Foo Fighters · Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace · song 1
The Pretender tuning.
The Pretender (Foo Fighters, 2007) is in E Standard at concert pitch (A 440), measured by TuneLit from the record.
Song tuning
E Standard
At concert pitch (A 440).
Measured by TuneLit
At concert pitch
The album's value, measured on the CD.
Foo Fighters · Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace · 2007
About The Pretender
The Pretender opens Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace (2007), produced by Gil Norton, and like the whole album it is in plain E Standard in every main tab. The quiet start and the full-band drive that follows both sit on the same six strings, with no capo and nothing dropped.
TuneLit measured the song about 1 cent sharp, on a CD that sits within a cent of A 440, so Tune opens E Standard at concert pitch. A guitar set with any normal tuner matches the record.
Two things might make you doubt that. One little-used tab puts the song in Drop D; the main tabs all say E Standard, and you don't need the low D. TuneLit's own audio check leaned a half step higher, toward F, but that is a known blind spot of the method: the bass on the record almost never plays the open low E (7 notes out of nearly a thousand in its tab), so F turns up as the lowest common note. It is not a sign of a different tuning, and the tabs' notes line up with the record at E Standard pitch.
Tip: Stay in E Standard and tune String 6 with the tuner rather than by ear against the record, since the song almost never sounds the open low E.
Step by step
Tune your guitar like the record
- Tap Tune like this: the tuner switches to E Standard, the notes The Pretender was recorded in.
- Turn String 6 to String 1 until each shows ✓ in tune. The Pretender sits at concert pitch on the record, so the tuner stays at A 440.
- Then play The Pretender 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 The Pretender 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. The Pretender 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 The Pretender in?
E Standard: E A D G B E, low to high, at the pitch TuneLit measured on the record.