The guitar solo on "Cinnamon Girl" is one note. Neil Young hammers a single D over and over and it works, and the reason it works is the tuning underneath it, D A D G B D, with both E strings dropped a whole step.
Two peg turns from standard. That's the entire trip, which is why I keep a guitar in this tuning for wedding prelude sets — I can get there and back between songs while the guests are still finding their seats.
Before your strings go anywhere:
- Open the Double Drop D tuner — both target notes stay on screen while you tune
- Never dropped a string before? Start with plain Drop D, it's half of this tuning
What is Double Drop D tuning?
Standard tuning reads E A D G B E. Double Drop D lowers the two outer strings and leaves the middle four untouched.
Strum it open and you don't get a tidy major or minor chord. You get three D's spread across three octaves with a G and B floating in the middle, a big ambiguous drone that flatters almost any shape you put over it. Wikipedia's entry on the tuning traces it through Neil Young's catalog, and once you know the sound you'll start hearing it everywhere in late-60s folk rock.
How it sits next to its neighbors matters, because people mix these up constantly.
| Tuning | Strings (low to high) | Open strum sounds like |
|---|---|---|
| Drop D | D A D G B E | standard with a deeper floor |
| Double Drop D | D A D G B D | a droning, ambiguous D |
| Open D | D A D F# A D | a full D major chord |
Open D changes four strings and gives you a major chord. Double Drop D changes two and keeps the G and B, so your standard-tuning muscle memory on the middle strings survives.
How to tune to Double Drop D
With the preset open and your mic allowed, the whole thing takes under a minute.
- Play the open 6th string and loosen it slowly until the tuner reads D. A whole step is a long turn, so if you sail past, drop a little below and come back up to the note.
- Play the open 1st string and loosen it to D as well. This one's a thin string and moves fast. Small movements.
- Sweep the middle strings once. A D G B, they usually hold, but dropping tension on the outside strings can nudge the neck a hair.
And do one ear check even with the tuner green. The low D should sit exactly an octave under your open 4th string, and the high D exactly an octave over it. Play 6th, 4th, 1st in a row. If the octaves shimmer instead of locking, one of them is a few cents off.
Coming back to standard is the same two pegs in reverse, tuning up to E. Strings that just went up hold pitch worse than strings that went down, so stretch each one gently at the 12th fret and recheck.
Double Drop D chords that earn the tuning
Every shape here is note-verified in D A D G B D. Frets read low to high, x means skip the string.
| Chord | Frets (low to high) | Notes sounding |
|---|---|---|
| D5 drone | 0 0 0 2 3 0 | D A D A D D |
| G | 5 x 0 0 0 5 | G D G B G |
| Cadd9 | x 3 2 0 1 0 | C E G C D |
| A7sus4 | x 0 2 0 3 0 | A E G D D |
The D5 drone is home base. Two fingers, everything else open, and it's the "Cinnamon Girl" bedrock. The Cadd9 is your guitar C shape with the top string left open — the high D turns a plain C into something shimmery for free, which is the tuning's whole trick in miniature.
That G deserves a warning. Muting the 5th string with the pad of your fretting index takes practice, and until you get it the open A rings through and muddies the chord. I hook my thumb over for it. Took me longer to get clean than I'd like to admit.
For melodies, remember the top four strings are D G B D. Fragments you know from standard still work on the G and B strings while both D's ring around them.
Songs in Double Drop D
The repertoire is deep and almost all of it is strummable within a week.
- Cinnamon Girl and The Loner, Neil Young. The tuning's birthplace for most players. Riff-driven, forgiving, huge fun.
- Going to California, Led Zeppelin. Fingerpicked and gentle, a great first fingerstyle piece in this tuning.
- The Chain, Fleetwood Mac. That low growling intro riff lives on the dropped 6th string.
- Traditional tunes take to it beautifully — Shady Grove and Man of Constant Sorrow both circulate in popular Double Drop D arrangements, and the drone strings do half the accompaniment work for you.
Learning any of these, run the picking hand against the metronome at 60 BPM first. Drone tunings hide sloppy time because everything rings together, then the mess surfaces the moment you play with another human.
Tom Strahle demos the open sound and a handful of shapes — worth two minutes to hear the drone character before you commit your strings.
Small stuff that trips people
The high string snaps when someone turns the peg the wrong direction and tightens instead of loosens. Pitch goes down, tension goes down. If the note is rising, stop.
Standard chord shapes with an open 1st string now end on D instead of E. Some sound wonderful (that Cadd9). Some sound sour. An E major shape, for instance, puts an open D on top of a G# and the clash is immediate, so either mute the top string on shapes like that or lean into the ones the tuning likes.
No special strings needed. Both altered strings are going down a whole step, which every stock set tolerates. If the guitar lives in this tuning permanently and the outer strings feel flappy, one gauge heavier restores the tension, same advice as Drop D.
And if what you actually want is a full major chord ringing on open strings, this isn't your tuning. That's Open D, one aisle over.
FAQ: Double Drop D tuning
Is Double Drop D the same as Drop D?
Drop D lowers only the 6th string (D A D G B E). Double Drop D lowers the 6th and the 1st (D A D G B D). The name is literal, you're doing the drop twice, once on each E string.
What is Double Drop D tuning used for?
Droning folk rock, fingerstyle, and any part where you want open strings ringing around simple shapes. Neil Young built half a catalog on it. It's also a gentle first step into altered tunings because the middle four strings keep their standard notes.
Will Double Drop D hurt my guitar?
No. You're lowering tension, not raising it, which is the safe direction. The only cost is a slightly floppier feel on the two outer strings and a minute of retuning when you go back to standard.
Can I play standard chords in Double Drop D?
The middle of most shapes survives, the top note changes. Any chord wanting an open high E now gets a D. Check each shape by ear, mute the 1st string where it clashes, and use the verified shapes in the table above as safe starting points.
Is there a tuner preset for this?
Yes, the Double Drop D tuner listens through your mic with all six target notes displayed, D A D G B D, so you're never guessing which string needs to move.
Two pegs and you're there
Open the Double Drop D tuner, drop both E strings a whole step, and play the D5 drone shape from the chord table. Then put "Going to California" on and try to keep up — with the metronome nearby for the honest version of that story.
