Drop D Tuning is a great way to add some variety to both acoustic and electric guitar playing. Find out how easy it is in this free guitar lesson online.
All you need do is "drop" your low E string -- that's the one closest to the ceiling -- down one whole step to D.
sidenote: Guitar strings are also commonly named with numbers. Low E is string 6. A whole step in music is a "distance" of 2 frets on guitar. A 1/2 step or semitone is One Fret. See Guitar Music Theory for more information if you need it.
Being able to tune your guitar into drop d is an essential skill for learning to play rock guitar and also acoustic fingerstyle guitar. With rock or metal guitar it's used to create dramatic sounding and easy to play guitar power chords.
With acoustic fingerpicking styles it's used quite often with the key of D major. Depending on your guitar playing goals, you may want to investigate alternate tunings for guitar such as dadgad. It's beyond the scope of this lesson, but mastering drop d tuning would be an important first step.
Some of the reasons that have made drop d tuning so popular is that it's easy and quick, it offers a fresh creative approach, and it gives a nice juicy sound on the low end. So let's get started with how to tune your guitar into drop d, shall we?
Here are the steps to follow as demonstrated in the guitar video lesson. These steps apply for both acoustic and electric guitar.
Locate the tuning pegs on your guitar that correspond to strings 4 and 6 -- your open D and low E strings -- but don't turn them yet. Use your fretting hand for this.
Locate these same guitar strings with your pick or fingerpicking hand. Play string 4 and then string 6. Compare the two sounds. See this great lesson article on Ear Training if you want to go deeper into your guitar and musical comprehension.
Your goal is to lower the sound of string 6 until it "matches" string 4. In truth, they will be one octave apart. Don't know what an octave is? See below this list for a more detailed explanation.
Once they match -- see the video guitar lessons at the bottom of this page -- you'll be in drop d tuning. Simple!
The Octave…The most basic overtone is an octave. It's easy to see on a keyboard because it's simply the same piano key in the next register. When an octave is in tune, the higher note is vibrating at exactly 2 times the speed of the lower note. That is why they sound the same. Think of the major scale you sang in school -- do re mi fa sol la ti do. From one "do" to the next "do" is a relationship of 2:1 -- an octave. See Guitar Chord Theory for deeper insights if you wish.
At this point, you're ready to play guitar! View the 1st video below for the acoustic guitar lesson online version. View the 2nd video below for the electric guitar playing version. Both videos include instructions for tuning your guitar into drop d at the beginning. There are chord diagrams here to refer to also.
note: These chord diagrams are some of the basic shapes used in the guitar video lesson. There are other options and ways of playing these chords, but the ones on this page will definitely get you up and running!
It's my sincere wish that this drop d tuning guitar lesson was helpful to you! Good luck with it and please feel free to share these guitar lessons with friends! As always, I'd love to hear your feedback or if you have any questions :-) Thanks for tuning in and tuning up!
