# What are some bands that drop A tune



## jds93

does anyone know of any good bands that drop A tune?... just drop A! i want some good inspiration that use the same style and tuning.


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## dewy

Staind and Whitechapel.


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## danenachtrieb

suicide silence, carnifex, and my band The Guilty Unpunished myspace.com/theguiltyunpunished


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## abysmalrites

Nile


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## Xiphos68

IMPENDING DOOM!


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## Hawkevil

After the burial use 8 strings but some of their songs could be played on a 7 string with drop A tuning...


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## groph

Yeah, Nile, Bloodbath* does it on some songs on the new album, as does Amon Amarth. Guardians of Asgaard is in Drop A. Fun as hell to play, too.

I think the Acacia Strain might be, but something's telling me it's Drop G#.

Beneath the Massacre plays sevens tuned down a step I THINK, so the rhythm parts could be played in Drop A.


*This might be A Standard but I'm sure it's possible to play in Drop A too.


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## Rick

Staind plays in Drop D with a low A.

Whitechapel, Carnifex, Suicide Silence, The Acacia Strain, Nile, Salt The Wound, 1st album Chimaira, Ankla, and Impending Doom are all the Drop A bands I can think of.


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## pink freud

I'm a bit confused as how a band's style would be different in drop-A from any other dropped tuning...

Its just a string pattern, the key is the only thing that changes.


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## Rick

They could play 5ths faster and can get a little more creative with chords.


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## pink freud

Rick said:


> They could play 5ths faster and can get a little more creative with chords.



A player can play fifths faster in drop A than they can in drop D?

Strange, I didn't know physics worked like that


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## ykcirj

pink freud said:


> A player can play fifths faster in drop A than they can in drop D?
> 
> Strange, I didn't know physics worked like that


 
I think he was refering to drop tunings versus standard tuning.


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## pink freud

ykcirj said:


> I think he was refering to drop tunings versus standard tuning.



Which hadn't even been talked about...


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## All_¥our_Bass

abysmalrites said:


> Nile


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## Rick

ykcirj said:


> I think he was refering to drop tunings versus standard tuning.



Correct. 

Also, Lacuna Coil and God Forbid's latest albums have songs that are in drop A or the albums in their entirety are in drop A, I don't actually have either one.


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## BurialWithin

Burial Within plays in drop a.....lol


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## Hawkevil

pink freud said:


> Which hadn't even been talked about...


 

Come on man it was pretty obvious what he was talking about. 

I think what you mean is what is the point of playing in drop A when you can play in Drop D. 

Well it can be personal preferance, guitar tone, singers vocal range, more 'brootalz', to be cool. 

To be fair, what does it matter. I've never understood why E standard is the default tuning of a guitar when there are so many different ones...


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## danenachtrieb

Hawkevil said:


> Come on man it was pretty obvious what he was talking about.
> 
> I think what you mean is what is the point of playing in drop A when you can play in Drop D.
> 
> Well it can be personal preferance, guitar tone, singers vocal range, more 'brootalz', to be cool.
> 
> To be fair, what does it matter. I've never understood why E standard is the default tuning of a guitar when there are so many different ones...



word+1. i think it's kind of funny that we're having an argument on tuning in drop a on sevenstring.org. SEVENSTRING DROP TUNING=DROP A. if you want to play drop d get a fucking 6 string. i think pink freud moved here from harmony central.


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## pink freud

Hawkevil said:


> Come on man it was pretty obvious what he was talking about.
> 
> I think what you mean is what is the point of playing in drop A when you can play in Drop D.
> 
> Well it can be personal preferance, guitar tone, singers vocal range, more 'brootalz', to be cool.
> 
> To be fair, what does it matter. I've never understood why E standard is the default tuning of a guitar when there are so many different ones...


 
No, my arguement is that playing style shouldn't be affected if you are in drop A or drop D, or drop whatever.

A person shouldn't pick up a guitar that's in drop D, play for a while, tune it to, lets say down a full step to drop C, and think to themselves, "Oh my, I'm in drop C now, this is going to require me to restructure my playing style!"

That's the vibe I'm getting off the OP. That drop A magically is different from any other drop tuning, and has it's own necessity for a specified style.

It's just like somebody asking how to play a guitar that's tuned D-Standard. The answer is "Just like any other Standard tuning"

I think the OP is limiting the field unnecessarily by limiting it to drop-A, when he could very easily find some great stuff in other drop tunings that he could easily transpose TO drop A.


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## Hawkevil

I suppose in most situation, yes, but say you took Meshuggah for instance. If you played that in E standard it would sound like ass.

I think the general idea he was going for was certain types of bands tend to use drop A o really low tunings in general. I dont know some of the bands been listed here but from what I can tell quite a few are death metal.


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## danenachtrieb

pink freud said:


> No, my arguement is that playing style shouldn't be affected if you are in drop A or drop D, or drop whatever.
> 
> A person shouldn't pick up a guitar that's in drop D, play for a while, tune it to, lets say down a full step to drop C, and think to themselves, "Oh my, I'm in drop C now, this is going to require me to restructure my playing style!"
> 
> That's the vibe I'm getting off the OP. That drop A magically is different from any other drop tuning, and has it's own necessity for a specified style.
> 
> It's just like somebody asking how to play a guitar that's tuned D-Standard. The answer is "Just like any other Standard tuning"
> 
> I think the OP is limiting the field unnecessarily by limiting it to drop-A, when he could very easily find some great stuff in other drop tunings that he could easily transpose TO drop A.



um... the thing about a seven is when you drop tune you still have 6 strings as opposed to five below the dropped string, and those happen to be in E standard. drop A when done on seven string guitar IS DIFFERENT. i can play brutal ass dropped riffs yet still solo and even play soft shit in E standard. when my band made the switch from sixes to sevens we had to rewrite alot of our shit that was originally written in drop c because the entire set up on seven is DIFFERENT.


