What's up everybody? This is Mike Deiure from Rock Guitar Power, here to give you another lesson. This one is going to be on how to tune to drop D. So drop D tuning for those of you who don't know is where we are going to tune just the big E string down toward D. This is a really popular tuning for metal, heavy rock and just rock songs because this is going to enable us to get a lower sound than we could get with standard tuning. So what we are going to do is D tune the Big E string down toward D. So that's it. It's pretty easy but it's a lot of fun because along with being able to play a lower and get a heavier sound, it's actually going to make power chords a lot easier to play as well.
So here is what we are going to do. I am going to advice that you guys do this by ear. We can definitely use a tuner and just tune the big E down until it says D but this is going to be really good opportunity for you to get better tuning by ear and get a better sense of the sound just by using your ear instead of a tuner. So what we are going to do, I am in standard tuning right now, so we have E, A, D, G, B, E. So we are just going to make this big E string a D. Okay, so what we are going to do is hit the big E string first and then hit the open D string right after it.
Okay, so we are going to want to D tune the big string down to the same sound as the open D string. It's going to be an octave lower but we are still going to listen for the same pitch. Okay, so I am going to go ahead and do it, and you just watch and listen. Okay, good. So here is a couple of things to notice and look out for when you do it.
When we D tune or whenever we are listening to tune two notes together, we are going to hear it as a wave form going like this. When we get closer to be in tune, the wave is going to steady out to more of like a line, Okay, so if you notice, when I was D tuning, it's sounds real wavy, when I get closer to be in pitch, it settles out and towards sounds like a straight line. Okay, so if you notice some right now, they sound the same.
If I put it out a tune a little, you can hear a pulse hitting like this. So when I D tune it, I am going to tune down and listen for it to sound like a flat line. Now one other piece of advice is to tune the knob lower than the actual pitch you are trying to get to, and then tune it back up into the right pitch. This is because when you loosen a string's tension, it initially wants to go back up again. So if you tune right down a pitch, it's going to go little sharp on you. So we are going to tune a little bit lower than D and then bring it back up to D. Okay, so again. Okay, so I can hear that, it's in tune right there but I am going to go little lower and then go back up into it, okay. Cool! Then we are in Drop D.
So the really cool thing now with power chords; before when we did a power chord, we had to do it with our -- if we started on the 5th fret, for example, I am going to put my first finger on the 5th fret and the other two fingers is going to be on the 7th fret of the next two strings. Because I tune this string down a whole step, if I want to play the same chord, I got to get move my first finger up 2 frets. So now instead of doing this, all I need to do is lay my first finger flat, and play the first three strings, and I have got a power chord. Okay, if I click on some distortion here, you could see what I mean by getting a good heavy deep sound. Alright, cool! So again the cool thing here is that before when I was tuned to regular pitch, I could only get down to an E, now I can get down to a D. Okay, so that's Drop D tuning for you. Have fun and we will see you soon.
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