# Tunings

Start in standard EADG. Change when the music needs it. Use the shared tuner.

## Standard — E A D G

Lowest to highest the strings are E1 · A1 · D2 · G2, each a perfect fourth above the one below. That one
fact is why bass shapes move the way they do: a 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 two frets up on that
string, and the octave is two strings up and two frets up. The page has a Play button per open string,
one for all four in order, and a live neck you can click fret by fret.

## Drop D — D A D G

Lower the lowest string a whole step, E to D, and leave the other three alone. Two of the four strings are
now called D — the new low string (D1) and the unchanged 2nd string (D2), an octave apart, which is the
whole difficulty of reading drop-D TAB. Check the retune by playing the open low string against the open
2nd string and listening for the octave.

Because two lines would otherwise both say D, drop-D TAB here numbers the strings as well: 1 is the
highest, 4 is the lowest, so the bottom line is the one you retuned.

```
      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
```

On a bass drop D is worth less 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 in standard tuning
the fifth was only ever two frets up on the next string. What you gain is D1
itself — a whole step below the bottom of a standard bass, available as an open string to drone or gallop
on. What you give up is every part that used an open low E.

## Down tunings

Same shapes, darker pitch; watch tension/intonation.

## 5-string

BEADG — mute the B when idle; shift pattern homes carefully.

## 6-string

Extra high range for lead; mute hygiene first on 4.

## Common faults

Tuning hopping, wrong open drones, skipped setup.

## Retuning without fighting the instrument

Every tuning here is reached by lowering pitch, which lowers tension, and that causes most of what people
blame on their playing. A slacker string swings wider and rattles on the frets, so buzz in drop D is the
tuning rather than your right hand. Go down slowly, one string at a time. If you live in a tuning, a
heavier gauge set buys the tension back — that is the actual fix for a floppy down-tuned bass. Big pitch
drops move the intonation, worth setting only if the tuning is permanent. Come back to standard the same
day, because everything else on the site assumes E A D G.

## Reading standard TAB in a dropped tuning

Add two to every fret number on the lowest string and leave the other three exactly as written: the low
string is a whole step flat, so it needs to be fretted two frets higher for the same pitch. Fret 5 on a
standard E string is A; in drop D that A is fret 7 on the low string.

The exception is the open low string, which has no equivalent — you cannot play fret −2. An open low E
becomes fret 2 of the dropped string, right pitch but no longer an open string, so it will not drone on
its own. That is why open-E drone parts and much gallop material do not transfer into drop D; they have to
be rewritten around the new open D.

## Retune drill
Standard ↔ Drop D quickly; name what changed.