Guitar tuning
Drop A Tuning
A·E·A·D·F#·B
Drop A takes standard tuning down a perfect fourth to B standard, then drops the 6th string another whole step to a low A. The power-chord shape never changes — one finger across the bottom strings — it just sits seven semitones below Drop D, deep into seven-string territory on a six-string neck.
It is the bottom end of modern metal. Slipknot cut “Psychosocial” here; the technical death-metal band Nile use it across almost everything; Jinjer’s “Pisces,” Suicide Silence, Periphery and much of metalcore and deathcore live at this pitch. Because the low A is so far below standard, most players use a baritone, an extended-scale guitar, or a very heavy string set to keep it from flapping.
How to tune to Drop A
From standard tuning:
- 6th (lowest) E → A (down a perfect fifth)
- 5th A → E (down a perfect fourth)
- 4th D → A (down a perfect fourth)
- 3rd G → D (down a perfect fourth)
- 2nd B → F# (down a perfect fourth)
- 1st (highest) E → B (down a perfect fourth)
Open—Shape’s tuner listens for one string at a time and tells you which string it is and how far off — including in alternate tunings like this one.
What Drop A does well
- One-finger power chords, at the floor. The drop shape carries all the way down to A — barre the bottom three strings for a fifth anywhere on the neck.
- Below a seven-string. The low A sits a whole step under a seven-string guitar’s bottom B, reached here on six strings.
- Every drop shape, transposed. Anything in Drop D, Drop C or Drop B works unchanged — the riff vocabulary is identical, just lower.
- Weight over everything. The pitch alone does a lot of the work; simple, slow, palm-muted parts sound enormous.
Common chords in Drop A
The shapes are the standard Drop shapes, moved down. Each is the first voicing the engine returns; tap to browse the rest.
Numbers read low string to high; 0 is open, × is muted.
A progression to try
A heavy A–D–E on the low string:
Songs in Drop A
- Psychosocial — Slipknot
- Pisces — Jinjer
- Much of Nile’s catalogue
- Broadly across deathcore, djent and metalcore
Where you’ll hear it
Slipknot, Nile, Jinjer, Suicide Silence, Periphery, A Day to Remember — deathcore, djent and modern metalcore. One of the lowest tunings in common use before players move to seven- and eight-string guitars.
Open a Drop A canvas — a tuning module already set, wired to a starter progression, every shape recalculated for you.