Alice in Chains · Black Gives Way to Blue · song 2
Check My Brain tuning.
Check My Brain (Alice in Chains, 2009) is in E♭ Standard at concert pitch (A 440), measured by TuneLit from the record.
Song tuning
E♭ Standard −4 ¢
At concert pitch (A 440).
Tune like thisPlay alongBlack Gives Way to Blue
Bass: Bass Drop C♯ −4 ¢ Tune bass
Measured by TuneLit
At concert pitch
Measured on this song itself: Tune moves every string −4 ¢.
Alice in Chains · Black Gives Way to Blue · 2009
About Check My Brain
The second track of Black Gives Way to Blue (2009), the first album with William DuVall, and a single nominated for a Grammy for Best Hard Rock Performance. Its queasy main riff rests on bends that Cantrell deliberately stops short of the next note, by his own description; that woozy pitch comes from the fingers, not from the tuning. The most-played tabs keep both guitars in E♭ Standard and drop only Mike Inez's bass to C♯.
TuneLit measured the 2009 Virgin CD about 4 ¢ flat, A ≈ 438.9, and the Tune button sets E♭ Standard −4 ¢ for the guitars, with a separate bass setting in Drop C♯. Four cents is below what most players hear. The check from the audio confirms E♭ as the guitars' lowest string, and the record's bass range includes some low C♯, which fits the dropped bass.
The tabs do not all agree: one Songsterr version puts guitars and bass in Drop C♯. The most-played tabs and TuneLit's audio check both point to E♭ Standard for the guitars, so that is what the page lists. The real challenge is the bend itself: practise stopping it on purpose, slightly under the next note, and check it against the record rather than against a tuner.
Tip: Tune to E♭ Standard, then practise the opening bend against the record until it lands just as flat as Cantrell's.
Step by step
Tune your guitar like the record
- Tap Tune like this: the tuner switches to E♭ Standard, every string −4 ¢, the notes Check My Brain was recorded in.
- From E Standard: Every string down a half step. No tuner that knows E♭ Standard? Clamp a capo across fret 1, tune to E Standard as usual, then take it off: every string drops to E♭ Standard. Check each string again afterwards, since a capo pulls the strings a little sharp.
- Turn String 6 to String 1 until each shows ✓ in tune. Check My Brain sits at concert pitch on the record, so the tuner stays at A 440.
- Then play Check My Brain along with the record: its lowest open note and your String 6 should ring together without a wobble.
Or the other way round
Move the record into your tuning
Rather keep your guitar as it is? Let Play along move Check My Brain instead. Add your own copy, for example from your CD (it never leaves your device); the link already says the song is in E♭ Standard −4 ¢. Choose E Standard at A 440 and Check My Brain moves up a half step and 4 cents, at its own speed. Slow it down or loop a few bars to learn it, and save the result as a WAV file.
Questions
What tuning is Check My Brain in?
E♭ Standard −4 ¢: E♭ A♭ D♭ G♭ B♭ E♭, low to high, at the pitch TuneLit measured on the record.