Guitar tuning · D G C F A D
D Standard tuner.
D G C F A D: a whole step down from standard. Tune with your mic or by ear, at A4 = 440 or any pitch you need.
Tuner · Any tuning
Tune your guitar.
Pluck a string and the meter shows how far off it is. Tap any string to hear it at its true pitch and tune by ear.
- Pick any instrument and tuning
- Shift it down or up by half steps
- Set A to anything: 440, 432, 442…
D G C F A D · E Standard shape · −2 st
Check string tension →The sound never leaves your device.
Keys: Space start or stop · ← → half step · ↑ ↓ A (Shift: bigger steps) · 1–9 string · M mode · R hear · − + volume · L copy link · Esc done
Ready
tab: E
Strings 1 → 6
3 times each
Tap Start, then pluck any string.
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Strings · tap to hear
Instrument
Try uke, bari, 5 string, cello…
Tuning
D Standard
Shape
Shift
Standard pitch
Higher or lower
Fine-tune
Moves every string a little, for example to match a recording.
Custom tuning
Any strings, any notes
One row for each string. The top row is the top string, usually the thickest.
Start from
Strings
+ adds a lower string at the top. − takes the top string away.
Notes from C0 to C8. Type a note like D2, F♯3 or B♭1, or use − and +.
Save and use keeps it on this device (up to 8 tunings). Use without saving tunes with it for now.
Reference A
Slider 380–500 Hz. Type any value from 300 to 600 Hz.
More pitches
Sound
Violin, viola, cello and double bass start with Bowed, the rest with Acoustic.
Note length
Match a recording Beta
Find the A a song was recorded at, then tune to it and play along.
…listening
Play the song, loud and clear.
Result
This recording sits on A 440
The tuner already matches it: nothing to change.
A recording is only known within a half step: if the song is a half step down, also change the tuning.
Beta: tested on real records and synthetic songs. Check the result by ear.
Nothing is uploaded: the sound is measured on this device.
Settings
Mode
Guided: one string at a time, from the thickest.
Meter
Bar: a slider with a mint in-tune zone.
Note length
How long a tapped string and Hear sound. Repeat plays the string again every few seconds, Continuous holds it: tap it again to stop.
Reference sound
Violin, viola, cello and double bass start with Bowed, the rest with Acoustic. A sound you pick stays.
Volume
Phone speakers play very low notes an octave up.
Note names
Sharps and flats
Octave numbers (E2, E4)
Tells the two E strings apart: E2 is the low one, E4 the high one.
Frequencies (Hz)
Each string's pitch in hertz, such as 82.4 Hz.
In tune within
Precise is not used with harmonics: Normal ±3 applies.
Harmonic mode
For one low string: play its 12th-fret harmonic (×2) or its 5th-fret one (×4).
Pro view
The pitch heard in Hz, tenths of a cent and the input picker. Turns on octave numbers and frequencies.
Device names appear after you allow the microphone.
Input channel
Auto picks the channel with sound. Interfaces: choose the input your instrument is plugged into.
Background
Night ocean, cosmos, forest and more.
The sound never leaves your device. No account, no cookies.
Guitar · Downtuned standard
About D Standard
Every string sits a whole step below E Standard: D G C F A D. Downtuned standard tunings keep every chord shape you know; songs simply sound lower and the strings feel a bit looser.
D Standard gives a heavier sound while keeping every familiar shape. It is common in grunge, metal and singer-songwriter music, and the looser strings make wide bends easier.
Also written: whole step down · DGCFAD
How to get there from standard
- String 6: lower a whole step (E2 → D2)
- String 5: lower a whole step (A2 → G2)
- String 4: lower a whole step (D3 → C3)
- String 3: lower a whole step (G3 → F3)
- String 2: lower a whole step (B3 → A3)
- String 1: lower a whole step (E4 → D4)
Quicker from Drop C: raise String 6 a whole step (C2 → D2).
Why players use it
Why D Standard
D Standard, D G C F A D, lowers every string a whole step. Songs in D, G and C get open low roots, the way songs in E and A have them in standard tuning, and the familiar shapes sound two frets lower. For a singer, a whole tone can be the difference between straining and singing comfortably.
It is also about as low as most players go before new strings become hard to avoid. The pull drops by about a fifth, which an ordinary set handles; below this, heavier gauges usually follow.
On the records
Who plays in D Standard
Napalm Death account for 180 of TuneLit's 352 songs here: Harmony Corruption (1990) and everything since Enemy of the Music Business (2000). Sepultura add 65: Chaos A.D. (1993) was their first album tuned down, and D Standard stayed one of Andreas Kisser's two main tunings. Megadeth add 46, from Super Collider (2013), made after Dave Mustaine's neck injury, to the final self-titled album (2026).
