Drop A tuning (AEADF#B) is used by guitarist of various metal disciplines; the darker and heavier the sound the more applicable the tuning.  The entire guitar is tuned down significantly, so there are a number of things you need to think about beyond simply getting in tune if you want your axe to produce the sound you’re going for.  Hopefully this will help fill in the void where information about this tuning should be (the internet has surprisingly little to say on the subject).

Because the strings will be so much looser than normal, lighter gauges are out the window.  They’ll shake and rattle too much; if you get a sound at all it’s sure to be on the wrong side of ugly, so heavy strings are a must.  If you use a floating bridge you may need to make further adjustments to your guitar beyond the strings to make sure that it floats properly under those slack strings and keeps you in tune with yourself all the way down the fret board.  You may have to turn down or completely turn off the tremolo on your guitar too.

Here’s how to get yourself into drop A tuning from a standard tuning (for reference – first string is low E in standard tuning):

First, tune the low E string down until you get a unison at the twelfth fret with the A string (like what you might do for drop D, just farther down the neck) So the first string at fret 12 should sound the same as the open A string.

For the second string tune to the 7^th fret on the first string (now the low A).

After that you tune it just like you would in standard tuning- D (3^rd) string to the 5^th fret on the second string, G (4^th) string down to the 5^th fret of the 3^rd string, the B (5^th) string down to the 4^th fret of the 4^th string (that was G but is now D), and the E (6^th) string down to the 5^th fret of what is at this point the F# string (but was once the B).  Your tuning is now AEADF#B.

I know that looks complicated, but it isn’t.  Trust me.  Just try and you’ll get it.  After you’re in tune, it’s easy enough to find your way around Drop A tuning: the fingerings are the same as a drop D, so almost the same as standard; it’s just a lot lower.  Crank up the volume and bring on the pain.

The notes that comprise this tuning, D, G, and A create a D suspended 4^th chord, or a “D modal” chord.  This is why when you strum all of the strings open it has a haunting quality, not quite minor and not quite major.  Major or minor is in the third note of the scale in any basic triad, and without the third there is no strong major or minor feel.  So this tuning lends itself equally well to major or minor pieces while always maintaining an open and airy sort of sound, but it’s the drones that make this dog to hunt.

With DADGAD you have essentially two drones, one low and one high (the two D’s).  What is a drone you might ask?  A drone is a common feature in music from all over the world, from Robert Johnson and Earl Scruggs straight over to Ravi Shankar (the sitar actually has 3 or 4 drone strings; the banjo’s only got one), and oh boy is it ever in Celtic music.  What it does is resonate throughout a piece of music, helping the player create a stronger sense of rhythm and depth of sound.  Think of it as a sort of anchor, holding everything down and together.

The best way for you to get a sense for what you can do with this is by kicking around a few chord progressions built on D.  Here are a few open chord positions in DADGAD tuning to get you started.  These will sound great with a pick, or even better if you’re able to finger pick some arpeggios over the chords (just try, it’s really not that hard).  The size of the sound you get compared to when you play the same chords in standard tuning will blow your mind.

To keep it simple, let’s look at a song that inspired, that is in fact more or less the same melody as the one used in Jimmy Page’s “White Summer”.  It’s an old Irish song called “She Moved Through the Fair”; the version that hit Jimmy so hard was Davy Graham’s.

It’s one of the many fantastic Celtic love songs with the ghost of a dead lover in it (check out the Scottish tune “Clerk Saunders” for a really dark example of this).  An absolutely haunting melody that I first heard performed a cappella by Jean Redpath when I was very small, then listened to repeatedly for years until I lost the recording.  I have tabbed it out as close to her treatment of the melody as my memory would allow, in the same tuning used by Graham and Page, if not exactly the same key (I know Graham played it with a capo sometimes).

When exploring this tab, remember that this is an Irish tune and that means trills.  Hammer on and pull off as much as you can get away with without getting obnoxious about it.  Also, notice how I have indicated a C chord and a D thing with mostly open strings (it’s another A, but all those 5^ths sound cool) at the end of each phrase: do not confine yourself to this.  The beauty of an open tuning like DADGAD is that it allows for lots of easy chord shapes, or just letting open strings ring to create a chord around a fretted string.  Believe me; it is not hard to make this sound rich and well textured.  Experiment, explore.

Several thousand interpretations, both instrumental and vocal, of this melody seem to have found their way onto the Tube of You, so you shouldn’t have any trouble finding terra firma from which to launch yourself if you aren’t already familiar with the tune.  Slancha!!

Drop D is usually a budding guitar hero’s first foray on alternate tunings, and is also by far the most common alternate tuning in popular music.  And there are many reasons for this.

