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Drop D Tuning For
Heavy Metal Guitarists
At some point in time you are bound to come across someone who
uses drop D tuning, and you may say to yourself "I thought
that anything but standard tuning was a waste of time." In
reality there are a lot of good reasons to consider alternate
guitar tunings. One reason is that alternate guitar tunings give
you the ability to play certain genres of music much easier, and
opens up new possibilities to play certain types of music such
as heavy metal.
So Why Do Heavy Metal Guitarists Use Drop D Tuning?
Beginning in the early 90s drop D guitar tuning became popular
amongst heavy metal hardcore bands that play faster and heavier
music. Fast guitarists grinding out power chords on the three
lowest strings are usually in drop D tuning.
One of the main reasons that drop D tuning became so popular
amongst heavy metal and thrash metal guitarists is that they can
play power chords using only one finger, there by allowing metal
guitarists to move extremely fast between power chords, which is
a trademark of this genre of music. Another reason is that it
gives you a lower tuning that makes what you play sound heavier.
Rather than retuning your whole guitar all you have to do is
simply tune your low E string to a D, the rest of your guitar
strings are tuned exactly the same, A, D, G, B, E, so basically
you are only retuning one string. The easiest way to do this is
to tune your low E string to your third string D if your guitar
is in standard tuning E, A, D, G, B, E.
If you are playing metal guitar this type of tuning makes
playing riffs and power chords that much simpler to play, and
you can still play guitar solos using the same fingerings. With
drop D tuning the three lowest strings in open position form a
D5 power chord that can be moved up or down the neck of your
guitar with one finger to produce many different power chords,
because of this you can begin to play riffs that are a lot more
chromatic and elaborate because all you have to do is move one
finger at a time.
Pros And Cons Of Drop D tuning.
Pros
You get a whole new set of chord structures that are easier and
faster to play. For example if you were using the standard
guitar tuning E, A, D, G, B, E, and wanted to play an F5 power
cord You would have to place your index finger on the first fret
of the low E string, your ring finger on the third fret of the A
string, and your pinky finger on the third fret of the D string.
If you play an F5 chord this way it takes a lot more effort and
it takes a lot of practice to perform the faster chord
progressions that are required when it comes to playing heavy
metal. Thanks to the drop D tuning you can simply lay your index
finger across the first three low strings at the third fret of
your guitar and play that same F5 chord with just one finger.
See the diagram below.
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Cons
With drop D tuning you lose some other easily created cords that
would be available to you if your guitar was in standard tuning
E, A, D, G, B, E. If you are an acoustic guitar player that
plays chords that are located on the first and second frets then
drop D tuning will probably not work for you, because by tuning
the low E string to a D a lot of the most common chords for
acoustic guitar players are no longer usable.
If you are dieing to learn some heavy metal riffs then drop D
tuning is the ticket. For those guitarists out there that play
rock, country, or jazz the standard tuning E, A, D, G, B, E
works fine. Whichever genre of music you enjoy playing be
certain to use the correct tuning for that style of music.
A Partial List Of Bands That Use Drop D Tuning
Lamb of God, Trivium, Avenged Sevenfold, Maylene & The Sons
of Disaster, Velvet Revolver, Ozzy Osbourne, Old Afi, Underoath,
Aiden, Iron Maiden, Metallica,
A Partial List Of Songs In Drop D Tuning:
The End - The
Doors, Kashmir - Led Zeppelin, Harvest Moon - Neil Young, I Miss
You - Incubus, All Apologies - Nirvana, Something in the Way -
Nirvana, Moby Dick - Led Zeppelin, Higher - Creed, Everlong
- Foo Fighters, The Chain - Fleetwood Mac, Black Balloon - Goo
Goo Dolls, All Apologies - Nirvana, All That Remains -
LedZeppelin, Cold - Crossfade, No More Tears - Ozzy Osbourne,
Grand Theft Autumn - Fallout Boy, Ohio - Neil Young, Meant to
Live - Switchfoot, So Cold - Breaking Benjamin, Dear Prudence -
The Beatles, Sludge Factory - Alice in Chains, Vermilion Part 2
- Slipknot, Black Hole Sun - Soundgarden, Grace - Jeff Buckley.
Essential
Metal Guitar Techniques -
Learn essential metal guitar techniques. Free video and guitar
tab.
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