youngsters these days...

[quadperson]

this evening, a couple kids show up at the house to hang out with my 15yr. old step-daughter. I go back to the bedroom and start noodling around on one of my guitars. I turn around this kid is standing in the door and asks me if I play guitar....? I didn't say anything smart-assed but he gets to talking about all these new bands and I've never heard of most of 'em. Turns out, he plays also. I hand him my guitar and he looks puzzled because it's tuned to E. He tells me he can't play in E. ??? So, I unlock the nut and let him detune it. He then starts playing some pretty good rhythm stuff....with one finger. Now, it dawns on me that I could impress a lot more people if I would learn more drop D stuff. It's way easier. I mean, he was playing some pretty cool stuff. He asked me If I knew a song (forgot what it was) and I said yeah, but it's mostly power chords. He says, "power chords?" Wow.

[BenoA]

Good one quadperson! Thanks for sharing.

My 15 years old son plays classical (at school) and started electric bass a couple of months ago. One of his friend is a very good player for a 15 years old and the kid is fascinated by all the gear I have in my small basement room.

[Hellbat]

Yeah, a lot of the Guitar Hero generation when they go to a real guitar like to use the Drop-D because it lets them play simple one finger power chords and riffs based around them. then learning a song is just like learning the buttons on a guitar controller. At least the music video games help develop the right hand and gives them a decent sense of rhythm, since you score higher the tighter you play. Ask him to play a Gsus4 chord or a A#add9 and watch the look of WTF quickly jump on his face as his mind is blown away by the concept of fretting some strings while leaving others open.

[Grim]

I play D standard. I find drop is easier in general, but some guys who play drop can clearly play:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MP4Rn7C3A9Y&feature=relmfu

[markD]

we play in E but have a few songs in drop D. it's fun. we call it our "heavy stuff". that's WHY we wrote in drop D, haha. sometimes we play with young bands and EVERYTHING is tuned down to D or even C#....

[Grandturk]

Ask him to play a Gsus4 chord or a A#add9 and watch the look of WTF quickly jump on his face as his mind is blown away by the concept of fretting some strings while leaving others open.

G sus what?

[kamalayka]

As a 21-year old guitar player, I know what you.re talking about. The only players I like are guys from the late 70s/80s- VH, Akira Takasaki, Randy Rhoads, George Lynch, etc. All the kids in my generation want to hear cookie-monster growls and guitars dropped 30 octaves below E.

I HATE IT!

I never go below E-flat. That's how a REAL man plays his gee-tar!

[Devotee]

All the kids in my generation want to hear cookie-monster growls and guitars dropped 30 octaves below E.

You need to listen to some Sadistic Intent or something.

I never go below E-flat. That's how a REAL man plays his gee-tar!

Bullshit, there's a shitload of extreme Metal guitarists who tune lower than Eb and are really fucking talented players. What does tuning have to do with it? Sometimes the music DEMANDS a lower tuning.

Having said that, personally i hate drop-D tuning because i think it's 'cheating' but i understand why people use it

[nafe]

I'm with Devotee on the "cheating" thing, drop tuning is usually used by dickhead kids who are more concerned with having their guitar slung down around their knees than, ya know, actually playing a proper power chord (or anything more complicated than one).
That said, what a guitar is tuned to has jackshit to do with the players actual ability........in fact i'd dare say most metal players these days are at least tuned to d, if not lower...it just sounds heavier

[VitaminG]

G sus what?

that's one o' them fancy Van Halen chords, where's you pop your pinky down on top of the barre chord youse is currently playing