Intermediate 5th Chords

Drop D Tuning 5th Chords (Print Page)

To be able to play these types of chords and songs you have to know how to tune your guitar.

The standard tuning on a guitar is, from thin to thick strings (E B G D A E), when you play a song using drop D tuning you tune the 6th (thickest) string from an E note down two frets to a D note.

Tuning Down

When you tune normally you use the 5th fret and open method as shown in the beginners section under tuning. To tune your 6th thick string down to a "D" note you have to play the note on the 7th fret 6th string and compare it to the 5th string underneath it, remember you tune the 6th string down to the same sound.

Placing Drop D 5th Chords

Placing or naming drop D 5th chords will be the same way you name bar chords or normal 5th chords. You will use the 6th string as the root note, unlike bar or 5th chords you will only use the 6th string as the root note (the note to get the name of the chord from), there is no commonly used root 5 or 4 drop 5th chords.

Since the 4th string is also a D string, you can include it with this chord, the choice is yours. When you include the 4th string it makes the chord full and rich, with a distorted amp it sounds great.

There is also a lot of songs that use Drop D for main song riffs, Some of these bands are Rage Against The Machine, Metallica, Silverchair, Lifehouse, Limp Bizkit & Korn (although they have a seven string guitar and the seventh string goes down to a low B note).