 Hello everyone and welcome to Blackstar Potential. My name is Lee Fuge and I'm here today with MusicTeacher.com and in this lesson we're going to start taking a look at the world of drop tuning. All the tones you're hearing in this video are coming directly from the Blackstar HT20 Mark II which is mic'd with an Aston Origin condenser microphone. All the drive and all the reverb are coming directly from the amp. So drop tuning is a really useful thing to know if you're starting to get into playing heavier styles of music such as hard rock or metal. Chances are many of your favorite bands especially on the heavier edge of things are probably dropping their tuning in some way. So in this lesson we're going to look at the basics of drop tuning and learn some principles on how you can use this and talk about how you can apply this to other tunings as well. So the tuning that I'm using for this video is a tuning called Drop D. This is when we take standard tuning which is EAD GBE from low to high and we drop the lowest string which is our low E string. We drop it down a full tone to a D note. That means I've now shifted this down an entire tone. So now my tuning reads DAD GBE. So that low D on the top is my dropped note. So here's how it sounds from low to high. So we've got D, A, D, G, B, and E. Alongside drop D tuning there are many other types of drop tuning. Some of the most common ones you're going to come across on a six string guitar will be things like drop C or drop B. These are the same system as drop D but essentially we're tuning the entire guitar down to a lower version of standard tuning. So for instance drop C I would tune all the strings down a full tone to D, G, C, F, A, D. So that's everything down a full step or a full tone and then I'm drop tuning the lower string a further tone from there to C. So C, G, C, F, A, D. The same principle is true in B but we're tuning down even further. So the rules for all these drop tunings are pretty much the same. So now we're going to look at a few simple things you can do to get started with playing in these drop tunings right away. The first thing you notice is because you've tuned your lower string down a full tone most of your typical chords will no longer work because we've actually got a note here now that doesn't sit with the chord we're playing. So we do have to reimagine certain chord voicings. Now the chances are if you're in a drop tuning you're probably not going to be playing too many of your standard open chords. You'll probably be sticking to power chords or similar variations on that theme because we're going to be playing some heavier stuff here. So the first little trick I can show you is that when you're in a drop tuning like drop D you can actually play power chords now with a single finger. So if I imagine this power chord here on the third fret if I was in standard tuning I would play the third fret on the E followed by the fifth on the A and D. So that doesn't work in drop D tuning and the reason for that is because I've actually tuned the entire string down a full tone I've actually shifted where my notes used to be. So because the entire string has been tuned down a full tone all the positions of the notes that we thought we knew in standard tuning have now been shifted up by two frets. This is to compensate for that pitch change. So the note that I would expect to hear on the third fret in standard tuning is now on the fifth fret in drop D tuning. So my power chord now can be played with one finger. So these two notes here on the A and D string they are both in the same place because those strings remain unchanged. But on the lower string I now need to move my previous note up by two so that's now on the fifth as well. So I can actually play power chords with one finger. Many new players will often find drop D is quite an easy tuning to get started with because we can do everything with one finger. One thing that's pretty fun is to try and write some of your own riffs to drop D tuning. Because you can play those power chords with a single finger it's quite easy to move shapes all around the neck. Another little trick you can use when playing in a drop tuning is to use what's called a sus two chord. This is a great way to make big rung out chords sound absolutely massive in a drop tuning and this is a very simple shape to play. So here's how it sounds. So the shape I'm playing for this chord is actually quite simple. It's actually based around a D sus two chord that we would play in standard tuning which is when we take our conventional D chord and we take off the highest note. This is the note that makes it a major chord. By removing this we turn it into what's called a suspended second. All I'm doing in drop D tuning to make this sound huge is I'm adding the A string and the low D. This works great with a heavy drive tone. It really makes the chord sound massive. When I was moving that around I was just replacing the open strings with a bar. So I was barring across the third fret and then I was playing the fifth on the G and the sixth on the B to simulate that sort of D sus two shape that I was playing. Then I was shifting that up to the fifth fret and back. So that's a great chord to put into your heavy riffs. It's also great for some moody picking stuff. And another fun trick you can do when you're playing in drop tunings is you can take your one finger bar chord and on top of that bar chord you can add another fifth. So it's going to sound like this. This is a great way to add a little bit of extra depth to a one finger power chord riff. All I'm doing there is doubling up another note from the chord. So a power chord in theory terms is always made from the one which is the root of the chord and the five. So the fifth note of the major scale that suits that chord. So the one the five and then we've got another one on top which is the octave. All we're doing here is adding another five on top of that. So in the case of this chord being on the fifth fret the root would be the fifth fret and then the fifth would be here. So that's my first power chord. Then I've got another one here. So this is another root note on the fifth fret of the D string. The three of those together make my one finger power chord. That's one, five, and one. What I'm then doing is I'm adding another fifth on the top. So from this one I'm actually taking on that typical power chord shape here. So going down one string up two frets. So it's five on the D string is my one and seven on the G is my fifth. So I've got a power chord with a fifth on top or we could view this as two little power chords and this is also movable so I can move this to the third, the open or the eighth. So all of these little tricks can be combined with any drop tuning you want and they can be really useful chord writing tools or riff writing tools or whatever you want to do with them. Drop tunings are a great way to unlock some heavier fatter tones from your guitar. So give that a try whether it's in drop D tuning or one of the other drop tunes you've mentioned these principles will work. If you're going down to something like drop C or even lower to drop B remember the gauge on your guitar strings make a big difference. So this guitar is loaded up with a set of 10s right now which is fine for drop D but if you're going down to drop C and especially down to drop B you might want to look at going up to an 11 gauge or a 12 gauge set especially on the lower strings because the lower tuning is going to reduce the amount of tension in the string and obviously the tension is what holds the string tight and maintains the pitch. So if you're tuning a sort of 48 gauge low E string down to a B there's going to lose a lot of tension there and the string is going to be flying all over the place so make sure you up those string gauges if you're going down to those super low drop tunings. Thank you guys so much for watching I hope you've enjoyed this lesson let me know down below in the comments how you found this introduction to drop tuning and let me know how you've gotten on with some of these basic principles and also let us know if there's any other topics you'd like to see us talk about in future lesson videos and don't forget to check out Blackstar amplification on YouTube for more free video lessons just like this and if you're looking for a guitar teacher please head to musicteacher.com and check out the database of music teachers all around the country waiting to help you guys out. Thanks so much for watching and I'll see you soon.