Drop D Tuner (D A D G B E): Free Online Guitar Tuner

This is a free online guitar tuner, already set to Drop D. Only one string moves: the low E goes down to D, and the other five stay where they are. Press Start, play the thickest string on its own, let the note settle, then loosen it until the tuner reads D at 0 cents. No account, no download. It sits alongside the rest of our free guitar tools.

What Drop D tuning is (D A D G B E)

Drop D is the smallest change you can make to a guitar and still have a different instrument in your hands. You take the sixth string, the thickest one, and drop it a whole step from E to D. Nothing else moves. The tuning reads D A D G B E, and the name comes from exactly that: the low string is dropped.

Two things happen at once. You gain two low notes you did not have, so riffs can sit lower and sound heavier. And the bottom three strings become D, A and D, which is a root, a fifth and an octave. That is a power chord, spelled out across the three strings, with nothing held down.

This is also the reason Drop D is the usual first step into alternate tunings. A drop tuning only moves the lowest string, so your hands keep almost everything they already know. An open tuning moves several strings and asks you to learn the neck again.

How to tune to Drop D by ear from standard

Worth knowing, because the note you are aiming for is already on the guitar. The fourth string is a D, one octave above the one you want.

Make sure the guitar is in standard tuning first. Drop D built on a guitar that was already out of tune is just out of tune lower down.
Play the open fourth string. That is your reference D. Listen to it, let it ring, and keep it in your head.
Play the open sixth string and loosen it slowly. As it falls, play the fourth string again every few turns and compare. You are looking for the same note, an octave apart: two notes that sound like one note in two sizes rather than two different notes.
When they lock together, stop. Play both at once: if they beat against each other, like a slow wobble in the sound, you are close but not there.
Check it a second way. Press the seventh fret of the sixth string and compare it with the open fifth string. In Drop D both are an A and they should match.

You arrive at D by loosening, which is the wrong direction for a string that has to hold. Go a little below your target, then tighten the last few cents back up to it. The string then sits against the nut with the tension pulling the right way, and it stays put.

Power chords with one finger: chords for Drop D

In standard tuning a power chord takes two or three fingers, because the root sits on one string and the fifth above it sits two frets higher on the next. In Drop D the bottom three strings are D, A and D: a root, the fifth above it, and the octave above that. The intervals a power chord is made of are already there, so one finger laid flat across those three strings at any fret gives you the chord.

Open strings, nothing held down: D power chord.
One finger across the third fret: F.
One finger across the fifth fret: G.
One finger across the seventh fret: A.

That is a riff vocabulary you can use the first minute you are in this tuning, and it moves anywhere on the neck. Two notes of caution, though, both of which catch people out.

It only works on the bottom three strings. Laying a finger across the fifth, fourth and third strings in Drop D does not give you a power chord: those three are still tuned as they were in standard.
Your barre chords move. A barre chord with its root on the sixth string now reads a whole step lower than the shape says. Fret that one string two frets higher, or leave it out.

The other gift of Drop D is the drone. The low D rings under everything you play in the key of D, so you can hold a chord up the neck and let the open sixth string carry on underneath it.

Double Drop D

Double Drop D is Drop D with the high E string taken down to D as well, which gives D A D G B D. Now both outside strings are a D, the chord has a root at the bottom and a root at the top, and a strum across all six sits firmly in D without you fretting anything.

It is a fingerpicker's tuning more than a riff tuning. The two D strings act as drones at both ends of the chord while the middle four carry the melody, and the open fifth string gives you an A under it all. The price is that your one finger power chord trick on the bottom three strings still works, but the top of every chord has changed, so familiar shapes sound different up there.

There is no Double Drop D preset in the menu. Open the Drop D preset, which this page already does, then bring the first string down and read the note name: the tuner is chromatic and names any note you play, so it will tell you when that string is a D.

Songs in Drop D

The quickest way to understand Drop D is to play something written in it. Start slowly, with a clean or barely driven sound, and add the gain once your right hand is placing the notes where you meant them.

Song	Artist	Why it is worth the work	Level
Everlong	Foo Fighters	Endurance, steady down and up strokes, continuous rock energy.	Intermediate
Heart-Shaped Box	Nirvana	Slow riff, a readable low end, precision in the attacks.	Beginner to intermediate
Killing in the Name	Rage Against the Machine	Heavy groove, silences, palm muting and placement.	Intermediate
Outshined	Soundgarden	Massive riffs, a grunge tone, control of the low strings.	Intermediate

Plenty of songs exist in live, acoustic or simplified versions that are not in the same tuning as the record. Always check the tuning of the version you are actually working on before you blame your ears.

