Guitar Double Drop D Tuner — Tune to Double Drop D in Your Browser
Mic-based chromatic tuner pre-set to Double Drop D. No download, no sign-up, works in your browser.
Tuning summary
- Notes (low to high)
- D2 · A2 · D3 · G3 · B3 · D4
- Instrument
- Guitar
- Difficulty
- Intermediate
- About this tuning
- Both E strings dropped to D — Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, and many fingerstyle players use this voicing for ringing open-string chords.
Start tuning
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About Double Drop D on guitar
Double Drop D drops both E strings to D, giving DADGBD low to high. The B string stays put — it is the only non-D, non-A pitch left. The result is a tuning bookended by ringing octave Ds, which is exactly what makes Double Drop D feel so open under the fingers.
Harmonically the tuning excels at major and minor sounds rooted in D. An open strum gives you a rich Dadd11/9 shape, and barre chords up the neck on the bottom and top strings produce sus and add9 voicings that are difficult to finger in standard. Many fingerstyle pieces in D feel like they were written for this tuning rather than transposed into it.
Neil Young is the most prominent association — 'The Loner', 'Cinnamon Girl', and 'Cortez the Killer' are Double Drop D staples — and Joni Mitchell used the tuning for several Blue-era songs. Stephen Stills and a long line of Laurel Canyon writers leaned on it for the same reason: it makes a single guitar sound like two.
Coming from Drop D, the change is small but the chord shapes you already know on the high E string now resolve to D instead of E. The easiest way in is to play a familiar D-major chord and let all six strings ring — you will hear the new colour immediately. Then experiment with hammer-ons on the high D string, which is where Double Drop D really sings.
The symmetry of the tuning is half its appeal. Bookending the strings with D on both ends produces a drone-like resonance: any note you play on the inner strings is heard against a tonic sounding above and below it, which is why a single Double Drop D guitar can feel like two instruments at once. The keys it suits most naturally are D major and D minor, but G major also sits well because the open D drones become the dominant of G, and modal players often work in D mixolydian or D dorian where the absence of a fixed third keeps the colour ambiguous. Beyond Neil Young's catalogue, the tuning has deep roots in Celtic and folk fingerstyle, where the high D opens up new chord inversions on the top three strings — voicings that are awkward in standard suddenly fall under the fingers, which is part of why fingerstyle composers gravitate to it.
Frequently asked questions
- How does Double Drop D differ from Open D?
- Open D drops the 6, 5 (G), 4 (F#), and 3 strings to spell a D major chord. Double Drop D only changes the two E strings, preserving most chord shapes from standard.
- What songs use Double Drop D?
- Neil Young's 'Cinnamon Girl' and 'The Loner', Joni Mitchell's 'Big Yellow Taxi' (one common version), and many CSNY tracks.
- Is Double Drop D good for fingerstyle?
- Yes — the high D drone gives fingerpicking patterns a built-in ringing top, and the low D anchors the bass.
- Do I need new strings?
- No, standard gauges hold both Ds without issue, though some players prefer a slightly heavier 1st string for clearer top-end resonance.
- Can chord charts for standard tuning still help?
- Mostly yes for the middle four strings; chords that use either E string need adjustment because both are now D.