Drop A is the point where a guitar stops sounding like a guitar and starts sounding like a different instrument. It is a long way down, and getting there with the strings you have on now will not work.
Drop A is two different tunings
This is the single biggest source of confusion on the subject, and most song lists ignore it entirely.
On a six string, drop A is A E A D F sharp B, low to high. Every string comes down a perfect fourth from standard, and then the sixth string drops another whole step on top of that. On a seven string, drop A means dropping the low B to A and leaving everything else alone, giving A E A D G B E.
Same name, different instrument, different sound. Every song below says which one it uses. If you are reading a tab elsewhere and the shapes are not landing, this is almost always why.
One thing to know before you follow the tab links on this page. Ultimate Guitar hosts almost all of its text tabs as six string transcriptions, so for the seven string songs below you will usually find a six string adaptation rather than the part as recorded. It will sound right and sit under the hand, but the lowest string of the original is missing from it.
You need heavier strings first
This is not optional advice. A standard set taken down to A will have almost no tension left. The strings will rattle against the frets, the notes will go sharp the moment you fret them, and the low string will sound like a rubber band.
For a 25.5 inch scale, start around .012 to .060 and expect to go heavier. A baritone or extended scale instrument handles it far better, because the extra string length puts the tension back. Going up in gauge also pulls more relief into the neck, so the truss rod almost certainly needs adjusting afterwards, then the action and intonation. If you have not done that before, this covers how much relief is too much.
What drop A gives you, and what it costs
One finger power chords on the bottom three strings, so riffs that would need a barre in standard become playable at speed. And a low end heavy enough that the guitar occupies the same space as the bass, which is why bands using it write around rhythm rather than around chords.
The cost is clarity. Chords with thirds in them turn to mud down there. Most drop A writing sticks to roots and fifths for exactly that reason.
Songs in drop A on a seven string
This Is Exile by Whitechapel
The main riff sits almost entirely on the lowest string, moving in short bursts between the open note and a couple of low frets. That sounds easy until you hear yourself. At this pitch the string is slack and every unmuted moment rings on into the next one.
Palm position is the whole job. Three guitars are tracked and they do not all play the same thing, so pick one part and stay with it. A fair first drop A song if you already mute cleanly.
Possession by Whitechapel
Faster and busier than the band’s better known material, with tremolo picked figures on the low strings running under a lead line. The difficulty is stamina rather than stretch. Your picking hand has to stay even for long stretches while the fretting hand shifts position without letting the seventh string ring out.
Learners speed up through the tremolo sections and lose the groove. Slow it right down and use a metronome. Leave this until the simpler Whitechapel riffs feel automatic.
The Somatic Defilement by Whitechapel
From the band’s first album, and rougher than what came after. The riffing alternates between open string chugging and short chromatic climbs, so your fretting hand keeps returning to the same low anchor point. That repetition makes it useful practice.
What catches people out is the tempo change into the slower sections, where the notes are sparse and any sloppiness in your muting is fully exposed. Reasonable to attempt early if you can count confidently through the shifts.
The Somatic Defilement Guitar Tabs
The Darkest Day of Man by Whitechapel
A heavier, slower piece built around a low, dragging figure with plenty of space between the hits. Space is the difficulty. When notes are this far apart and this low, the string keeps sounding and you have to stop it with your palm and your fretting hand together.
The lead work over the top is a separate job and can wait. As a first exercise in controlling a slack seventh string, the main riff is one of the more useful choices here.
The Darkest Day of Man Guitar Tabs
No Pity for a Coward by Suicide Silence
Short, blunt and mostly rhythmic. The riff hammers the open seventh string in syncopated groups, dropping in a higher note to break the pattern up. Almost all of the work is in the right hand.
Getting the accents to land where the drums do is harder than the notes suggest, and plenty of players end up rushing it. This is one of the more approachable songs in the tuning because the fretting hand barely moves. Good early target on a new seven string.
No Pity for a Coward Guitar Tabs
You Only Live Once by Suicide Silence
The opening figure is fast and tight, built from repeated low notes with a lead line layered over the top. The pace makes muting harder than usual, since you are damping between very quick hits rather than between whole beats. Alternate picking it cleanly takes real practice.
There is also a slower breakdown that most learners find easier and reach for first. Worth learning in two stages rather than trying to play it straight through at full speed.
You Only Live Once Guitar Tabs
Wake Up by Suicide Silence
Slower than most of the band’s catalogue, which makes it a sensible way into the tuning. The main figure leans on sustained low notes and simple movement along the lowest string, so you can hear exactly what your muting is doing.
