Tuning down to D is when all the strings are tuned down two frets, or a whole step. It gives the guitar another voice in much the same way that a capo changes the pitch of the open strings, but by lowering the pitch of all six strings instead of raising them. So when you tune the whole guitar down to D (so to speak), the usual EADGBE becomes DGCFAD. This technique is not uncommon amongst celebrated guitar players, like John Fogerty and Neil Young, for instance. This is a video I just made that uses this dropped tuning, done in a popular song written by Neil Young:

What are some of your favorite albums (for the guitar playing, or just for the music itself)? Ok, I’ll start: For high energy, I prefer something like AC/DC’s Live from The Atlantic, or Funhouse by The Stooges. Malcolm Young (AC/DC’s rhythm guitar) gets an amazingly raw sound out of his rig on this recording, as usual. Funhouse speaks for itself! It is perhaps the greatest rock and roll album of all time!!

For a bit more intricacy and chord variety, I like to listen to Bob Dylan, Richard Thompson, or Neil Young. All three of these phenomenal musicians released a wide variety of acoustic / electric music during their many years of making music. Though I haven’t heard his whole catalog, one of my personal favorites by Richard Thompson is a more recent album called Mock Tudor. The Neil Young albums that immediately come to mind as great are Rust Never Sleeps (live, with Crazy Horse) and After The Goldrush; both are classics. As for Bob Dylan, my favorite album would have to be Bringing It All Back Home. Good from start to finish, and it includes some of the best songs he ever wrote.

I’m scraping the surface; there are too many albums I consider great to list all of them here.

So, what is some of your favorite music in the world?