the subtleties, but Richards’ signature is playing in an open-G tuning, and it’s as simple as that.
But how did he come to choose this unusual and unorthodox approach? He’s been using this specific method of playing ever since the earliest recordings of the Rolling Stones, but why exactly did he begin to use it in the first place, and what has stopped him from switching things up to be more conventional in the years since?
How did Keith Richards develop his signature guitar style?
As a guitarist, Richards’ main inspirations come from blues and rock and roll players of the 1950s, with Chuck Berry and Scotty Moore being among his favourites, but because of how primitive their playing styles were compared to some of the people they influenced, it’s unusual that someone like Richards would stick so closely to the idols that he looked up to.
However, this modified tuning, accompanied by the fact that he used to remove the lowest string so that he was essentially always playing a five-stringed instrument, gave an extra element to his style that proved to be unique, offering a largely high-end, trebly sound as opposed to something with more bass and mid-range sounds.
In order to get this, it made sense to tune the five remaining strings to the same notes as a G chord, meaning that if he strummed without fretting any strings, it would sound out this specific chord. This allowed for greater ease when playing with fewer strings, giving him the ability to barre on a single fret and move around it when playing blues-oriented solos.
This simplistic approach is what separates him from all of the other great guitarists and puts him in a class of his own, and if it were any more complex, it would reverse the philosophy of guitar playing that he has followed since the start of his career. His ethos has always been to write the most basic songs, because he firmly believes that if it can stand out without all of the intricate production, then it will stand the test of time. If he chose to play in any other way, he wouldn’t be able to operate by this yardstick, and that’s exactly why it’s the perfect signature for Richards to have.