Elsewhere it marks the heavy song on an album. Pantera brought it in with Walk on Vulgar Display of Power and kept it through Reinventing the Steel, and Metallica used it for The Thing That Should Not Be and Sad but True. On Nevermind, Come as You Are, Lithium and Drain You are a whole step down. The Beatles used it once: Yesterday is played in G shapes on a guitar tuned a whole step down, so it sounds in F.
Songs on TuneLit
Famous songs in D Standard
Each song has its own page: the exact tuning, the pitch of the record and how to get there string by string. Tune sets the tuner to the record, cents included.
- DystopiaMegadeth · Dystopia (2016)Tune
- Sad but TrueMetallica · Metallica (The Black Album) (1991) · +13 ¢Tune
- You SufferNapalm Death · Scum (1987)Tune
- Come as You AreNirvana · Nevermind (1991) · +14 ¢Tune
- WalkPantera · Vulgar Display of Power (1992) · A 426Tune
- Refuse/ResistSepultura · Chaos A.D. (1993) · +12 ¢Tune
- YesterdayThe Beatles · Help! (1965) · −10 ¢Tune
- Whiskey in the JarMetallica · Garage Inc. (1998) · +11 ¢Tune
- Suffer the ChildrenNapalm Death · Harmony Corruption (1990)Tune
- LithiumNirvana · Nevermind (1991) · +14 ¢Tune
- BecomingPantera · Far Beyond Driven (1994) · A 429Tune
- TerritorySepultura · Chaos A.D. (1993) · +12 ¢Tune
- Drain YouNirvana · Nevermind (1991) · +14 ¢Tune
- 5 Minutes AlonePantera · Far Beyond Driven (1994) · A 429Tune
- I'm BrokenPantera · Far Beyond Driven (1994) · A 429Tune
- FloodsPantera · The Great Southern Trendkill (1996) · A 424Tune
352 songs · 19 bands
Every D Standard song on TuneLit
Open a band to see its songs in this tuning. Each song opens on its album page, at its own Tune button, set to the pitch of the record.
Napalm Death 180 songs
- Scum (1987): Multinational Corporations, The Kill, Caught... in a Dream, Polluted Minds, Sacrificed, Siege of Power, Control, Born on Your Knees, You Suffer, Life?, Prison Without Walls, Point of No Return, Negative Approach, Success?, Deceiver, C.S., Parasites, Pseudo Youth, Divine Death, As the Machine Rolls On, Common Enemy, Moral Crusade, Stigmatized, M.A.D., Dragnet
- Harmony Corruption (1990): Vision Conquest, If the Truth Be Known, Inner Incineration, Malicious Intent, Unfit Earth, Circle of Hypocrisy, The Chains That Bind Us, Mind Snare, Extremity Retained, Suffer the Children
- Diatribes (1996): Greed Killing
- Leaders Not Followers (1999): Politicians, Incinerator, Demoniac Possession, Maggots in Your Coffin, Back from the Dead, Nazi Punks Fuck Off
- Enemy of the Music Business (2000): Taste the Poison, Next on the List, Constitutional Hell, Vermin, Volume of Neglect, Thanks for Nothing, Can't Play, Won't Pay, Blunt Against the Cutting Edge, Cure for the Common Complaint, Necessary Evil, C.S. (Conservative Shithead) Part 2, Mechanics of Deceit, (The Public Get) What the Public Doesn't Want, Fracture in the Equation
- Order of the Leech (2002): Continuing War on Stupidity, The Icing on the Hate, Forced to Fear, Narcoleptic, Out of Sight Out of Mind, To Lower Yourself (Blind Servitude), Lowest Common Denominator, Forewarned Is Disarmed?, Per Capita, Farce and Fiction, Blows to the Body, The Great Capitulator
- Leaders Not Followers: Part 2 (2004): Lowlife, Face Down in the Dirt, Devastation, Messiah, Victims of a Bomb Raid, Night of Pain, War's No Fairytale, Conform, Master, Fire Death Fate, Riot of Violence, Game of the Arseholes, Clangor of War, Dope Fiend, I'm Tired, Troops of Doom, Bedtime Story, Blind Justice, Hate, Fear and Power
- The Code Is Red...Long Live the Code (2005): Silence Is Deafening, Right You Are, Diplomatic Immunity, The Code Is Red...Long Live the Code, Climate Controllers, Instruments of Persuasion, The Great and the Good, Sold Short, All Hail the Grey Dawn, Vegetative State, Pay for the Privilege of Breathing, Pledge Yourself to You, Striding Purposefully Backwards, Morale, Our Pain Is Their Power
