Online Guitar Tuner

Standard tuning — E A D G B E from the thickest string to the thinnest — is the reference point for almost everything on guitar. Chord shapes, scale patterns, and the vast majority of songs and lessons assume it, which is why it's the tuning every player learns first.

Drop D lowers only the sixth string from E down a whole step to D, leaving everything else in standard. The payoff is huge for one small change: one-finger power chords on the bottom three strings, a heavier low end, and a D bass note for folk and fingerstyle arrangements in D.

Half step down — every string lowered one semitone to E♭ A♭ D♭ G♭ B♭ E♭ — is probably the most-used alternate tuning in rock history. It thickens the tone, eases string tension for big bends, and sits better with many vocalists, which is why everyone from Hendrix to Guns N' Roses lived here.

D standard drops every string a whole step from standard: D G C F A D. Every shape you know still works, but the guitar gains weight and darkness — the reason it's a staple of heavy metal, doom, and stoner rock, and a friend to singers who find E standard keys a touch too high.

Drop C is D standard with the sixth string dropped an extra step to C — the same one-finger power chord layout as Drop D, but a whole step heavier. It's the definitive tuning of 2000s metal and post-hardcore: crushing lows that still track clearly on a 6-string.

Open G tunes the guitar to a G major chord: strum the open strings and you're already playing music. It's the backbone of Delta blues slide and the engine behind Keith Richards' five-string Stones riffs — barre a fret, and you have a new chord.

DADGAD is the great modal tuning: neither major nor minor, but a suspended Dsus4 that leaves every musical door open. It's the lingua franca of Celtic guitar and the sound of Jimmy Page's 'CIA' (Celtic-Indian-Arabic) explorations, endlessly droning and endlessly flexible.

Standard bass tuning is E A D G — the same as the four lowest guitar strings, one octave down. It's the foundation for virtually all bass playing, from Motown to metal.

Standard ukulele tuning is G C E A with a twist: the fourth (top) string is tuned to a high G above the C, not below it. This 're-entrant' arrangement gives the ukulele its signature bright, close-voiced bounce — 'My Dog Has Fleas,' as generations learned to sing it.

Mandolin tuning is G D A E in perfect fifths — the same as a violin — with each course doubled in unison. The paired strings give the mandolin its ringing, chorused sustain, from bluegrass chops to Celtic reels.