The tricky part arrives in the middle, where the rhythm shifts against the drums and the count stops being obvious. Learn the opening first and get it genuinely clean before you go anywhere near the later section.
Bludgeoned to Death by Suicide Silence
Fast, short and unrelenting. The riff runs tremolo picked passages on the lower strings into abrupt stops, and those stops are the point of the song. If your picking hand does not kill the string instantly the whole thing smears into noise.
Not a first attempt. Come to this after you can already play a slower drop A riff cleanly, because the tempo will hide your mistakes from you until you record yourself and actually hear them.
Bludgeoned to Death Guitar Tabs
Recreant by Chelsea Grin
Probably the most copied riff the band wrote, and a reasonable early goal. It moves between the open lowest string and a small handful of frets nearby, with a swung feel that is easy to flatten out by accident. Play it too straight and it loses everything.
The breakdown near the end is slower but demands harder muting, since the gaps are longer. Start with the main riff, get the timing loose in the right way, then add the heavy section.
My Damnation by Chelsea Grin
Built on a repeating low pattern with pinch harmonics dropped in as punctuation. Those harmonics are the reason to learn it. On a string this slack they come out easily, which makes the song a good place to work out where your thumb needs to catch the string.
The rest is steady chugging that does not travel far. A fair target once you can mute reliably, and more instructive than its apparent simplicity suggests.
Cheyne Stokes by Chelsea Grin
Heavier and more deliberate than Recreant, with long held low notes and sudden stops. The song gives you time to think between hits, which is unusual in this style and genuinely useful while you are still learning to control the tuning.
What is hard is keeping those held notes from wandering in pitch, because pressing too firmly on a slack string bends it sharp. A light fretting touch matters far more here than speed does.
Reign of Darkness by Thy Art Is Murder
The intro is one of the better known low riffs of the last fifteen years and it is genuinely simple to fret. What makes it hard is precision. The pattern repeats with small rhythmic variations, and if you lose track of which variation you are on it falls apart quickly.
Sitting with a metronome and counting out loud helps more than playing along to the record does. Suitable early, provided you accept that clean beats fast.
Holy War by Thy Art Is Murder
Busier than Reign of Darkness, mixing tremolo picked runs with blunt low hits. The fretting hand moves across strings rather than staying anchored, so you have to mute the strings you are not using as well as the one you just played. That is the skill this song teaches.
It runs at a punishing tempo, so treat it as a medium term project. Learn the slower passages first to get the shapes under your fingers.
Puppet Master by Thy Art Is Murder
Groove based rather than fast, with a riff that pushes and pulls against the beat. Counting is the challenge. The rhythm sits just off where you expect it to, and playing it mechanically in time actually sounds wrong.
The low notes themselves are straightforward to fret. This is a good song for learning to feel a riff rather than read it, and the tempo is forgiving enough that most players can get somewhere in an afternoon.
District of Misery by Oceano
Slow, low and heavily reliant on space. The riff drops single low notes with long gaps between them, which sounds like nothing on paper and is difficult in practice, because a seventh string tuned to A rings for a long time if you let it. Killing the note is as much of the performance as playing it.
Very little fretting hand movement is needed. That combination makes it a sensible first attempt for someone new to the tuning.
District of Misery Guitar Tabs
Supremacy by Muse
An unusual entry, since the music around the guitar is orchestral rather than metal. Bellamy plays the main riff on a seven string and it runs almost entirely on the lowest string in a fast descending figure. The picking is the difficulty.
It has to be aggressive and even, and the riff is exposed with no second guitar hiding anything you get wrong. Fretting is simple enough that a determined beginner can manage it, though the speed takes time.
Hell Chose Me by Carnifex
Fast tremolo picked riffing over blast beats, with the low string used more for texture than for individual notes. Endurance is the obstacle. Your picking hand has to stay relaxed for long stretches, and tension is what stops most people rather than any lack of technique.
The slower middle sections give you somewhere to recover and are worth learning first. Not a beginner song, but a good measure of whether your right hand stamina has actually improved.
Two-One by Volumes
More rhythmically involved than most deathcore in this tuning, with the riff shifting its accents against a steady drum pattern. Counting is genuinely hard, and playing along to the recording will teach you more than reading tab will. The low notes are simple to fret.
The difficulty is entirely in where you place them. Leave this until you are comfortable with straighter drop A riffs, because the syncopation will frustrate you well before the muting does.
