Deep Purple · Deep Purple in Rock · song 3
Child in Time tuning.
Child in Time (Deep Purple, 1970) is in E Standard at concert pitch (A 440), measured by TuneLit from the record.
Measured by TuneLit
At concert pitch
The album's value, measured on the CD.
Deep Purple · Deep Purple in Rock · 1970
About Child in Time
Child in Time is the ten-minute centrepiece of Deep Purple in Rock (1970). Jon Lord's slow organ theme opens it, a reworking of It's a Beautiful Day's Bombay Calling according to Ian Gillan, and Gillan's voice climbs over it to the screams the song is known for. Blackmore's rhythm part in the verses is simple and exposed: octaves on String 6 and String 4, stepping down from A through G to F. Then the band speeds up for his long solo before the slow theme returns. The tuning is E Standard throughout.
TuneLit measured EMI's CD of In Rock at concert pitch, and this song sits right on it, at +0.3 ¢. Its Tune button is plain E Standard at A 440, so any tuner will do. Because the verse octaves ring for whole bars under the organ, even a few cents off on one string will make them waver audibly against the record.
The tabs agree on E Standard, and TuneLit's check from the audio confirms E as the lowest string. Most of the difficulty is in the solo, not the tuning: it runs up to the 23rd fret in the main tab, so a guitar with poor intonation high on the neck will sound out of tune there even when the open strings are perfect.
Tip: Check the A octave first, String 6 at the 5th fret and String 4 at the 7th, against the opening verse.
Step by step
Tune your guitar like the record
- Tap Tune like this: the tuner switches to E Standard, the notes Child in Time was recorded in.
- Turn String 6 to String 1 until each shows ✓ in tune. Child in Time sits at concert pitch on the record, so the tuner stays at A 440.
- Then play Child in Time 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 Child in Time 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. Child in Time is already in E Standard at A 440, so nothing moves. Slow it down or loop a few bars to learn it, and save the result as a WAV file.
Questions
What tuning is Child in Time in?
E Standard: E A D G B E, low to high, at the pitch TuneLit measured on the record.