Four Common Guitar Tunings

by | Sep 13, 2021 | Students

Guitars are incredibly versatile instruments. They come in all shapes and sizes, every color of the rainbow, and can be played in almost all music genres. Even the tuning on each string of a guitar can be customized to fit a player’s specific needs. In this post, you’ll learn about the four most common tunings for a guitar and the types of artists (specifically rock and metal bands) who use them.

 

Closeup of an Ibanez guitar (Photo: Hugo Novales)

 

Note: most guitars have 6 strings, which will be the focus of this post. Although 7-, 8-, and 9-string guitars have become more popular in modern music, their various tunings will not be covered here.

 

No. 1: E Standard

This is the most common tuning of all guitar tunings. Almost every guitar that you see in a music shop is set to E Standard. The reason for this is because a guitarist can play virtually any song or match any singer’s vocal range just by moving the chord shapes up and down the fretboard. From high to low, here is the tuning of each string:

  1. E
  2. B
  3. G
  4. D
  5. A
  6. E

Most traditional heavy metal bands like Iron Maiden, Megadeth, and Metallica use E Standard tuning. As pioneers of a genre, they weren’t too keen on using some of the alternative tunings that newer bands like to experiment with. Still, their music withstands the test of time despite many guitarists nowadays referring to E Standard as stale, outdated “dad tuning.”

 

 

No. 2: Drop D

This tuning is almost identical to E Standard except for one thing: the lower E string is tuned down a whole step to D. This creates an open chord on the three bottom strings. With this new dynamic, a guitarist can play chords on the lower strings using one finger instead of three, which gives them more creative possibilities when writing music. Here’s what each string will look like in Drop D:

  1. E
  2. B
  3. G
  4. D
  5. A
  6. D

From the ’80s to the ’90s, Drop D tuning became more popular with the rise of grunge rock and nu-metal. Some bands that are well-known for their use of Drop D are Foo Fighters, Rage Against The Machine, and Tool.

 

 

No. 3: D Standard

Now take the same method of down-tuning the E string to D, but apply that to the rest of the strings as well. That gives you D Standard tuning. Every string is tuned down a whole step, giving the guitar a heavier, darker sound despite the mechanics to play in D Standard being identical to E Standard. The tuning is as follows:

  1. D
  2. A
  3. F
  4. C
  5. G
  6. D

D Standard is most attractive to the more extreme side of heavy metal, although some blues guitarists are fond of this tuning as well. Legendary metal groups such as Bullet For My Valentine and Death have used D Standard throughout their careers, inspiring many guitarists to down-tune their instruments as well.

 

 

No. 4: Drop C

This is Drop D’s heavier cousin. This tuning takes the same method from Drop D, except the guitar is already in D Standard, so the bottom string is tuned down a whole note to C while the rest of the strings remain the same. The same logic to playing chords in Drop D also applies to Drop C. This tuning is ideal for guitarists that like Drop D tuning but want a much heavier sound to their music. Here is Drop C tuning string-by-string:

  1. D
  2. A
  3. F
  4. C
  5. G
  6. C

Metalcore, a subgenre of metal, is where Drop C is used the most. Both metalcore giants As I Lay Dying and August Burns Red have recorded almost all of their music exclusively in Drop C, with the latter taking this tuning to a level of creativity that surpasses almost all of their peers.

 

As stated earlier in this post, there are multiple ways to customize the tuning of a guitar, so many that just one post would not be enough to cover all of them. The four tunings mentioned here are a good starting point for any beginner or intermediate guitarist who wants to expand their six-string knowledge, or for music fans that just want a better understanding of their favorite artists and songs.

 

All song covers played by Hugo Novales.

Song credits:

“Nothing Else Matters” by Metallica, released on Metallica (1991), Elektra Records

“Right In Two” by Tool, released on 10,000 Days (2006), Tool Dissectional and Volcano Entertainment

“Scream Aim Fire” by Bullet For My Valentine, released on Scream Aim Fire (2008), Jive Records

“Thirty and Seven” by August Burns Red, released on Constellations (2009), Solid State Records

 

Equipment used:

Guitar – Ibanez GRG120BDX

Strings – D’Addario NYXL 09-42 Super Light

Amplifier – Blackstar Fly 3

Pick – Jim Dunlop Jazz III

 


Tags: guitar, guitar tuning, guitarist