Tunings

Default for this room and for most rock and metal learning; every lab on the site assumes it unless the page says otherwise. Lowest to highest, the four strings are E1 · A1 · D2 · G2, and each is a perfect fourth above the one below it. That single fact is why bass shapes move the way they do: the same shape works on any pair of neighbouring strings, and the same fret on the next string up is a fourth above your root — so the fifth is one more whole step, two frets up on that string, and the octave is two strings up and two frets up.

Hear each string on its own, then all four in order. The neck below is live too — click any fret to hear it.

E1 — 4th string A1 — 3rd string D2 — 2nd string G2 — 1st string All four, low to high

The square is E, the lowest string. Tuning by ear against these will get you close; for cents-accurate work use the tuner.

Lower the lowest string one whole step, E down to D, and leave the other three alone. The tuning is written low to high as D A D G, so two of its four strings are called D — the new low string (D1) and the unchanged 2nd string (D2), an octave apart. Getting those two confused is the whole difficulty of reading drop-D TAB.

The check: the dropped low string played open should match the 2nd string played open, an octave lower. Play them here and listen for the octave — if it beats or wobbles, you are not there yet.

Dropped low D against the 2nd string D

Because two lines would otherwise both say D, this room's drop-D TAB numbers the strings as well. 1 is the highest string, 4 is the lowest, so the bottom line is the one you retuned. Here is a root–fifth cell that needs no left hand at all — the new open D against the unchanged open A:

      1  2  3  4     <- beats
1 G|------------|
2 D|------------|
3 A|----0-----0-|   3rd string, unchanged — A1, the fifth
4 D|-0-----0----|   the string you dropped — D1, the root

Play the drop-D root–fifth cell

What drop D is actually worth on a bass is more modest than on a guitar. The guitar reason is the one-finger power chord: dropping the low string to D leaves the bottom two strings a fifth apart, so root and fifth land under one finger. That happens on a bass too — D up to A is a fifth — but a bass barely plays chords, and the fifth was never the hard part. In standard tuning the strings are a fourth apart, so the fifth is two frets up on the next string, which is one finger move away already. What you gain is D1 itself, a whole step below the bottom of a standard bass and available as an open string you can drone or gallop on with no left hand at all. What you give up is every part that used an open low E. See reading standard TAB in a dropped tuning.

Whole-step down (D G C F) and similar keep the same shapes with darker pitch. Recheck intonation and string tension; floppy strings fight gallop clarity.

Low B extends range downward. Same fingerstyle and gallop ideas; leave more room for muting the B when idle. Mentally shift: patterns that lived on E now often live on B or stay on E an octave relationship higher relative to B.

High C (or similar) adds melodic range for lead bass. Muting complexity rises — master 4-string mute hygiene first.

• Changing tuning every day before reading standard TAB fluently.
• Forgetting the low string is no longer E when applying open-E drones.
• Ignoring setup after large pitch drops.

Every tuning on this page is reached by lowering pitch, and lowering pitch lowers tension. That one consequence causes almost all the trouble people blame on their playing.

• A slacker string swings wider. Same pluck, more movement, so it starts rattling against the frets. If drop D sounds buzzy and standard does not, the tuning is the reason, not your right hand. Pluck a little softer and further from the neck before you reach for the truss rod.
• Go down slowly, one string at a time. Turn a little, check, turn again. Finish the low string before you touch anything else, and if a string creaks over the nut, stop and ease it rather than forcing the tuner.
• If you live in a tuning, buy tension back. A heavier gauge set brings a down-tuned bass back to a normal feel. This is the actual fix for a floppy whole-step-down bass — everything else is coping.
• New pitch, new intonation. Big pitch drops move where the string plays in tune. If a tuning is permanent, get the intonation set for it; if it is for one song, do not bother.
• Come back to standard the same day. Everything else on this site assumes E A D G, and habits built on a low string that is no longer E are the slowest kind of practice to undo.

Most TAB you will find is written for standard tuning, and the conversion to drop D is one rule with one nasty exception.

The rule: add two to every fret number on the lowest string. Leave the other three strings exactly as written. The low string is a whole step flat, so it needs to be fretted a whole step — two frets — higher to give the same pitch. Fret 5 on a standard E string is A; in drop D, that A is at fret 7 on the low string.

The exception: the open low string has no equivalent. You cannot play fret −2. A standard part built on an open low E has to move to fret 2 of the dropped string, which gives you the right pitch and takes away the thing that made the part work — an open string rings and drones on its own, and a fretted note needs a finger held down and mutes the string the moment you lift it. This is why open-E drone parts, and much of the gallop material, do not simply transfer into drop D. They have to be rewritten around the new open D instead.

Which is the honest argument for staying in standard while you are learning: a tuning is worth the trouble when a specific song needs a specific low note, and not before.

From standard to Drop D and back in under two minutes, verifying with the tuner each time. Then play the same root–fifth shape in both tunings and name what changed.

Play along (basslines) · Foundations · Scales