E Flat Tuning on 6-String Guitar: Notes, Chords and How to Use It
E flat tuning is one of the simplest alternate tunings you can learn, and one of the most rewarding. Every string drops by the same small amount, so all the chord shapes and scale patterns you already know still work exactly as before. What changes is the sound: deeper, warmer, a little looser under your fingers. It has been a favourite of blues and rock guitarists for decades, and it takes about two minutes to get into.
What Changes, and Why It's Called E Flat
In standard tuning your open strings, from the thickest string (string 6, nearest your chin) to the thinnest (string 1), are E, A, D, G, B, E. In this tuning each one goes down a half step. A half step is the smallest distance in Western music, and on guitar it's the distance of one fret.
So your new open strings are:
- String 6: D# (was E)
- String 5: G# (was A)
- String 4: C# (was D)
- String 3: F# (was G)
- String 2: A# (was B)
- String 1: D# (was E)
The tuning gets its name from that low string, which sits a half step below E. You'll see it written as D# on the fretboard here; it's the same pitch, just a different name for it.
The important thing is that the gaps between neighbouring strings haven't changed. Strings 6 to 5, 5 to 4, 4 to 3 and 2 to 1 are each a perfect 4th apart (five frets' worth of distance), and strings 3 to 2 are a major 3rd apart (four frets). That's the same pattern as standard tuning, which is why nothing you know needs relearning.
How to Tune Down, Step by Step
With an electronic tuner, simply lower each string until the tuner reads its new note: D#, G#, C#, F#, A#, D#. Always tune down past the note slightly and then bring it back up to pitch; this helps the string stay put.
If you want to tune by ear, get the low string right first, then work across the neck:
- Tune string 6 to D#.
- Play string 6 at the 5th fret. That note is G#. Tune open string 5 until it matches.
- Play string 5 at the 5th fret (C#) and tune open string 4 to match.
- Play string 4 at the 5th fret (F#) and tune open string 3 to match.
- Play string 3 at the 4th fret (A#) and tune open string 2 to match. This is the one exception, because of that major 3rd gap.
- Play string 2 at the 5th fret (D#) and tune open string 1 to match.
When you drop all six strings, the neck relaxes a little, so the first strings you tuned may drift flat. Go round a second or third time until everything holds.
Why Players Use It
The sound. Lowering the pitch gives your guitar a fuller, slightly darker voice. Chords feel bigger and riffs hit with more weight. Jimi Hendrix and Stevie Ray Vaughan both famously tuned down a half step, and so did Guns N' Roses and Van Halen on many of their best-known recordings.
Easier on the fingers. Lower pitch means lower string tension. Bends take less effort, vibrato feels smoother, and barre chords are a touch kinder to your hand. Many blues players tune down for exactly this reason.
Singers. Dropping the whole guitar a half step often puts songs into a more comfortable range for a vocalist, without changing a single fingering.
Heavier riffs and drones. Your open low string is now D#, and it rumbles. Riffs built around the open 6th string, with that note ringing underneath as a drone (a note that keeps sounding while other notes move over it), sound thicker and darker than the same riff in standard tuning.
Strumming the Open Strings
Strum all six strings without fretting anything. It sounds just like the open strum in standard tuning, only lower: a hazy, slightly unresolved sound that doesn't quite feel like it's "arrived". That's normal. Listen to how the low D# and the high D# frame everything else; they're the same note, two octaves apart.
How Chord and Scale Shapes Shift
Here's the golden rule: same shapes, everything sounds one fret lower.
Your open E chord shape now has its root (the note that names the chord) on the open 6th string, D#. Your open A shape has its root on the open 5th string, G#. Every barre chord, every power chord, every scale box works identically under your fingers; only the note names slide down a half step.
For scales the same applies. A pattern you play at the 5th fret in standard tuning makes the same shape here, but the notes come out one fret lower. If you need to match a recording or a band in standard tuning, just play everything one fret higher.
Many players simply keep thinking in standard-tuning names ("I'm playing an E shape") and let the tuning do the work. That's perfectly fine, as long as you remember the real notes when you're playing with others.
A First Thing to Try
Play a simple blues shuffle on the open 6th string: let the open D# ring, then rock between the 2nd and 4th frets on string 5 in a steady "da-dum, da-dum" rhythm. Then move the same idea to the open 5th string, G#, with strings 4 underneath. Notice how fat and relaxed it feels compared with standard tuning, and try a few big bends on string 2 or 3 while you're there. Spend ten minutes just enjoying how the guitar responds, and you'll quickly hear why so many great players never tuned back up.
More on the instrument itself: the 6-String Guitar guide.