- Smear Campaign (2006): Weltschmerz, Sink Fast, Let Go, Fatalist, Puritanical Punishment Beating, When All Is Said and Done, Freedom Is the Wage of Sin, In Deference, Short-Lived, Identity Crisis, Shattered Existence, Eyes Right Out, Warped Beyond Logic, Rabid Wolves (For Christ), Deaf and Dumbstruck (Intelligent Design), Smear Campaign
- Time Waits for No Slave (2009): Strong-Arm, Diktat, Work to Rule, On the Brink of Extinction, Time Waits for No Slave, Life and Limb, Downbeat Clique, Fallacy Dominion, Passive Tense, Larceny of the Heart, Procrastination on the Empty Vessel, Feeling Redundant, A No-Sided Argument, De-Evolution Ad Nauseum
- Utilitarian (2012): Circumspect, Errors in the Signals, Everyday Pox, Protection Racket, The Wolf I Feed, Quarantined, Fall on Their Swords, Collision Course, Orders of Magnitude, Think Tank Trials, Blank Look About Face, Leper Colony, Nom de Guerre, Analysis Paralysis, Opposites Repellent, A Gag Reflex
- Apex Predator – Easy Meat (2015): Apex Predator – Easy Meat, Smash a Single Digit, Metaphorically Screw You, How the Years Condemn, Stubborn Stains, Timeless Flogging, Dear Slum Landlord..., Cesspits, Bloodless Coup, Beyond the Pale, Stunt Your Growth, Hierarchies, One-Eyed, Adversarial / Copulating Snakes
- Throes of Joy in the Jaws of Defeatism (2020): Fuck the Factoid, That Curse of Being in Thrall, Contagion, Joie de Ne Pas Vivre, Invigorating Clutch, Zero Gravitas Chamber, Fluxing of the Muscle, Amoral, Throes of Joy in the Jaws of Defeatism, Acting in Gouged Faith, A Bellyful of Salt and Spleen
- Resentment Is Always Seismic – A Final Throw of Throes (2022): Narcissus, Resentment Always Simmers, By Proxy, People Pie, Man Bites Dogged, Slaver Through a Repeat Performance, Don't Need It, Resentment Is Always Seismic (Dark Sky Burial Dirge)
- Napalm Death: every album and its tuning
Sepultura 65 songs
- Bestial Devastation (1985): The Curse, Bestial Devastation, Warriors of Death
- Chaos A.D. (1993): Refuse/Resist, Territory, Slave New World, Nomad, Manifest, The Hunt
- Roots (1996): Breed Apart, Straighthate, Born Stubborn, Ambush, Dictatorshit
- Against (1998): Floaters in Mud
- Nation (2001): Revolt, The Ways of Faith, Who Must Die?, Reject, Water, Valtio
- Roorback (2003): Urge, Mind War, Leech, Outro
- Dante XXI (2006): Lost (Intro), Ostia, Buried Words, Eunoé (Intro), Crown and Miter, Primium Mobile (Intro), Still Flame
- A-Lex (2009): Moloko Mesto, Sadistic Values, Strike, Enough Said, Paradox
- Kairos (2011): Spectrum, Kairos, Relentless, 2011, Just One Fix, 1433, Seethe, 5772, No One Will Stand, Structure Violence (Azzes), 4648
- The Mediator Between Head and Hands Must Be the Heart (2013): The Vatican, Impending Doom, Tsunami, Grief, Obsessed, Da Lama ao Caos
- Machine Messiah (2017): Machine Messiah, Sworn Oath, Silent Violence, Vandals Nest
- Quadra (2020): Isolation, Last Time, Ali, Raging Void, The Pentagram, Quadra, Agony of Defeat
- Sepultura: every album and its tuning
Megadeth 46 songs
- Risk (1999): Prince of Darkness
- Super Collider (2013): Kingmaker, Super Collider, Burn!, Built for War, Off the Edge, Dance in the Rain, Beginning of Sorrow, The Blackest Crow, Forget to Remember, Don't Turn Your Back..., Cold Sweat
- Dystopia (2016): The Threat Is Real, Dystopia, Fatal Illusion, Death from Within, Bullet to the Brain, Post American World, Poisonous Shadows, Conquer or Die!, Lying in State, The Emperor, Foreign Policy
- The Sick, the Dying... and the Dead! (2022): The Sick, the Dying... and the Dead!, Life in Hell, Night Stalkers, Dogs of Chernobyl, Sacrifice, Junkie, Psychopathy, Killing Time, Soldier On!, Célebutante, Mission to Mars, We'll Be Back
- Megadeth (2026): Tipping Point, I Don't Care, Hey, God?!, Let There Be Shred, Puppet Parade, Another Bad Day, Made to Kill, Obey the Call, I Am War, The Last Note, Ride the Lightning
- Megadeth: every album and its tuning
Pantera 21 songs
- Vulgar Display of Power (1992): A New Level, Walk
- Far Beyond Driven (1994): Becoming, 5 Minutes Alone, I'm Broken, Use My Third Arm, Throes of Rejection
- The Great Southern Trendkill (1996): The Great Southern Trendkill, War Nerve, 10's, 13 Steps to Nowhere, Suicide Note Pt. II, Living Through Me (Hells' Wrath), Floods
