Guitar tuning · C G C F A D
Drop C tuner.
C G C F A D: String 6 dropped to C2. 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…
C G C F A D · Drop D 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: 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 C
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 C
D Standard with String 6 dropped a whole step, to C2: C G C F A D. Drop tunings make a power chord from one finger across the lowest three strings, so heavy riffs get easier to play.
Drop C is a staple of hard rock, metalcore and nu-metal riffs. It is D Standard with String 6 one whole step lower.
Also written: CGCFAD
How to get there from standard
- String 6: lower 2 whole steps (E2 → C2)
- 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 D Standard: lower String 6 a whole step (D2 → C2).
Why players use it
Why Drop C
Drop C gives a riff a low C, about 65 Hz, with the easy one-finger power chord above it. Compared with Drop D the sound is far heavier, yet the hand does the same things: chug on the open string, jump to frets 5 to 7, slide back. In the main tab of System of a Down's Sugar, most of the riff lives on exactly that open string and those frets.
Daron Malakian has said he was after a more bottom-heavy sound on Toxicity, and Drop C gave it to him. Because the top five strings sit a whole step down, chords and melodies on them stay comfortable, so the tuning works for bands with a singer out front as well as for pure riffing.
On the records
Who plays in Drop C
System of a Down lead TuneLit's 121 Drop C songs with 45. Malakian told Guitar World it was the band's usual tuning, and it carries System of a Down (1998), Toxicity (2001) and Steal This Album! (2002), with Spiders, Chop Suey!, Toxicity and Aerials among them. Rammstein add 26: Mein Herz brennt opened Mutter as their first Drop C song, and Reise, Reise and Rosenrot are their Drop C albums, with the songs Amerika and Rosenrot.
Clawfinger moved to it for their 1997 self-titled album, 17 songs in all. Deftones went down to it for White Pony, with Digital Bath and Change (In the House of Flies), and Metallica sank to it on St. Anger (2003), eight songs here. Nirvana's Blew, on Bleach in 1989, is an early example.
Songs on TuneLit
Famous songs in Drop C
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.
- Two SidesClawfinger · Clawfinger (1997) · +8 ¢Tune
- Digital BathDeftones · White Pony (2000)Tune
- Mein Herz brenntRammstein · Mutter (2001)Tune
- SugarSystem of a Down · System of a Down (1998) · +7 ¢Tune
- Biggest & the BestClawfinger · Clawfinger (1997) · +8 ¢Tune
- Change (In the House of Flies)Deftones · White Pony (2000) · +16 ¢Tune
- AmerikaRammstein · Reise, Reise (2004) · +10 ¢Tune
- SpidersSystem of a Down · System of a Down (1998) · +7 ¢Tune
- RosenrotRammstein · Rosenrot (2005)Tune
- Prison SongSystem of a Down · Toxicity (2001)Tune
- DeutschlandRammstein · Rammstein (2019)Tune
- Chop Suey!System of a Down · Toxicity (2001)Tune
- ToxicitySystem of a Down · Toxicity (2001)Tune
- PsychoSystem of a Down · Toxicity (2001)Tune
- AerialsSystem of a Down · Toxicity (2001)Tune
- Question!System of a Down · Mezmerize (2005) · −8 ¢Tune
121 songs · 13 bands
Every Drop C 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.
System of a Down 45 songs
- System of a Down (1998): Suite-Pee, Know, Sugar, Suggestions, Spiders, DDevil, Soil, War?, Mind, Peephole, CUBErt, Darts, P.L.U.C.K.
- Toxicity (2001): Prison Song, Needles, Deer Dance, Jet Pilot, X, Chop Suey!, Bounce, Forest, ATWA, Science, Shimmy, Toxicity, Psycho, Aerials
- Steal This Album! (2002): Chic 'N' Stu, Innervision, Bubbles, Boom!, Nüguns, A.D.D. (American Dream Denial), Mr. Jack, I-E-A-I-A-I-O, 36, Pictures, Highway Song, Fuck the System, Ego Brain, Thetawaves, Roulette, Streamline
- Mezmerize (2005): Question!
