Lament in D (drop D)
Note after Note · Level 3 (Late beginner) · study · Guitar, sheet music and tablature
An original study in drop D tuning (6th string lowered to D), in the manner of John Fahey’s “death chants”: an insistent low D in the thumb on every beat and a D Dorian tune (B natural) that climbs to 10th position before resolving through an A major chord.
▶ Play this piece with the interactive score
How to practise it
- Listen first: the site plays it while the score scrolls.
- Wait mode: the score waits for you at every note, at your own pace.
- Tempo challenge: play in time, with a score and a map of the bars you got right.
- Drop D: only the 6th string is lowered a whole step. The thumb strikes the low D on every beat with no accent: the blues “dead thumb”. Bar 9: high D at the 10th fret of the 1st string, then down fret by fret.