Drop D Bar Chords (Easy 3 string chords!)

[homeuser]

Ok,

I'm a keyboard, singer, drummer, etc. But I'm NOT at all a guitar player, until yesterday. My (novice guitarist) friend comes over and tells me he just learned some drop d bar chords. He basically is playing the lowest 3 strings, using 1 finger to BAR them over a fret. The end result is his hand (or index finger) moving up and down the neck, playing various chords. Through his amp he is sounding fricking good! Now, I'm shocked how easy it is to play chords using this method, so I get out my old acoustic and drop d tune it and start strumming away on those same 3 strings.

Not ever wanting to be a lead guitar player, but is this method an ACCEPTED way to play power rythm guitar? Or would I look stupid on stage playing 3 strings and sliding my left hand (index finger barred over 3 strings) up and down the neck?

(I'd love to play some rythm guitar at one of our gigs!!!) LOL!

[c7sus]

I'd go for it.

Because EVERYBODY knows that guitar players get way more chicks than geeky keyboard players!

[FattMusiek]

I never tune to drop D, unless I'm covering something that requires it. I think it's cheap. It reminds me of shitty new metal.

[homeuser]

c7sus - Thanks for the reminder! (about chicks digging guitar players!)

FattMusiek - Sure it's cheap, but the question was, is this an acceptable way to play some power rythym guitar? Does anyone else ever play guitar like this? (3 string bar chords in drop-d tuning)

[c7sus]

Who cares if anybody else plays like that?

Hot chicks will NEVER know the difference!!!!!

THAT is the beauty of it!

[BillyFurnett]

There are common techniques and practices employed in the various styles of music, but creativly no hard fast rules.
If it works in the music you're doing and adds to your creative skill set, then hell, Go for it.

[mallcore pop]

Accepted? Oh yeah.
All you need? For now, sure. As long as you're in tune and you know what frets to hit.

For now.

Will you look stupid? Depends. What are you wearing?

MP

[Neil Ogilvie]

I've seen someone do it at a gig once.

Nobody really noticed except the ones who knew something about music. I felt embaressed for the guy to be honest.....

If your selling yourself as any sort of guitarist, its not done 'coz its so damn easy and makes you look like your just a crap player.

If your a keyboard player doing one song at a gig, you could get away with it (for the novelty value).

Neil

[macafied]

Disturbed... Nirvana... Creed... Alice in Chains... to name a few- all use(d) Drop D in some if not all of there songs. Dont know how much your friend showed you but you can add the 4th string 2 frets above any of those bar chords to get some variation and other chords. Sorry if you already know this and not sure if you read tab but here you go...

-x- -x-
-x- -x-
-5- -5-
-3- -5-
-3- -3-
-3- -3-

Those can also move up and down the neck.

[grinder]

It's a good starting place.The more you do it the, better you'll get and you can start learning other chords along the way.

[AcidRain]

Originally posted by Neil Ogilvie
I've seen someone do it at a gig once.

Nobody really noticed except the ones who knew something about music. I felt embaressed for the guy to be honest.....

If your selling yourself as any sort of guitarist, its not done 'coz its so damn easy and makes you look like your just a crap player.

If your a keyboard player doing one song at a gig, you could get away with it (for the novelty value).

Neil

You said it...

and grinder, the one downside is that you can't pull off a full bar chord when you're in Drop-D (not easily, at least).

Personally, I'd say that the power chord shape is extremely easy, no real reason not to learn it, but if you just need to jump in quickly, go for the drop D.

[homeuser]

Cool. I think I'm going to go for it. I see no reason not to after reading these comments. And yes it would be for the novelty of it, and perhaps to add some fullness that my key's wouldn't be able to provide. There'sa few cover tunes we're doing where some good strums or power chords would sound better than the current pads/strings I'm playing on keys.

Thanks again for the comments. Very interesting by the way!

p.s. Last night I watched (again) my recorded Godsmack Hard Rock Live session. I was able to play almost perfectly their new song "Serenity" note for note on my acoustic using drop d and a little fingerind.

[cstockdale]

I use drop D, double drop D (top E string too), DADGAD, FADGBE, open-D, open-G, standard tuning. Play what you want to play. If it sounds good, who gives a flying fuck what other people think?

