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Dropped D Tuning:
The Wise Maid Key of D
I would think of the A chord in bar two and the G chord in bar six as color chords: the melody would suggest a D chord from the start of the phrase until the fourth bar so I have played these chords to break that monotony.
There is a harmonic run in the B part that you should familiarize yourself with: the basic chords (I, IV, V or D, G, A) are still used but the harmonic movement and rate of change is different. In bar four I delay the D chord by half a bar and in bars five and six I don't return to D at all. The chord of A appears in the penultimate bar and continues for a bar and a half before resolving to D. This avoids an obvious D, A, D, A, D pattern over the last two bars.
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The Wise Maid with Substitutions
I like the bass line D, F#, E, A against the tune; however, notice in the second four-bar phrase of the first part that there are two different chords: the D with the F# in the bass and the quick D in the final bar which gives a slight feel of suspension-resolution. This means that the bass line remains the same though the chords have changed. Other possibilities would include playing a D chord for a full round of the tune, or, starting the second round with a B minor (the relative minor of D major) at the start of the A part. (This happens at the start of the second part in the played example).
I would minimize the use of the B minor chord at this point in the tune (the beginning of the second part) because it is quite a big harmonic statement to displace the tonic D chord at the start of a part. The F#, E, A bass line appears again in the second four-bar phrase of the B part. I think that the chord changes are very much dictated by the contours of this tune.
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