Home Forums Guitar News Weekly Guitar News Weekly Archive Kirk’s Column: Dropped D pickin’

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    Dropped D pickin’

    Hi fellow picker. I’m back.

    This week I thought I’d introduce you to my favorite tuning, in fact the tuning I use exclusively now. I’ve become so used to the slightly different chord shapes that I play them absent mindedly even when I’m in standard tuning … and what a horrible sound that can be. To be on the safe side, I just leave my guitars in Dropped D. The only time I go back to standard is when I film these lessons I put together for you, but this week you’re coming with me into my world.

    There are two forms of dropped D tuning: one, you lower both E strings down a tone in pitch to D; the other is to just lower the bass string one tone, from E to D. I use the latter, just lowering the bass string. In effect, my guitar is in standard tuning for all strings except the bass string, so really, it’s not that difficult to get your brain around: only notes on that bass string will need adjusting. The adjustment is TWO FRETS UP. So, for example, a G note, usually found at the 3rd fret in standard tuning, will relocate itself to the 5th fret in dropped D; F will be at the 3rd fret; A at the 7th. Pure logic.

    The lesson is a rolling finger-picking style that lends itself beautifully to this tuning. I say finger-picking, as opposed to my usual finger-style, because this IS a repeating pattern that applies to each measure. Finger style is more of a non-repetitive, no-pattern way of merging bass line, melody and chords into one arrangement; finger-picking is more of an accompaniment where the melody is either sung or played on another instrument.

    Go to Guitar for Beginners and Beyond and follow the Weekly Lesson links. There are over 40 movie/midi/tab/commentary lessons there now! Enough to keep you busy for a year. Don’t forget, you can ask me any music questions at the GfB forum, so if you’re not yet a member, it only takes a second to register. Click here to register.

    PlaneTalk – The truly Totally Different Guitar Instruction Book, the book I wrote and illustrated over 10 years ago now, continues to clear the cobwebs for twangers all over the English Speaking World … in fact it goes out to many non-English speaking countries too. It certainly lives up to its subtitle, being the only book out there that teaches the most succinct, compact way of perceiving music on a fretboard, and does so in comic strip format. You get to listen in as the pro reveals to the guy who gave up a very neat visualization ‘trick’ that will forever tame the wilderness that is the fretboard. There are many lessons there, too.

    Do you enjoy slide guitar? If so, come and join the Slide Guitar Forum! Do you have a slide guitar site? Then join the Slide Guitar Web Ring! Do you just like to listen to slide guitar? Then come to my SoundClick site, where I’ve loaded up many tracks. My slide version of Misty sat at #1 in the Jazz General charts for weeks, until it was pipped by my resonator version of Georgia … it’s been #1 for a couple of weeks now.

    OK, until next week, twang on!

    Kirk
    http://ww.kirklorange.com

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