Putting your guitar in drop D tuning is no harder than putting it into the standard tuning; and putting it back into standard tuning is just is easy.  This easy transition is one of the reasons this particular tuning is so popular.  All you have to do is lower the low E string a full step to D.  So instead of being tuned EADGBE you guitar will be tuned to DADGBE.

Using the D string on your guitar to find the pitch is probably the easiest way to re-tune the string if you don’t have an electric tuner.

Now that you’ve got it, try playing an open D major chord including the other two strings (A and now D).  Sounds pretty cool doesn’t it?  The notes you are playing are DADADF#, a D major and then some.  This is particularly cool if you build a chord progression around D, so that each chord has a D somewhere in it.  This way you can leave that low D sound to drone through the whole progression.

D maj-

E——2-
B——3-
G——2-
D——0-
A——0-
D——0-

Here’s something else to try: bar the first three strings (DAD) anywhere on the fret board.  That’s right, it makes a power chord.  It also leaves you with 4 free fingers to build on that power chord, making it much cooler than an ordinary power chord.

There are a lot of different ways to use this tuning to add a little depth to your playing or open up a few new doors; and there is no shortage of tabs of popular tunes for you to try out, so get on it!

I probably don’t need to tell you that the guitar isn’t native to the Hawaiian Islands; it was, in fact, brought to them by Spanish merchants who sailed over from Central America.  They Spanish left the Hawaiian people with the instruments and the fundamentals of playing them, leaving them to get down to the business of adapting them to their own particular sound.

Among a number of other things, this resulted in the Hawaiians coming up with countless different sorts of open tunings to fit with their own indigenous musical forms.  And when I say countless, I really mean it; there are tunings that are only used for one particular song, or proprietary tunings that are secrets held only by the players who created them that are used right along with tunings that would be more recognizable to a traditional player.

A pretty common tuning used in Hawaiian slack key playing is an open G, called “The Taro Patch” in Hawaii.  Let’s check it out.

Starting from the standard tuning of EADGBE you need to give a few of the strings a little “slack”.  Tune the low E string down D as if you were going in to a “drop D” tuning, then the A string down a step to a G, then finally high E down to a D which leaves you with the following: DGDGBD which makes an open G chord.

It can take some time to find your way around with the strings in this new order, but it isn’t too hard. Experiment with finger picking arpeggios and slides to get a big sound quick.  Since it as an open chord, you can just bar (or lay a slide on) any fret and get a chord- making it super easy to put together a tune.  So put on a flowered shirt, put your feet up, and make some music!

All you’re doing there is dropping each string by a whole tone down from standard E. D tuning is a favorite in a lot of different musical genres, and it really does sound great, both for electric guitar and acoustic guitar.

Standard D Tuning:

Here are the actual notes you need to tune to for standard D tuning: D G C F A D

This is also a starting point for other alternate tunings, such as drop C tuning.

So, without further ado, watch the RiffNinja explain how to tune your guitar to standard D!

The string you need to change is the 6th string, the E string, and you’re dropping it a whole tone down to D.

So, D A D G B E is your new drop tuning.

That D bass note makes a sweet sounding drone if you’re playing in the key of D; there are many different things you can do with the drop D tuning.

Take a close look at how your chord fingerings change whenever you’re changing your tuning, because you can’t just use the same fingerings as before!

One of the simplest things you can do with the Drop D tuning is play power chords (which is just the I and the V) by just doing a mini-bar on the 5th and 6th strings anywhere. With the E dropped to D, this mini-bar creates a natural perfect fifth, which is a power chord.

Anyways, here’s the lesson, enjoy.

Drop D Tuning On Guitar:

You end up with a really rich, low tone that sounds awesome.

If you want to tune your guitar to drop C tuning, here it is:

6 – 5  – 4 – 3 – 2 – 1

C – G – C – F – A – D

If you’re getting a little bored of the same old sound of standard tuning, then why not try dropping your guitar down to C and check out this tuning?

Here’s a guitar lesson on Drop C Tuning:

There are many different bands that use Drop C Tuning on their guitars, and although we can’t list out everyone who has ever used that specific tuning, here’s a very short list of a few bands that are well known for using Drop C.

• Dream Theatre
• Mudvayne
• System of a Down (SOAD)
• Killswitch Engage
• Breaking Benjamin
• Metallica
• Led Zeppelin
• Steve Vai
• Atreyu
• John Mayer
• Avenged Sevenfold
• And many many more..!

Once you start looking for it, you’ll find groups using Drop C Tuning all over the place, it really is quite common!