Green Day · American Idiot · song 11
Wake Me Up When September Ends tuning.
Wake Me Up When September Ends (Green Day, 2004) 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.
Green Day · American Idiot · 2004
About Wake Me Up When September Ends
Wake Me Up When September Ends, Billie Joe Armstrong's song for his late father, starts with a clean, picked guitar figure before the band builds behind him. It is in G, in plain E Standard, with open-string chord shapes, and Songsterr's main tab of it, at around 400,000 views, is one of the most-viewed Green Day tabs there.
Unlike the album's opening songs, there is no doubt about the tuning here: TuneLit's audio check hears the open low E clearly. The American Idiot CD sits at concert pitch (+1.7 cents) and this song at about 4.4 cents, close enough to the album to share its setting, so Tune gives E Standard at A 440.
Because the intro is a quiet single guitar, tuning errors show more than in the loud songs. Tune each string carefully, and check the open G and B strings, which ring through the picked pattern. The bass is in standard tuning as well, so a four-string bass in E A D G is all you need. For the record, nothing special is needed: E Standard, no capo, A 440.
Tip: Pick the intro pattern with the record and listen to the open G and B strings: they are the first to give away a guitar that is slightly out.
Step by step
Tune your guitar like the record
- Tap Tune like this: the tuner switches to E Standard, the notes Wake Me Up When September Ends was recorded in.
- Turn String 6 to String 1 until each shows ✓ in tune. Wake Me Up When September Ends sits at concert pitch on the record, so the tuner stays at A 440.
- Then play Wake Me Up When September Ends 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 Wake Me Up When September Ends 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. Choose E Standard at A 440 and Wake Me Up When September Ends moves down 2 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 Wake Me Up When September Ends in?
E Standard: E A D G B E, low to high, at the pitch TuneLit measured on the record.