Drop Tuning

I dont tihnk theres any problem wiht drop tuning at all.

YOu guys sound pretty snobish by saying "Oh no drop tuning! thats stupid becuase im a real musician and i play my instrument how everyone else does"

 

If you hear a song in your head, that should have a low D chord, tune it down. You shouldnt confine yourself to preset limits of your intsrtments . Thats kinda what prog is about. The freedom to do what you want even tohguh thats not the norm.

 

Also i enjoy doing alternate tunings. One of my favourites for acoustic guitar is

Daddad. its sexy.

I find drop tunings to be mostly unneeded. I mean what's the point of dropping to D unless you're actually playing a tune in D? Dropping to D doesn't help much if the tune's in B or Eb for example. I do like exploring open tunings though. You can get a lot of resonance from your guitar with an open tuning, plus you get the bonus of some very interesting chord voicings.

Yup I'm a big fan of DADGAD and open G on acoustic. My dobro is permanently tuned to open G and sounds great either finger picked or with slide but on electric guitars it's almost always standard tuning. Maybe it's because I'm a crap player

Alternative tunings really come into their own for solo acoustic guitar - the DADGAD tuning popularised by Davy Graham in the 1960s opens up a lot of possibilities and isn't that difficult to get used to. Guitarists like Bert Jansch, Martin Carthy, John Renbourn Richard Thompson and John Martyn all use it (with variations) to great effect. Jimmy Page was heavily influenced by that generation of UK folk guitarists and the acoustic Zeppelin tracks frequently use similar tunings.

Open G/D tunings are good for slide, and were pretty much standard among old school blues players.

Nick Drake, David Crosby and Joni Mitchell have used all kinds of odd tunings to create unfamiliar, usually jazzy chord patterns for their highly individual songwriting.

MikeEnRegalia wrote: King of Loss wrote: Drop D or C usually. Unless I want to play some Death Metal, drop tuning to B is required. With Jazz strings?

as said before Adrian Smith of iron maiden sometimes brings up the AADGBE tuning to normal guitar...i think he used a bass string for this tuning

Drop D or C usually. Unless I want to play some Death Metal, drop tuning to B is required.

Edited by King of Loss

I drop tuned my 4-string bass to D many years ago and got hooked to it! It's easier to play chords and lower D is a nice option to have when playing stuff from E or A.

For a twelve string, I prefer the strings tuned down a
tone to ease the tension on the neck.
I like playing alternate tunings once in a while. It
seems to stimulate creativity.
I like DADGAD, Open G and Open D.
Drop D and Double Drop D are great if you're playing
Neil Young songs.
There's a tuning, I forget exactly what it is but it's
something like EEEEBE. Steven Stills uses it for
"Suite Judy Blue Eyes". It's interesting because of all
the droning sounds you get.

Maybe if I just stuck to standard tuning I'd be a better
player.

stonebeard wrote: No low tuning at all.

Agreed, I prefer standard tuning. I occasionally like to tune down to standard Eb or D.

I would never use it for my own music, but I would like to try one of those 8-string guitars Meshuggah uses.

sbrushfan wrote: conjunktionman wrote: I use drop D in all our music. I just like that lower couple of notes on the bass. When learning anything, I use standard tuning and transpose it later. Playin a six string bass with the lower B is great fun too. I dont own one personally but get use of it. I know that in Drop-D (DADGBE) tuning, it becomes easier to play power-chords.  Is there a way to play drop-d power chords in regular tuning (EADGBE)?

sure:

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-7-
-7-
-7-

becomes

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-7-
-7-
-5-

where's the problem?