The Shields D5 Drone Tuning is a unique and resonant alternative tuning for the Guitar, famously associated with Kevin Shields. This tuning transforms your guitar into a rich soundscape, centered around the notes D and A, creating a powerful, sustained drone perfect for atmospheric and textural playing. It's a hallmark of the shoegaze sound, offering a lush, expansive canvas for sonic exploration.

Technical Analysis

This tuning is essentially an open D5 chord, specifically D-A-A-A-A-D (from low E to high E string, respectively). The open strings form a clear D5 voicing, providing a consistent and stable harmonic foundation. The prevalence of the A note across the middle four strings (A2-A2-A3-A3) creates a dense, layered fifth that rings out with immense sustain and richness. This characteristic makes it exceptionally well-suited for ambient, drone, and shoegaze genres, where long, evolving textures and a continuous harmonic bed are paramount.

The tuning's structure greatly simplifies the creation of large, ringing chord voicings. Barre chords across a single fret will often yield harmonically rich and consonant results due to the multiple A notes and their relationship to the root D. This allows for complex sounds with minimal finger movement, encouraging experimentation with subtle pitch shifts and feedback.

Chords and Playability

With the open strings forming a D5, any melodic playing or chordal voicings over this foundation will naturally resonate within the D major or D minor scales. Basic D, Dsus2, and Dsus4 chords are readily available and easily achieved. By barring all strings across various frets, you can effortlessly shift the fundamental D5 shape up and down the neck, allowing for transposed open 5th chords. For instance, barring at the 2nd fret creates an E5 chord (E-B-B-B-B-E), while barring at the 7th fret yields an A5 (A-E-E-E-E-A). This makes it intuitive to find new harmonic clusters and create wide, open-sounding textures.

How to Tune

Achieving the Shields D5 Drone Tuning involves several significant adjustments from standard EADGBe tuning. Please pay close attention to the semitone movements and the string gauge recommendation for the 4th string.

• 6th String (Low E): Tune down 2 semitones to D2.
• 5th String (A): Keep as is; no change (0 semitones) to A2.
• 4th String (D): Tune down 5 semitones to A2. Warning: This is a significant drop in pitch. For optimal playability and tension, a different string gauge is strongly advised.
• 3rd String (G): Tune up 2 semitones to A3.
• 2nd String (B): Tune down 2 semitones to A3.
• 1st String (High E): Tune down 2 semitones to D4.