Level: 2
Tuning: Open D

On June 29, 1860 Henry Worrall walked into the Clerk's Office of the Southern District Court of Ohio and filed copyrights for two instrumental guitar songs. "Worrall's Original Spanish Fandango" called for the guitar strings to be tuned to an open-G chord (D, G, D, G, B, D, from low to high), with the explanation that the music was to be read as if the guitar were in standard tuning... Worrall's other copyright entry that day, "Sebastopol," was composed several years earlier, when the Crimean War was raging. To commemorate the lengthy siege of the Russian city of Sebastopol (later spelled Sevastopol), Worrall composed a stately march that imitated a bugle and military marching band. He subtitled his piece a "Descriptive Fantaisie for the Guitar." This time, the music instructed players to retune their guitar to open D so the song's elegant treble-string melodies and chiming harmonics fell easily under the fingers. In its 1860 form, "Sebastopol" has little harmonic variation and sounds decidedly un-African, but its main melody and voice-leading approach to chords became staples for blues and folk performers as varied as Libba Cotten, Robert Wilkins, Mississippi John Hurt, and Furry Lewis. - Jas Obrecht

Over the years "Sebastopol" turned in to "Vestapol". I first heard Elizabeth Cotten play this tune. The Open D tuning allows for some easy yet wonderful guitar sounds. By playing an alternating bass you are free to glide over the fingerboard choosing melodic lines. The important element is your alternating bass. Make sure you are playing this with commitment. I tend to damp my bass in this technique. This allows for an even more driving bass feel.