The open G capo trick that made 'A Pillow of Winds' one of Pink Floyd's most delicate songs

David Gilmour tuned his Gibson J‑200 to open G (D G D G B D), then clamped a capo at the seventh fret. That high, ringing voicing turned a simple fingerpicking pattern into the song’s central texture—floating and almost harp‑like. It’s the same tuning/capo combo he later used on parts of Wish You Were Here, but here it gives the 1971 track an unusually gentle, breathy quality that stands out in Pink Floyd’s catalogue.

The song is also one of the band’s rare explicit love songs—lyrics by Roger