An exercise riff, before any of them

This one is not from a record. It is the palm muted exercise from the French guide, written out: alternate the open bottom three strings with one finger laid flat across them, first at the third fret, then at the fifth. Eighth notes, 70 beats per minute, palm resting lightly on the strings near the bridge. The bottom line is the dropped sixth string.

e|----------------|----------------|
B|----------------|----------------|
G|----------------|----------------|
D|0-0-0-0-3-3-3-3-|0-0-0-0-5-5-5-5-|
A|0-0-0-0-3-3-3-3-|0-0-0-0-5-5-5-5-|
D|0-0-0-0-3-3-3-3-|0-0-0-0-5-5-5-5-|

What you are listening for is a low end that stays readable rather than one that is simply loud. If the notes blur into each other, the palm is too far from the bridge or the pick is digging too deep. The trap in Drop D is pressing too hard: a string with a whole step less tension goes sharp under a heavy finger, and no tuner can fix that for you.

Drop D vs Drop C

Same idea, two different places on the neck. Drop C is Drop D with the whole guitar taken down one more whole step: C G C F A D. The shape of the tuning is identical, which means the one finger power chord still works and every riff you learned in Drop D transfers unchanged, two frets lower in sound.

Standard

E A D G B E

Where you are coming from, and where almost every tab and chord chart assumes you are.

Opens with ?tuning=standard

Drop D

D A D G B E

The tuning this page opens with. One string moves, the low E down to D. The five others keep their standard pitches.

Opens with ?tuning=dropd

Drop C

C G C F A D

Drop D, then the whole guitar a step lower. Heavier strings help, because the tension drops a long way.

There is also a dedicated Drop C tuner page.

Opens with ?tuning=dropc

Drop C is in the menu above the tuner, and it has a page of its own that opens straight onto it: the Drop C tuner, with the string gauges and the setup that tuning asks for. Whichever way you get there, the tuner switches to a longer analysis window when Drop C is selected, because the low C is a slower wave than anything in standard tuning and a short window cannot see a full cycle of it. The practical effect is that the reading arrives a moment later than usual. Let the note ring rather than tapping at the string.

When to pick which. Stay in Drop D if you want the low D without changing your guitar: a standard set of strings is fine, and you can switch back in one turn of a peg. Go to Drop C when the music really needs to sit lower and you are willing to set the guitar up for it, because six strings losing a whole step of tension is a lot. Expect a floppier feel, buzzing on a low action, and a heavier gauge of string as the fix.

For every other preset, including Eb and the open tunings, go to the online guitar tuner. If you want the lower, looser feel without changing a single chord shape, the half step down tuner is the one to use, and for a tuning where the open strings sound a chord, see the Open D tuner. If getting a guitar in tune at all is still new ground, start with how to tune a guitar and come back.

Frequently asked questions

Do my chord shapes still work in Drop D?

Five strings out of six never moved, so anything that does not use the low E string works exactly as it did. What changes is every shape that relies on that string: an open E minor, an open G, a barre chord with its root on the sixth string. In each case the note you expected is now a whole step lower, so you fret two frets higher on that one string. Plenty of players simply avoid the sixth string for a few songs while they get used to it.

Do I need heavier strings for Drop D?

Not for Drop D alone. One string loses a whole step of tension, which makes it feel softer and, on a guitar with a low action, can make it buzz against the frets when you dig in. If that bothers you, a slightly heavier sixth string is the answer. Drop C is a different matter: there the whole set goes down, and a heavier gauge is close to necessary.

Is Drop D the same as D standard?

No, and the two get mixed up constantly. Drop D moves one string and leaves the guitar at concert pitch everywhere else. D standard lowers all six strings a whole step, so the whole instrument sounds lower and every shape keeps working. There is no D standard preset in the menu. The tuner is chromatic, so it names every note you give it and you can tune there string by string, but we are not going to pretend it is a preset.

Is there a Double Drop D preset?

No. Double Drop D is Drop D with the high E string lowered to D as well, so the menu has no entry for it. Start from the Drop D preset, then take the first string down and watch the note name: the chromatic reading names it for you, and D is D whichever string it sits on.

How do I get back to standard tuning?

Pick Standard in the menu above the tuner and take the sixth string back up to E. Tighten up to the pitch rather than loosening down to it, so the string sits against the nut with the tension pulling the right way, and check the other five while you are there. The online guitar tuner page opens on standard if you would rather start from there.

Who made this

Guitar Social Club is the work of Yohann Abbou, a guitar teacher in Paris. He teaches adults, which shapes everything here: people with jobs, limited practice time and a clear idea of the songs they want to play. The tools come out of his lessons, which is why none of them asks you to sign up before it works, and why this one shows you cents rather than a green light. The rest of our free guitar tools work the same way.

More about Yohann and how these tools are made.

Drop D tuner: D A D G B E, free, with your mic