[Scottgman]

Man I can't believe everyone is bashing on the dropped D power chords. I mean come on; there are more benefits to dropped D than just one-finger chords. For one thing, it creates pivot points to do things that would be difficult in standard tuning. So what do you do if you write a song in dropped D and need to play some bar chords on the top strings? Are you supposed to stop the song, tune up, and then play the chords so the crowd can be amazed at your 2-finger chord-playing guitar prowess?

If we are going to bash on one-finger chords, are two-finger power chords really that much better in terms of demonstrating guitar proficiency?

And what about other tunings that have a drop D (DADGAD) and thus necessitate a one finger chord if you are going to play bar chords on the top strings. I guess Jimmy Page was a shitty guitar player because most of the chords in Bron-y-aur Stomp are one finger.

If one-finger chords are all you know then you should probably not claim to be a real guitar player. But other than that, it's a perfectly acceptable and COMMON practice.

Homeuser, play your dropped D power chords all night long and have a blast. Who cares what the guitar players in the audience think. Mega rock stars who get paid millions of dollars use dropped D power chords.

Sorry, I'm in an arguing kind of mood... I'll go back to the cave now!

[AcidRain]

Originally posted by Scottgman
Sorry, I'm in an arguing kind of mood...

I hadn't noticed...

[Dethska]

drop D is KEY for deep metal/ grunge. You can't get the same tone with a regular tuning. Posers left over from the eighties will cry foul, but they are just mad that all their stock in aquanet isn't worth anything. and that all that time practicing 32nd notes isn't cool anymore.

It's music, don't let anybody tell you, you are doing it WRONG!

[JLM]

Originally posted by cstockdale
I use drop D, double drop D (top E string too), DADGAD, FADGBE, open-D, open-G, standard tuning. Play what you want to play. If it sounds good, who gives a flying fuck what other people think?

I agree totally. Besides, drop D isn't just for metal, nu metal or whatever else it's become associated with. Unfortunately it has become associated with shitty guitarists because it is a very simplified and easy technique to pull off. Anyone can do it. I think the point is don't let it be all you do. But don't choose not to use it just because you're afraid it's cheap, shitty or implies you're a wannabe 'real' guitarist. See the last sentence of the quote above from cstockdale.

[grinder]

Who's bashing dropped D tuning?

Originally posted by Scottgman
Man I can't believe everyone is bashing on the dropped D power chords. I mean come on; there are more benefits to dropped D than just one-finger chords. For one thing, it creates pivot points to do things that would be difficult in standard tuning. So what do you do if you write a song in dropped D and need to play some bar chords on the top strings? Are you supposed to stop the song, tune up, and then play the chords so the crowd can be amazed at your 2-finger chord-playing guitar prowess?

If we are going to bash on one-finger chords, are two-finger power chords really that much better in terms of demonstrating guitar proficiency?

And what about other tunings that have a drop D (DADGAD) and thus necessitate a one finger chord if you are going to play bar chords on the top strings. I guess Jimmy Page was a shitty guitar player because most of the chords in Bron-y-aur Stomp are one finger.

If one-finger chords are all you know then you should probably not claim to be a real guitar player. But other than that, it's a perfectly acceptable and COMMON practice.

Homeuser, play your dropped D power chords all night long and have a blast. Who cares what the guitar players in the audience think. Mega rock stars who get paid millions of dollars use dropped D power chords.

Sorry, I'm in an arguing kind of mood... I'll go back to the cave now!

[Cyrokk]

Originally posted by Neil Ogilvie
Nobody really noticed except the ones who knew something about music. I felt embaressed for the guy to be honest.....

If your selling yourself as any sort of guitarist, its not done 'coz its so damn easy and makes you look like your just a crap player.

Neil

Whatever. If you feel embarrassed about the guitarist, then the song he is playing isnt obviously worth a crap because you are focusing on the wrong thing.

Drop D is done by many acceptible guitarists. Jerry Cantrell and Kim Thayil did a hell of a lot more than wank around on the first three strings. I would certainly not call either of them crap players.

In fact, dissing Drop D is just as bad as dissing players who tune to entire chords. If anything, alternate tuning simply opens up a whole new world for the guitarist to experiment in.

