Drop D Guitar Technique

If you’re looking to add more punch and groove to your guitar playing and have already mastered and are perhaps even growing a little weary of your standard tuning bag of tricks, then look no further, Drop D tuning may be just what you need. Or perhaps you already play in Drop D tuning and want an introduction to Irish music? If so, then pull up a chair. For those not already familiar, Drop D tuning is an alternative form of guitar tuning in which the lowest (sixth) string is tuned down from the usual E of standard tuning by one whole step to D. Would you believe it’s actually quite a popular tuning for electric guitar in heavy metal music and is also found regularly in blues, country, folk and classical guitar. This tuning system is particularly suited to the Irish traditional music genre as a beautiful drone-like effect can be created using the open D string.

Previous knowledge of standard tuning, at an intermediate level, is necessary to begin this course.

By the end of the course you will have a repertoire of twelve popular Irish session tunes, be familiar with strumming patterns, bass lines, blocked chords, jazzy chords and lots more. The course has 13 lessons, broken into 3 to 4 tutorials each, where tunes are taught phrase by phrase. Play along backing tracks are available for each tune to further assist your progress.