Hey Friend,

Here's another chord progression for you to try out. This time we're starting with the root chord of the key and working our way up the harmonic scale.

As I played the chords, it reminded me of the song "Hold Me" by Weezer. As it turns out, the song is also in the key of E major. 

Except, Hold Me is another example of a song recorded in a dropped Eb (E flat) tuning. If you were to take the progression and play along with the song, it would sound a half-step off.

This is a very common tuning for Rock, and in most cases, the tuning is lowered to put the melody in a better range for the vocalist. Additionally because the pitch is lower, when you add some distortion to the guitars, that lower pitch gives it a heavier, more aggressive sound.

In case you're not familiar with dropped tunings, to tune your guitar to Eb, simply lower the pitch of each string one half-step. the tuning for each string becomes:

Eb (E flat), Ab (A flat), Db (D flat), Gb (G flat), Bb (B flat), eb (e flat)

The easiest way to do this is by using an electronic tuner, but you can do it manually if you have to. You'd just use the E flat octave note to find the proper pitch for the sixth string (this would be the first fret, fourth string in standard tuning). Then tune each additional string using perfect fourth intervals (that's the fifth fret on all strings except the second (B) string).

The B string is tuned to the major third interval from the fourth string (G). This note is at the fourth fret.

You don't have to "Go all E flat, yo!" for today's exercise, though. You can just play along with the MP3. But if you want to apply it to a real song, give Eb a try. 

Now that I've listened to and played "Hold Me" a couple times through, I guess it'll be a total Weezer day! I'm kinda stoked about that! Have a great Friday!

Peace~

Dave