Cy

[terrible_buddhi]

Add Jimmy Eat World to that list, and I think their songs are some of the best out there...especially their early stuff...not to mention if you can use a simpler form of a chord you won't have to stand like a statue on stage trying to make sure you got the frettig right...I use drop D in 2 of our songs and they are by far our favorites to play.

OH, and just because you drop D doesn't mean you only have to use 3 strings...check out the tab for 'sweetness' by Jimmy.

[Saz]

Other bands that drop:

- Sevendust
- Machine Head
- Stuck Mojo
- Fear factory

It's not always done for simple playing purposes! This way of tuning makes it possible to play chords, which else could not be played.

Like double powerchords:

----------------
---6------8----
---5------7----
---3------5----
---3------5----
---3------5----

Or for example:

--------------------------
--(3)-----5-------6-----
---5------5-------5-----
---5------3-------3-----
---3------3-------3-----
---3------3-------3-----

And many other options.

What this tuning also does for example, is lowering the root by 1 whole step, while KEEPING the "harmonics" of the "normal" tuning. Some songs can not be played if all the strings are detuned, because the natural(??) harmonics have lowered as well.

Machine Head's "Davidian" [burn my eyes] is a great example. You hear a dropped "C" chord, immediately followed by harmonics, which are only to be played in dropped tuning.

And that song does not sound that "simple", or would any of you guys start feeling "embarresed" for Rob Flynn for playing dropped, even if it's done to create possibilities? I don't think so..

[Outlaws]

My God.................stupid NuMetal...................discredits everything..........

Neil Young uses Drop D on his acoustic. I don't see people laughing at him.

[Saz]

And Satriani as well on "Friends" [the Extremist]

[Chris Tondreau]

A few thoughts here.... if it sounds good, do it. You have to remember that 95% of any given audience are NOT musicians and won't know or care what you're doing anyway. To them, if you sound good, you are good. Musicans judge you through other filters, though... that is true.

As far as dropped-D and other alternate tunings and stuff go, that idea has been around for AGES longer than anyone has referenced as yet. It's not how you tune - it's what you do with it.

It is pretty common practice - especially in baroque, renaissance, and modern compositions - for classical guitar players to tune to drop-D. Check out any recordings of "Allemande" (John Dowland - a Renaissance lute player/composer), or number of movements from Bach's lute suites (Baroque period) are transcribed for classical guitar in dropped-D tuning. Look especially for players like Andres Segovia and John Williams (not JW the composer of Star Wars... a different JW). You won't find anyone anywhere who will dispute the greatness of either player. Many modern guitar composers, like many modern composers for any instrument (non-pop) are always finding new ways of challenging the limitations of both players and their instruments. Alternate tunings are only the tip of the ice-berg.

The reason that transcriptions of lute pieces are often in drop-D, (and/or even played with a capo) is to be as true to the original composition as possible. One of the things that killed the lute as a viable instrument was that there was little to no standardized tuning for the instrument (nor even standardized construction, but that's a whole other matter....), but it typically exceeded the guitar in range, as it had more strings. Drop-D tuning was one means of accommodating the extra range somewhat.

Lutes also sounded "thinner" or "tighter" than guitars (gut strings in those days...), so using a capo at the second or third fret was one way in order to achieve this different tonal characteristic to make the performance more true to what the composer may have first idealized.

Sorry for a bit of a rant, and a bit of a history lesson, but there are too many guitar techniques/approaches to playing, etc., that are considered new, but are really very old. There has really been little innovation in guitar in the last 50 years, contrary to the perception of those who think that rock music has changed the whole approach to guitar playing. Same tricks in new contexts, mostly.

Oh, yeah.... and a lot of the original blues artists tuned their guitar to a COMPLETELY open chord (E B E G# B E, for example) so they could bar ALL the strings and play chords. This also allowed for easy slide playing too.

Chris

[Bill Assumpcao]

Nickleback uses dropped D for "How you Remind me". I don't, but they do.
Steven Stills uses a lot of dropped D.
I use the dropped D to turn his "4+20" into a 7or 8 minute jam with myself. Of course, I sing it as "2+50"