Drop D tuning

[hitman]

Can anyone tell me everything they know about drop d tuning and any other type of tuning please?

[kuzi16]

two alternate tuneings that i have used are:

open D --- D A D F# A D low to high... I find this tuneing to be a bit on the folky side but its easy to get to and it makes you think out of the box

and Open C --- C G C G C E also low to high. I first used this tuning when i was about 15 years old. Its the tuning thats used on the song "Friends" i think thats off of Led Zeppelin III. Its got this deep murky tone and sounds great with big fat strings.

i once had my guitar in open A but something didnt sound right about it. ...id post what that is low to high but it took me a bit to figure it out and to be honest, i dont remember off the top of my head what it was. Im sure that someone somewhere has that online but since i didnt like it much id never look it up.

[RJB]

I don't use drop D, but here's a Wiki that describes it.

Open D/E or Open G/A are commonly used for slide playing where a "bar" of all 6 strings produces a major chord. Therefore if an errant note is hit it is at least within the chord (usually). The difference between the above open tunings is D/E has the root on the 6th string. D is achieved by dropping strings 1,2,3 & 6 to get a D major chord while E is achieved by raising 3,4 & 5 to get a E major. G/A is similar just with a 5th string root. D & G are more commonly used because of string tension on the neck with "raised" tunings.

One advantage of the guitar tuned to the key of choice is that open strings, played from any position, are in the key. This opens up a lot of new chord voicings and soloing ideas.

[sumgai]

hitter,

Can anyone tell me everything they know about drop d tuning and any other type of tuning please?

All I know? How long you got? I mean in years. ;D

There are beaucoup websites with charts of alternate tunings, but this page goes them one better. It describes how to use a given tuning for various things, gives scales and chord charts, and discusses some aspects of musical and psychoacoustical theories. To put it bluntly, it covers about half of what I know, or used to know, before gerontolisitis set in. ;D

No, seriously, this has got to be the best treatise I've seen so far. Give it some time, and you'll come to appreciate how limited the standard tuning really is. (I'm currently playing around with an all-5ths tuning.)

HTH


sumgai

[ranchtooth]

heres all I know:

Drop D goes CHUG CHUG CHUG CHUG CHUG!

[spitfire23bc]

I like dropping the top e string down to d. Sounds kinda twangy.

[gfxbss]

spit,

I like dropping the top e string down to d. Sounds kinda twangy.

as in your high E? when you say top e it makes me think that youre going into dropped D.

also, just noticed the quote under your avatar. i distinctly remember NOFX releasing an album called "So Long, and Thanks for All the Shoes."

it just reminded me of that. ;D

Tyler

[vonFrenchie]

gfxbss said:

also, just noticed the quote under your avatar. i distinctly remember NOFX releasing an album called "So Long, and Thanks for All the Shoes."

Great album. "It's My Job To Keep Punk Rock Elite" is my favorite off of it. Also the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy is a great series. I'm rereading all of the books for the 3rd or 4th time now.

But back on topic, I play one step down, two steps down, drop A# and open G

[spitfire23bc]

gfxbss said:

spit,

I like dropping the top e string down to d. Sounds kinda twangy.

as in your high E? when you say top e it makes me think that youre going into dropped D.

Hey Tyler, yep, sorry for the ambiguity. Also, dropping both at the same time is fun! So EADGBd, or DADGBd.

Off topic: Hitchiker's Guide is one of my all-time favourite (fiction) books!

Dan

[gfxbss]

ahh, and it all comes together now.

i assumed but it still threw me off.

von,

for me its probably "all outta angst".

also, as much as i usually dont like best of albums, the album "The greatest songs ever written........ By Us" is pretty awesome too.

Tyler

[andy]

I've used dropped D and double droppped D (low and high E-D),
open G and open D, open E (exactly the same as D, only higher, of course) and possibly open A few times. I have also used 'crossnote' (minor) versions for specific parts.

Even now, the idea of alternate and open tunings sounds exotic and somehow a gateway to wildly inspiring new musical avenues- realisticly though, I find that they can alter the sound a bit, and musically they do have their uses. Standard tuning just keeps coming back though!

For me, dropped D is the one I come to use the most often, partly because it is so quick and easy to get to, and also because it requires little adjustment in thinking or technique to use. Guaranteed, the first thing anyone in Dropped D will play will be either one big chugging metal riff, or a deep twangy baritone guitar country type of thing, but overall its most intergrated use is to easy-up low power chords, or to broaden chords shapes, extending them lower whilst keeping the same harmony higher up- this works best, of course, with the D shape!

Most open tunings, for me, are there for either slide or playing with lots of open strings. Playing a load of fretted notes will just mean learning all the same chords in different and often uncomfortable positions and ultimately sounding much the same with a different method of doing so. Finding chords which work with the 'openess' of the tuning gets the most out of it, I think, and can lead to some really beautiful resonances and unexpected harmonies. In this instance it can feel very natural playing scale steps which are otherwise rarely used by some guitarists, 6ths and 2nds, as part of chords and even dreaded minor 2nds can seem to ring out without sounding jarring, and without having to get into 'jazz' mode.

For slide, I like to play 'rhythm' parts in an open tuning for the obvious reason that a chord can be present when using a solid bar across the strings. I find this just as useful for rough bluesy stuff low-down on the strings as smooth country and Hawaiian style sweetness (with plenty or reverb, right?!), but for melody playing I actually feel freer in standard- even though the occasional slide-ism is a bit tougher to pull of, I have to THINK less to get to the notes I want after all those years of that tuning, and despite being a certified guitar geek, when it comes to playing I'm all about that natural flow! if it sounds like you're 'trying', it doesn't sound right yet!

One other thing is string tension. Tuning down or up with the same gauge string will change how it feels and responds- this can be helpful or not- see what sounds good to you in that respect, but remember that tuning one string down making it deeper, growlier, and lighter to play next to another tuned up, becoming punchier, smoother and tougher to fret can feel quite peculiar and if you wish to use a tuning regularly, compensating a bit with string gauges can really make it feel 'right' rather than just plain wacky.

[andy]

Oh, and I only heard NO-FX fairly recently. Sound like good fun, but years back, flipping through records as a kid, the covers to 'Eating Lamb' and 'Heavy Petting Zoo' sort of put me off!

And every time I see the Hitchhickers quotation I think of the song from the beginning of the recent film and smile to myself.

[gfxbss]

as far as tuning, my best friend has been tuning his SG like a 7 string w/o the high e BEADGB. it has opened some pretty good doors for harmonies. also, of course its a blast to watch people confused about trying to follow what he is playing.

NOFX- i can understand the problem w/ heavy petting zoo. i still enjoy their sruff though.

Tyler

[andy]

Actually, that reminds me, I did tune a guitar BEADGB for a while. Its was an SG too, but it was only really to write for a band playing 7 strings (I was playing bass) so once I finished with the band, and as I couldn't get the string gauges right I passed the guitar, tuning and all, onto a roadie friend who wanted to look into guitar-teching. I bet that could have been a good guitar if I'd put in the time...

[Ibanez Guy]

To me the benefit is being able to move barre chords at blazing speed since any Root-5-Octave combination can be done with a single finger on the lowest three strings.

There's a reason these new metal guys can play barre chords faster than you can hear them - because they're not working that hard to make barre chords.

It also has a nice low rumble.

Listen to some older King's X all the way up through Godsmack and you'll hear it.

Plus the lower D on the bottom string gives you interesting investions on higher D chords as well as inverted 5ths on the standard open G chords.