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## pink freud

danenachtrieb said:


> um... the thing about a seven is when you drop tune you still have 6 strings as opposed to five below the dropped string, and those happen to be in E standard. drop A when done on seven string guitar IS DIFFERENT. i can play brutal ass dropped riffs yet still solo and even play soft shit in E standard. when my band made the switch from sixes to sevens we had to rewrite alot of our shit that was originally written in drop c because the entire set up on seven is DIFFERENT.


 
1: Poster hasn't actually said in this thread how many strings his guitar has. Transposing music to different instruments is a completely different thing.

2: Tell me how Drop A would require a different style than Drop G. You can add fuck all strings to an instrument. It doesn't change the FACT that unless you venture beyond the frequencies that are tonally viable, a drop tuning is a root-fifth-root, and can be played just like any other root-fifth-root. It only becomes an issue when you tune so low that chords on those strings become too muddy to be heard well.

A tuning does not necessitate a style. Devin Townsend used to use (G)CGCGCE but now uses (F#)BF#BF#BD. He still plays like himself. He doesn't have to remind himself that he's in a different tuning, because its the same pattern of notes, just shifted down the scale.


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## danenachtrieb

dude everyone's wrong except for you


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## illimmigrant

pink freud said:


> I'm a bit confused as how a band's style would be different in drop-A from any other dropped tuning...
> 
> Its just a string pattern, the key is the only thing that changes.


 

I find the tunnings heavily influence how I play.
I have my 6-string in dropped C and My 7-string in A. The styles that come off both guitars are substancially different.


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## danenachtrieb

yes^


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## raximkoron

Ehh, I tune to A-standard and our other guitarist is in drop-G. There are certain riffs that are much easier to play in drop, and certain riffs that he just cannot do being in that tuning (without severely improving dexterity and accuracy). 

I don't really think it changes much in the sound department whether you play drop or standard or any other tuning. What matters most is what you have in your head, and what tuning makes it the easiest to play for you.

That's my  on the subject.


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## atavism-dream

For some reason I always find myself severly limited playing in Drop-A, I just cannot seem to write any decent riffs in that tuning at all.


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## Scar Symmetry

Whitechapel
Scar Symmetry
Lacuna Coil
Korn
Bloodbath
Spineshank
Slipknot

groph is right... Acacia Strain is G#.


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## Rick

Scar Symmetry said:


> Whitechapel
> Scar Symmetry
> Lacuna Coil
> Korn
> Bloodbath
> Spineshank
> Slipknot
> 
> groph is right... Acacia Strain is G#.



Korn plays in A standard. Even their customs were strung to that.


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## TomAwesome

And Slipknot is drop B.


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## Bloody_Inferno

Some tracks on All Hope is Gone is in drop A on a 6. Psychosocial and another track that I can't remember the name.


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## drenzium

TomAwesome said:


> And Slipknot is drop B.



The song My Plague is in drop A if i recall. The rest are drop B yeah.

Also Bring Me The Horizon are drop A.


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## klami

The Scarsick album by Pain of Salvation is in drop-A as I recall, hardly the same music as mentioned above, but still


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## Scar Symmetry

Slipknot tuned drop B on Slipknot, drop B and drop A on Iowa, Vol 3 was drop B again and All Hope Is Gone was drop B and drop A, same as Iowa.


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## barrett

^bring me the horizon's latest album is in Drop A#, older stuff was drop B

The acacia strain have used a different tuning on each album: 3750 = drop A#, the dead walk = drop G# and continent is in drop A. not quite sure what the debut was in, probably drop B.


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## backyardburial

Backyard Burial play in drop A. Check myspace. Not particularly known for inspirational quality tho...more just shit sound quality...


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## Tomo009

illimmigrant said:


> I find the tunnings heavily influence how I play.
> I have my 6-string in dropped C and My 7-string in A. The styles that come off both guitars are substancially different.



This, in lower tunings I tend to play more complex death metal rhythms and octave up single notes whereas in lower tunings I tend to play thrashier stuff mostly on the low string.


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## Prydogga

pink freud said:


> No, my arguement is that playing style shouldn't be affected if you are in drop A or drop D, or drop whatever.
> 
> A person shouldn't pick up a guitar that's in drop D, play for a while, tune it to, lets say down a full step to drop C, and think to themselves, "Oh my, I'm in drop C now, this is going to require me to restructure my playing style!"
> 
> That's the vibe I'm getting off the OP. That drop A magically is different from any other drop tuning, and has it's own necessity for a specified style.
> 
> It's just like somebody asking how to play a guitar that's tuned D-Standard. The answer is "Just like any other Standard tuning"
> 
> I think the OP is limiting the field unnecessarily by limiting it to drop-A, when he could very easily find some great stuff in other drop tunings that he could easily transpose TO drop A.



I play completely differently in Drop C from Drop D or Standard, Drop A even more so.


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## Daken1134

when i got my 8, its tuned in the same pattern but the shit i come up with on that as opposed to my 6 or 7 are NOTHING like,


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## xjasonhowellx81

barrett said:


> ^bring me the horizon's latest album is in Drop A#, older stuff was drop B
> 
> The acacia strain have used a different tuning on each album: 3750 = drop A#, the dead walk = drop G# and continent is in drop A. not quite sure what the debut was in, probably drop B.



the new album wormwood was in A on sixes but they also added an 8 on most of the tracks. im not sure what its tuned to though.


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## crankyrayhanky

playing in dropA invokes entirely different feelings than dropD, regardless of the similar intervals


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## Semi-pro

This band occasionally drop down to A:


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## Semi-pro

Daken1134 said:


> ...



Dude!!! You is I!?!?


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