Guns N' Roses · Appetite for Destruction · song 9
Sweet Child o' Mine tuning.
Sweet Child o' Mine (Guns N' Roses, 1987) 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.
Guns N' Roses · Appetite for Destruction · 1987
About Sweet Child o' Mine
The band's best-known song, from Appetite for Destruction (1987), built on Slash's intro riff with Izzy Stradlin on rhythm guitar. Like everything on the album it is in E♭ Standard, every string a half step down, guitars and bass alike. The riff runs over D, C and G chord shapes in the tab, which sound as D♭, B and G♭ on the record.
TuneLit measured the Mobile Fidelity gold CD of Appetite (UDCD 699, a 1997 remaster) about 2 ¢ sharp, and this song reads the same: concert pitch. So the setting is plain E♭ Standard at A 440, with no offset to chase.
The trap is the tab. Some of the most-viewed Songsterr versions are rewritten for E Standard, which is easier to read but puts you a half step above the record. Keep the frets as written and tune down a half step instead.
Tip: Before learning the intro, check the tuning line of your tab: if it says E Standard, tune down a half step anyway and keep the same frets.
Step by step
Tune your guitar like the record
- Tap Tune like this: the tuner switches to E♭ Standard, the notes Sweet Child o' Mine was recorded in.
- From E Standard: Every string down a half step. No tuner that knows E♭ Standard? Clamp a capo across fret 1, tune to E Standard as usual, then take it off: every string drops to E♭ Standard. Check each string again afterwards, since a capo pulls the strings a little sharp.
- Turn String 6 to String 1 until each shows ✓ in tune. Sweet Child o' Mine sits at concert pitch on the record, so the tuner stays at A 440.
- Then play Sweet Child o' Mine 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 Sweet Child o' Mine 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 Sweet Child o' Mine moves up 98 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 Sweet Child o' Mine in?
E♭ Standard: E♭ A♭ D♭ G♭ B♭ E♭, low to high, at the pitch TuneLit measured on the record.