Guitar Chord Chart for Drop D Tuning

Guitar Chord Chart for Drop D Tuning

As you learn to play rock guitar, a guitar chord chart can come in handy. It's pretty easy to find charts of chords in standard tuning, but when you need to know how to play chords in a "Drop D" tuning, it gets a little tougher to find a good chart.

There's nothing too difficult about playing chords while tuned to "Drop D", but it's helpful to have a decent reference to look at when you're learning the chords. You're going to see these chords quite a bit in your punk/emo and metal genres, so get familiar with the tuning and the chord positions.

When you play these chords, you play them like power chords - just the 4th, 5th and 6th strings (Low E, A and D with standard tuning). It's going to sound best with the overdrive/gain cranked on your amp for some heavy distortion. Oh yea!

If you need a reminder of how to read these tab charts, take a quick look at the ground rules.

Drop D tuning for each string.

To get you started, get tuned to "Drop D" here. Just use the drop-down arrow in the lower right-hand corner of the Tune-O-Matic tuner to choose the Drop D tuning. This is the base Drop D tuning chart for each string:

Next, we'll walk through the neck positions for the chords you'll find in your rock songs. Each has a guitar chord chart so you can "eyeball" it easily. Let's start with the open chord D Major.

D Major

The easiest guitar chord chart. Just play the top three strings open (D, A, D). If you want, you can mute the bottom three strings (G, B, e), but you don't need to.

D Major in Drop D tuning for standard barre chord position

D Major in Drop D tuning for standard barre chord position

You can also play the D chord at it's normal barred position at the fifth fret, but now you can play the sixth string open (instead of muted) for a deeper tone.

E Major

For the E Major chord, barre the top three strings at the second fret. Almost as easy as the D Major.

F Major

For F Major, simply move your index finger to the third fret for the top three strings.

G Major

G Major is the same three strings at the fifth fret.

A Major

OK, are you getting the pattern yet? Yup, move up to the seventh fret...

B Major

Index finger across the ninth fret for B Major.

C Major

Last but not least is C Major at the tenth fret.

You may have figured it out from each guitar chord chart that all we're doing is moving the fingering of the sixth string up the neck two frets. Everything else is the same.

You can request a printable copy of this guitar chord chart here.

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