The Flood by Of Mice & Men
Cleaner and more melodic than most of this list, with the low riff supporting sung vocal lines rather than dominating them. That makes it a gentler introduction. The main figure moves between the lowest string and higher chord shapes, so you have to switch between heavy muting and letting notes ring on.
Managing that contrast is the lesson here. Approachable for someone reasonably new to the tuning, and more musically varied than the heavier songs around it.
Songs in drop A on a six string
A Gift a Curse by Emmure
Emmure built a career on doing very little with the lowest string and doing it well, and this is a clear example. The riff hits the open sixth string in tight rhythmic clusters with the occasional slide. Nothing is technically demanding.
Everything depends on your palm and your timing, and any looseness is immediately obvious because there is no second guitar covering for you. One of the most sensible starting points for six string drop A.
Solar Flare Homicide by Emmure
A short, aggressive riff that stays low and moves in small steps. It is worth learning because it forces you to mute while sliding, which plenty of players never actually practise. The slide changes the string tension slightly and the note wants to buzz out on you.
Getting a clean, controlled slur at this pitch takes some fiddling with palm pressure. Otherwise straightforward, and a fair early attempt in the tuning.
Solar Flare Homicide Guitar Tabs
MDMA by Emmure
Blunt and repetitive by design. The riff sits on the open low string with sparse higher notes marking out the phrase, and the whole effect depends on how hard you stop the sound between hits. There is almost no fretting hand work at all.
That makes it an unusually good practice tool, because you cannot hide behind movement. If your drop A muting is unreliable, this song will tell you so within about thirty seconds.
Torch by Emmure
Heavier and slower than much of the band’s earlier material, with longer held low notes and more space around them. The challenge is keeping those held notes steady. A sixth string tuned down this far is slack, and pressing normally will push it sharp, so you have to unlearn some pressure.
Easy to play badly and considerably harder to play well. Good as a second or third song in the tuning rather than a first.
Reincarnate by Motionless In White
Built around a low riff with electronic layers over the top, which means the guitar part on its own can sound thin until you play it against the record. The pattern is short and repeats with small variations. Timing against the programmed elements is the hard part, because the drums do not always give you the anchor you expect.
Fretting is simple. A reasonable early choice if you like the style and can count steadily.
Another Life by Motionless In White
Slower and more melodic, with the low string used to underpin sung sections rather than to batter the listener. That makes it a good introduction to what drop A can do outside deathcore. You have to move between muted low notes and open, ringing chord shapes higher up, and the change in touch between those two things is the real lesson.
Not technically demanding. Genuinely useful for learning control rather than speed.
Out of Control by The Ghost Inside
Hardcore rather than deathcore, so the riff is about drive more than weight. It moves in short bursts on the lower strings with plenty of upstrokes, which is unusual at this pitch and takes some adjusting to. Downpicking the whole thing will not work at the tempo.
The song rewards a relaxed picking hand rather than a strong one. Fair to attempt fairly early, and a welcome change of pace from the rest of this tuning.
Killem All by King 810
Slow and sparse, closer to sludge than to metalcore. Long gaps between notes mean the low string is left ringing on purpose, so the usual muting problem is inverted. You have to decide what to let sound rather than kill everything by reflex.
That is a more musical skill than it first appears. Very little movement is required. Good early attempt, and useful for anyone who tends to over mute every low riff they learn.
Skynet by The Acacia Strain
Heavy, slow and built on repeated low hits with wide spacing. The riff barely moves, which puts all the weight on rhythm and tone. What is hard is resisting the urge to fill the gaps.
Played correctly it feels almost empty under your hands and only makes proper sense against the drums. Straightforward to learn and a decent early piece, though what it really teaches is restraint rather than technique.
Hurricane by I Prevail
A modern metalcore arrangement where the low riff sits under clean vocal sections and then takes over in the heavier passages. Switching between those textures is the work. You need controlled, tight chugging in one section and a much looser, more open sound in another, and most players carry far too much palm pressure into the lighter parts.
Not difficult to fret. A sensible choice if you want something contemporary and reasonably approachable.
Mindframe by Silent Planet
More rhythmically awkward than most of this list, with the riff shifting against an unusual drum pattern. Counting it is the difficulty and also the reason to bother.
The low notes are easy enough on their own, but locking them to the beat takes real attention and you will probably need to slow the recording down first. Leave it until straighter drop A riffs feel comfortable, then use it to work on your timing.
Where to go next
If drop A is more than the guitar can carry, drop B sits a whole step higher and asks a lot less of the instrument. The drop B page covers it, and the seven string songs page is the better route if you would rather add a string than detune the ones you have.
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