Deep Purple · Shades of Deep Purple · song 2
Hush tuning.
Hush (Deep Purple, 1968) is in E Standard at concert pitch (A 440), measured by TuneLit from the record.
Measured by TuneLit
At concert pitch
Measured on this song itself.
Deep Purple · Shades of Deep Purple · 1968
About Hush
Hush is Joe South's song, written for Billy Joe Royal, which Deep Purple rearranged for their first album, Shades of Deep Purple (1968). It became their first hit, number 4 in the US. Blackmore remembered recording the whole thing in two takes. Jon Lord's organ carries much of the arrangement; the guitar opens with barre chords at the 6th and 4th frets, with String 3 muted. Blackmore is in E Standard, like on every song of the first album.
The album around it is unusually uneven, and Hush is one of the songs that stands apart. TuneLit measured the 1989 EMI CD with most of the album about 13 ¢ flat, but Hush sits right at concert pitch, +0.1 ¢. So it has its own Tune button, plain E Standard at A 440, while the songs next to it need the guitar tuned down a little.
If you play several songs from this album in a row, retune between them: going straight from Hush to One More Rainy Day, the next track, means dropping about 14 ¢. The check from the audio could not decide between the neighbouring semitones on this song, but every tab and the rest of the album put it in E Standard.
Tip: Tune to plain A 440 for Hush, not to the album's −13 ¢, and check the barre chord at the 6th fret against the opening.
Step by step
Tune your guitar like the record
- Tap Tune like this: the tuner switches to E Standard, the notes Hush was recorded in.
- Turn String 6 to String 1 until each shows ✓ in tune. Hush sits at concert pitch on the record, so the tuner stays at A 440.
- Then play Hush 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 Hush 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. Hush 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 Hush in?
E Standard: E A D G B E, low to high, at the pitch TuneLit measured on the record.