Drop D Tuning for Guitar – What is it?

When I first started playing guitar I was taught that you tuned the guitar a certain way – Standard Tuning. This is the most common tuning for guitars. But as I started to play more rock and heavier styles of music, Drop D tuning seemed to come up just as often as standard tuning.

How do you tune your guitar to Drop D tuning?

To tune your guitar to drop D tuning, you only need to detune one string.

1. Start by tuning your guitar to standard tuning – the easiest option is to use an electronic tuner.
2. Detune (loosen) you low E string (the thickest string) DOWN to D. It is known as Drop D tuning as you are dropping the E string down to a D string.

The only difference between standard tuning and Drop D tuning is you ‘drop’ or lower the Low E string down a tone to a D. The guitar is now tuned D A D G B E.

What’s different now that I’m in Drop D tuning?

Now that you have lower your E string down to D, you have ‘gained’ two lower notes than in standard tuning (D and D#).

You have also gained an extra 2 lower power chords compared with standard (Eb5 and D5). For guitarists who want to have deeper chords, this can be useful (note: not all songs in drop tunings have to be heavy, it is just a common aspect of heavier music to use a drop tuning).

That being said, all the notes on the low string are now on a different fret compared to where they were on standard.

Example #1

Standard Tuning: The low E note is your open string.

Drop D Tuning: The low E note is your 2nd fret.

Example #2

Standard Tuning: The low F note is your 1st fret.

Drop D Tuning: The low F note is your 3rd fret.

All of the notes on your thickest string have been moved by two frets. The rest of the strings are the same as they are in standard tuning.

Main advantages and disadvantages of using Drop D tuning (and other drop tunings)

To help to give you an idea of when to use a drop tuning, let’s look as some advantages and disadvantages of Drop D tuning compared to standard tuning.

Advantages of using drop D tuning (and other drop tunings):

• You gain access to lower notes on the guitar compared to standard tuning.
• Power chords on the bottom 3 strings can now be played with 1 finger barring across them rather than using 2 or 3.
• Some chord shapes in a drop tuning couldn’t be played in standard tuning as you would need more fingers on your fretting hand.
• The low D can be used as a drone note instead of the low E. This can be more useful depending on what key you are playing in.
• Many fast riffs are made easier as you can play them more like a single note riff.

Disadvantages of using drop D tuning (and other drop tunings):

• Any chord shape that used the low E string in standard tuning is now a different shape.
• Some chords are much more difficult (or impossible!) to play in a drop tuning compared to standard tuning.
• You lose some high notes on the same string. This is not really much of a disadvantage as you can play these same notes on a different string.

There’s plenty of reasons why some musicians prefer to play in drop tunings compared to standard tuning. Some bands pretty much never play in standard tuning (you may have noticed this if you have tried to play some of your favourite songs).

For some styles, it defines it. For others, It can be a way of creating a different ‘voice‘ for common chords.

If you play in a band you may even decide to play in a certain tuning because it suits the singers voice better than keeping your guitar in standard tuning.

However you use drop tunings, they are something you should experiment with and find out how they fit into your playing.