Drop D: D A D G B E

If you haven’t tried an alternate tuning before, then Drop D is a good place to start. You can use this alternate guitar tuner to tune to Drop D, or follow the tutorial below.

Drop D tuning is one of the simplest guitar tunings out there, when your guitar is in Drop D you can easily form a power chord on the bottom 3 strings of any fret. This can be shifted around quickly, up and down playing a variety of power chords only barring the 3 strings together. The only difference in Drop D from Sstandard Tuning is the bottom or thickest string is tuned down a whole tone to a D rather then an E. It looks like this:

Step 1: Tune your guitar to standard tuning

If you haven’t already learned how to tune to Standard Tuning, I recommend that you learn that first.

Step 2: Tune the sixth string (low E) to D

Assuming you have your guitar tuned in standard tuning, this one step will show you how to get it into drop D. All you have to do is pluck the D string (4th String) and the low E string together and then lower or loosen the sting the open E to a D. Adjust the tuning peg until the pitches are the same

Drop D is one of the simplest and funnest guitar tunings. Try barring the bottom 3 strings and strumming them. That’s a power chord. You can move that anywhere on the fret board and it will sound good.

StringsStandardDrop DChanges
6EDLower 1 Whole Tone