- Reinventing the Steel (2000): Hellbound, Goddamn Electric, Yesterday Don't Mean Shit, Revolution Is My Name, Death Rattle, We'll Grind That Axe for a Long Time, Uplift
- Pantera: every album and its tuning
Black Sabbath 10 songs
Metallica 10 songs
- Master of Puppets (1986): The Thing That Should Not Be
- The $5.98 E.P. – Garage Days Re-Revisited (1987): The Small Hours, Crash Course in Brain Surgery
- Metallica (The Black Album) (1991): Sad but True
- ReLoad (1997): Devil's Dance
- Garage Inc. (1998): Sabbra Cadabra, Whiskey in the Jar, The Small Hours, Crash Course in Brain Surgery
- Hardwired... to Self-Destruct (2016): Dream No More
- Metallica: every album and its tuning
Nirvana 3 songs
Jimi Hendrix 2 songs
Queens of the Stone Age 2 songs
Soundgarden 2 songs
The Rolling Stones 2 songs
ZZ Top 2 songs
Clawfinger 1 song
Deep Purple 1 song
Green Day 1 song
Pink Floyd 1 song
The Beatles 1 song
The Pretty Reckless 1 song
Van Halen 1 song
Playing tips
Playing in D Standard
Do not mix it up with Drop D. A tab that says “D tuning” or “whole step down” usually means all six strings; Drop D moves only the lowest. Pantera records also sit well below A 440, so set the reference A to the album's measured value, as the Tune buttons do, before reaching for another tuning.
A .010 set starts to feel soft here, and many players go up one size: Dave Mustaine moves from .010–.052 in E to .011–.054 in D. The bass follows to D G C F. If you keep one guitar in D and want to play an E Standard song on it, put a capo at fret 2: the open strings are back on E A D G B E.
6 strings
Notes and frequencies
| String | Note | A = 440 | A = 432 | A = 442 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6 | D2 | 73.42 | 72.08 | 73.75 |
| 5 | G2 | 98.00 | 96.22 | 98.44 |
| 4 | C3 | 130.81 | 128.43 | 131.41 |
| 3 | F3 | 174.61 | 171.44 | 175.41 |
| 2 | A3 | 220.00 | 216.00 | 221.00 |
| 1 | D4 | 293.66 | 288.33 | 295.00 |
The tuner on this page works at any A4 from 300 to 600 Hz, and can shift the whole tuning by half steps or fine cents.
Measured
How the tuner hears D2
D Standard goes down to D2 on String 6, 73.42 Hz. A phone mic hears D2 faintly: in our phone-mic model its fundamental arrives 6 dB quieter. Read from its overtones, D2 stayed within 1 ¢.
No tuner for D Standard?
The capo trick
If your tuner only knows E Standard, clamp a capo across fret 2 and tune the strings, capo on, to E Standard (E A D G B E) as usual. Take the capo off: every open string drops a whole step and you are in D Standard (D G C F A D).
A capo pushes the strings a little sharp, so the open strings can end up a few cents flat. Check each one again without the capo: the tuner on this page reads D Standard directly.
String tension
Strings and tension
Strings 6–1: about 21% less tension (approx., same strings, same scale length).
Most players keep their usual strings for this. If the lowest string feels floppy or buzzes, go one gauge heavier on that string only.
Check string tension → String by string, with your own set and scale length.
Neighboring tunings
Higher tunings first. Each rung moves every string of D Standard by a half step; in the tuner, the ◂ ▸ arrows on the tuning chip do the same.
- E StandardThe usual tuning
- E♭ StandardAll strings 1 half step lower
- D StandardThis pageAll strings 2 half steps lower. Notes: D G C F A D
- C♯ StandardAll strings 3 half steps lower
- C StandardAll strings 4 half steps lower
Questions
What are the notes of D Standard?
From String 6 to String 1: D2 G2 C3 F3 A3 D4. At A4 = 440 Hz the lowest string is 73.42 Hz and the highest is 293.66 Hz.
Is D Standard the same as tuning a whole step down?
Yes. D Standard means every string is a whole step lower than standard: D G C F A D. Tabs often call it "whole step down". Chord shapes stay the same; only the sound moves down.
Can I use D Standard at A = 432 or 442?
Yes. Tap the A 440 chip and choose 432 or 442, or type any value. String 6 is 72.08 Hz at A = 432 and 73.75 Hz at A = 442.