Guitar tuning · A E A D F♯ B
Drop A tuner.
A E A D F♯ B: String 6 dropped to A1. 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…
A E A D F♯ B · Drop D shape · −5 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: D
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
Drop A
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 · Drop tuning
About Drop A
B Standard with String 6 dropped a whole step, to A1: A E A D F♯ B. Drop tunings make a power chord from one finger across the lowest three strings, so heavy riffs get easier to play.
Drop A on a 6-string is very low: String 6 reaches A1, the same note as Drop A on a 7-string. Most players use a baritone or a heavy custom set for it.
Also written: AEADF#B
How to get there from standard
- String 6: lower 3½ whole steps (E2 → A1)
- String 5: lower 2½ whole steps (A2 → E2)
- String 4: lower 2½ whole steps (D3 → A2)
- String 3: lower 2½ whole steps (G3 → D3)
- String 2: lower 2½ whole steps (B3 → F♯3)
- String 1: lower 2½ whole steps (E4 → B3)
Quicker from B Standard: lower String 6 a whole step (B1 → A1).
Why players use it
Why Drop A
Drop A, A E A D F♯ B, is B Standard with the low string dropped another whole step. Its bottom note, A1 at 55 Hz, is the open A string of a bass guitar, so a six-string in Drop A plays riffs in the bass player's own range while the top strings still carry chords.
Few bands live here all the time. More often it is the tuning for the heaviest songs on a record: Slipknot play most of their catalogue in Drop B and go a whole step lower for a few songs on each album. Clawfinger are the exception, reaching it in the 2000s as their riffs kept moving down.
On the records
Who plays in Drop A
TuneLit has 30 songs in Drop A, from two bands. Slipknot's 17 begin on Iowa (2001) with My Plague and The Heretic Anthem, and continue with Psychosocial on All Hope Is Gone, The Devil in I on .5: The Gray Chapter and Yen on The End, So Far. Mick Thomson remembered all of Iowa as Drop A; the audio says about half of it is Drop B.
Clawfinger's 13 come mostly from Hate Yourself with Style (2005), with Money Power Glory on Zeros & Heroes (2003) and Where Can We Go from Here? on Life Will Kill You (2007). By then most of their riffs needed a low A, played on baritones or 7-string guitars.
Songs on TuneLit
Famous songs in Drop A
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.
- My PlagueSlipknot · Iowa (2001) · +9 ¢Tune
- PsychosocialSlipknot · All Hope Is Gone (2008)Tune
- The Devil in ISlipknot · .5: The Gray Chapter (2014)Tune
30 songs · 2 bands
Every Drop A 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.
Slipknot 17 songs
- Iowa (2001): My Plague, Everything Ends, The Heretic Anthem, Skin Ticket, New Abortion, Iowa
- All Hope Is Gone (2008): Psychosocial, Gehenna, This Cold Black, Wherein Lies Continue
- .5: The Gray Chapter (2014): Sarcastrophe, The Devil in I
- We Are Not Your Kind (2019): Critical Darling, Red Flag, Orphan
- The End, So Far (2022): Yen, Medicine for the Dead
- Slipknot: every album and its tuning
Clawfinger 13 songs
- Zeros & Heroes (2003): Money Power Glory
- Hate Yourself with Style (2005): The F****t in You, Hate Yourself with Style, Dirty Lies, The Best & the Worst, Breakout (Embrace the Child Inside You), Right to Rape, What We've Got Is What You're Getting, Sick of Myself, Hypocrite, Without a Case, God Is Dead
- Life Will Kill You (2007): Where Can We Go from Here?
- Clawfinger: every album and its tuning
Playing tips
Playing in Drop A
A normal low string tuned down to A has lost more than half its pull, which is too slack to play on an ordinary guitar. Use a baritone or a heavy set made for low tunings, and give the guitar a setup for it: wider nut slots, saddles moved back for intonation, a truss rod adjustment.
Keep a separate guitar if you can. Slipknot do: Jim Root has said the band groups its A-tuned songs in the middle of the set so nobody changes guitars between every song, and Mick Thomson once kept one guitar in Drop A just for Sarcastrophe. On a 7-string, Drop A lowers only the B string, so the top strings stay at G B E instead of F♯ B, and tabs for the two versions differ. The bass tunes A E A D.
6 strings
Notes and frequencies
| String | Note | A = 440 | A = 432 | A = 442 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6 | A1 | 55.00 | 54.00 | 55.25 |
| 5 | E2 | 82.41 | 80.91 | 82.78 |
| 4 | A2 | 110.00 | 108.00 | 110.50 |
| 3 | D3 | 146.83 | 144.16 | 147.50 |
| 2 | F♯3 | 185.00 | 181.63 | 185.84 |
| 1 | B3 | 246.94 | 242.45 | 248.06 |
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 A1
Drop A goes down to A1 on String 6, 55.00 Hz. A phone mic hears A1 faintly: in our phone-mic model its fundamental arrives 11 dB quieter. Read from its overtones, A1 stayed within 1.5 ¢.
No tuner for Drop A?
The capo trick
If your tuner only knows Drop D, clamp a capo across fret 5 and tune the strings, capo on, to Drop D (D A D G B E) as usual. Take the capo off: every open string drops 2½ whole steps and you are in Drop A (A E A D F♯ B).
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 Drop A directly.
String tension
Strings and tension
String 6: about 55% less tension. Strings 5–1: about 44% less tension (approx., same strings, same scale length).
To keep the feel of a 10–46 set at standard pitch, try about 13.5–70 (approx.: string makers' charts differ, and many players simply like it looser).
A longer neck helps too. Compared with a 25.5″ guitar, a 27″ scale gives back about a half step of tension and 28.6″ about a whole step (approx.).
Check string tension → String by string, with your own set and scale length.
Neighboring tunings
Higher tunings first. Each rung moves every string of Drop A by a half step; in the tuner, the ◂ ▸ arrows on the tuning chip do the same.
- Drop BDrop D, 3 half steps lower
- Drop B♭Drop D, 4 half steps lower. Notes: B flat F B flat E flat G C
- Drop AThis pageDrop D, 5 half steps lower. Notes: A E A D F sharp B
- Drop A♭Drop D, 6 half steps lower. Notes: A flat E flat A flat D flat F B flat
- Drop GDrop D, 7 half steps lower. Notes: G D G C E A
Questions
What are the notes of Drop A?
From String 6 to String 1: A1 E2 A2 D3 F♯3 B3. At A4 = 440 Hz the lowest string is 55.00 Hz and the highest is 246.94 Hz.
How is Drop A different from A Standard?
A Standard lowers all six strings 3½ whole steps (A D G C E A). Drop A takes only String 6 that low; the other strings stay at B Standard (E A D F♯ B).
Do I need heavier strings for Drop A?
String 6: about 55% less tension. Strings 5–1: about 44% less tension (approx.). To keep the feel of a 10–46 set at standard pitch, try about 13.5–70 (approx.: string makers' charts differ, and many players simply like it looser).