Deep Purple · Machine Head · song 3
Pictures of Home tuning.
Pictures of Home (Deep Purple, 1972) is in E Standard, about 6 cents sharp (A ≈ 442), measured by TuneLit from the record.
Measured by TuneLit
6 ¢ sharp
The album's value, measured on the CD: Tune moves every string +6 ¢.
Deep Purple · Machine Head · 1972
About Pictures of Home
Pictures of Home, from Machine Head (1972), starts with an Ian Paice drum introduction and runs on a fast, driving rhythm. The rhythm guitar hammers eighth notes on B: String 5 at the 2nd fret, then String 6 at the 7th. Roger Glover gets a short bass solo in the middle, and the song stops and restarts before the end. Blackmore refused to play it live, and it only entered the band's shows after Steve Morse joined. Guitar and bass are both in standard tuning.
This song sits exactly at its album's pitch: the Machine Head CD is about 6 ¢ sharp (A ≈ 441.6), and Pictures of Home reads +6.3 ¢ on its own. Its Tune button is E Standard +6 ¢. The steady B pedal makes the offset easy to judge, since a guitar at A 440 rubs against the bass on every beat.
Lead tabs start with a run that begins on String 6 at the 7th fret and climbs across the strings; it uses no open strings, so it says nothing about tuning by itself. Check against the rhythm part instead. The check from the audio confirms E as the lowest string.
Tip: Tune to +6 ¢ and play the B on String 5 at the 2nd fret with the verse; it should lock with the bass.
Step by step
Tune your guitar like the record
- Tap Tune like this: the tuner switches to E Standard, every string +6 ¢, the notes Pictures of Home was recorded in.
- Turn String 6 to String 1 until each shows ✓ in tune. Pictures of Home sits 6 cents sharp on the record: at A 440 your guitar would sound that much flat against it, which Tune already corrects.
- Then play Pictures of Home 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 Pictures of Home 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 +6 ¢. Choose E Standard at A 440 and Pictures of Home moves down 6 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 Pictures of Home in?
E Standard +6 ¢: E A D G B E, low to high, at the pitch TuneLit measured on the record.