ok. i was trying to play two great songs by Creed the other day. Weathered and My Own Prison. My Own Prison was Drop D tuning. When I tuned my E string to D, it got completely stretched out as if it would break. So really, since a lot of the songs I know and want to play are in Drop D tuning, how do i get that tuning without the string stretching so much?

Weathered was tuned DADADD. If I had trouble geting simply Drop D you know I had trouble with this one. What should I do to get this tune?

Final tuning problem is 1/2 step down. I have a really cheap tuner. With the 5 little circles and the blue dot that goes along the circles as you tune. I don't know how to determine if its a half step down or not.

Finally, not a subject related to tuning and my last for a while, is about solos. I am currently writing songs for my bands first album, we are going to put the songs on myspace first though. I have all the riffs and Choruses down. When I do a Solo, say in the E Major Scale, and then the chorus riff switches power chords often. When do I need to change scales or can I stay in the same one all the time?

All help appreciated.

For drop D, you tune the E string DOWN 2 semitones, sounds like you were tuning it up?

yeah because when tuning to d your e string should not be streching it should actualy be doing the opposite

Then about the DADADD (which I never heard of before) I suppose if you start from a Drop D tuning
- tune up the G string to A
- tune up the B string to D
- tune down the E string to D

...I guess ...if I got it right