Drop D tuning

Drop D: the strings and their notes

Drop D on a guitar that's been in standard

What drop D is

Drop D is standard tuning with one change: the 6th string goes down a whole step, from E2 to D2. The other five stay exactly where they were, so every chord shape on the top five strings still works. What changes is the bottom: the low string now matches the open 4th string an octave down, a D under a D, and the three lowest strings make a fifth and an octave that one finger plays as a power chord.

It is the easiest alternate tuning to get into and out of, which is why it sits on more records than any other: Foo Fighters' “Everlong”, Rage Against the Machine's “Killing in the Name”, the Beatles' “Dear Prudence”, Nirvana's “Heart-Shaped Box”. In rock and metal it gives riffs a low D to chug on; in folk and fingerstyle it gives songs in D a bass note under the whole neck.

How to tune to Drop D from standard

With the tuner above: tap Start, play each string the table changes and turn until the needle sits in the middle. By ear, without the tuner:

1. 6th string: E2 to D2. Its 7th fret should sound like the open 5th string (A2).

Then check the whole tuning once more with the tuner: retuning one string moves the neck, and the others drift a few cents.

On the same strings, tension follows the square of the pitch: the 6th string keeps 79 % of its pull. Slacker strings buzz and read flat at the attack; for more than a whole step down, a heavier set (or at least a heavier low string) keeps the feel.

What one finger plays

The three low strings, D2 A2 D3, are a root, a fifth and an octave: one finger flat across them is a power chord. At the open strings it is D5, at the 2nd fret E5, 3rd F5, 5th G5, 7th A5.

Playing in drop D

• Chords on the 6th string move. A G barre or an F barre rooted on the 6th string needs the low string two frets higher than in standard (G at the 5th fret, not the 3rd), or leave the 6th string out.
• Keys that love it: D major and D minor, where the open low D rings under everything, and G, where it is the fifth.
• Going lower: drop C# and drop C are the same shape a semitone and a whole step down; open D drops the 1st and 2nd strings too.

All six strings in standard and the other tunings: the guitar tuner. Any note at all: the chromatic tuner.

Then play something

The notes you tuned can go into Brumm as a short melody over a beat. Hum a line on top and it becomes an instrument.

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