Drop D Tuning – 10 Famous Guitar Riffs

Drop D Tuning is likely the most popular alternate tuning for guitar. It is often associated with modern hard rock bands and easy one-finger ‘power chords’. However, in the following guitar lesson you will see that this tuning has been used by well known band for decades and has more to offer than just rock chords.

To tune to Drop D is very easy. Simply lower the pitch of the 6th string down a whole-step from E to D. The pitch of your guitar strings from lowest to highest is now DADGBE. The 6th string harmonic at the 12th fret should now match your open D note on the 4th string.

10 Famous Guitar Riffs in Drop D Tuning – Video Guitar Lesson

Here are the sheet music examples from the video.

10 Famous Guitar Riffs in Drop D Tuning

“Moby Dick” – Led Zeppelin

“Dear Prudence” – The Beatles

“Everlong” – Foo Fighters

“Slither” – Velvet Revolver
“Black Hole Sun” – Soundgarden

“Killing In The Name” – Rage Against The Machine

“Your Body Is A Wonderland” – John Mayer

“Last Resort” – Papa Roach

“Higher” – Creed

“Animals” – Nickelback

Drop C# Tuning

A lot of bands use a variation of Drop D where all strings are tuned down an additional 1/2-step. We will cover these in an upcoming members guitar lesson.

Until then, keep rockin’ the Drop D tuning.

Storm Stenvold
=GuitarTeacher.com