- Hypnotize (2005): Dreaming
- System of a Down: every album and its tuning
Rammstein 26 songs
- Mutter (2001): Mein Herz brennt
- Reise, Reise (2004): Reise, Reise, Mein Teil, Dalai Lama, Keine Lust, Los, Amerika, Morgenstern, Stein um Stein, Ohne dich, Amour
- Rosenrot (2005): Benzin, Mann gegen Mann, Rosenrot, Spring, Wo bist du, Zerstören, Hilf mir, Te quiero puta!, Feuer und Wasser
- Liebe ist für alle da (2009): Pussy
- Rammstein (2019): Deutschland, Radio, Zeig dich, Sex
- Zeit (2022): Zick Zack
- Rammstein: every album and its tuning
Clawfinger 17 songs
- Use Your Brain (1995): Pin Me Down
- Clawfinger (1997): Two Sides, Hold Your Head Up, Biggest & the Best, Chances, Don't Wake Me Up, Not Even You, Nobody Knows, I Can See Them Coming, Wrong State of Mind, I'm Your Life & Religion, Crazy, I Guess I'll Never Know
- A Whole Lot of Nothing (2001): Burn in Hell
- Zeros & Heroes (2003): Kick It
- Life Will Kill You (2007): None the Wiser
- Before We All Die (2026): Before We All Die
- Clawfinger: every album and its tuning
Deftones 11 songs
Metallica 8 songs
Sepultura 5 songs
- Against (1998): Against, Rumors
- Nation (2001): Vox Populi
- Dante XXI (2006): Nuclear Seven, Repeating the Horror
- Sepultura: every album and its tuning
Napalm Death 2 songs
Pantera 2 songs
Linkin Park 1 song
Nirvana 1 song
Radiohead 1 song
Van Halen 1 song
ZZ Top 1 song
Playing tips
Playing in Drop C
Tune the top five strings to D G C F A D first and lower String 6 last: easing it takes pull off the neck, so check the others again once it settles. Moving between System of a Down's albums, shift all six strings a half step, not just the low one: Drop C♯ is Drop C a half step up.
A normal low string is slack at C. Andreas Kisser of Sepultura played Drop C on heavy .013 to .056 strings; many players get by with a .011 or .012 set, or just a heavier String 6. On bass, tune C G C F, or use a five-string, whose low B reaches C at the first fret.
6 strings
Notes and frequencies
| String | Note | A = 440 | A = 432 | A = 442 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6 | C2 | 65.41 | 64.22 | 65.70 |
| 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 C2
Drop C goes down to C2 on String 6, 65.41 Hz. A phone mic hears C2 faintly: in our phone-mic model its fundamental arrives 8 dB quieter. Read from its overtones, C2 stayed within 1 ¢.
No tuner for Drop C?
The capo trick
If your tuner only knows Drop D, clamp a capo across fret 2 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 a whole step and you are in Drop C (C 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 Drop C directly.
String tension
Strings and tension
String 6: about 37% less tension. Strings 5–1: about 21% less tension (approx., same strings, same scale length).
To keep the feel of a 10–46 set at standard pitch, try about 11–59 (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 C by a half step; in the tuner, the ◂ ▸ arrows on the tuning chip do the same.
- Drop DLow string down to D
- Drop C♯Drop D, 1 half step lower
- Drop CThis pageDrop D, 2 half steps lower. Notes: C G C F A D
- 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
Questions
What are the notes of Drop C?
From String 6 to String 1: C2 G2 C3 F3 A3 D4. At A4 = 440 Hz the lowest string is 65.41 Hz and the highest is 293.66 Hz.
How is Drop C different from C Standard?
C Standard lowers all six strings 2 whole steps (C F B♭ E♭ G C). Drop C takes only String 6 that low; the other strings stay at D Standard (G C F A D).
Do I need heavier strings for Drop C?
String 6: about 37% less tension. Strings 5–1: about 21% less tension (approx.). To keep the feel of a 10–46 set at standard pitch, try about 11–59 (approx.: string makers' charts differ, and many players simply like it looser).