Guns N' Roses · Use Your Illusion I · song 10
November Rain tuning.
November Rain (Guns N' Roses, 1991) is in E♭ Standard, about 5 cents flat (A ≈ 439), measured by TuneLit from the record.
Song tuning
E♭ Standard −5 ¢
About 5 cents flat (A ≈ 439).
Measured by TuneLit
5 ¢ flat
The album's value, measured on the CD: Tune moves every string −5 ¢.
Guns N' Roses · Use Your Illusion I · 1991
About November Rain
Axl Rose's piano ballad from Use Your Illusion I (1991), with an orchestra behind it and Slash's solos on top. The guitars are in E♭ Standard like the rest of the album, so Slash's familiar shapes sound a half step lower than they would in E Standard.
TuneLit measured the Mobile Fidelity gold CD of Use Your Illusion I (UDCD 711) about 5 ¢ flat (A ≈ 438.7). November Rain itself reads about 1 ¢ flat, close enough to share the album's setting, E♭ Standard −5 ¢. Differences this small vanish in the mix: plain E♭ Standard at A 440 works just as well.
The second most-viewed Songsterr version is rewritten for E Standard and sounds a half step sharp against the record. TuneLit's audio check also points to E here, but only because the piano and orchestra go below the bass's lowest string; the tabs stand.
Axl Rose wrote November Rain alone and plays its piano and string synthesizer himself, so the guitar's job here is lead, not rhythm. Slash's solos are the part to learn; his album solo grew straight out of an improvisation, and the long instrumental second half of a song that runs almost nine minutes gives him the most room. Work on slow bends and held notes first: they sit against a piano, which cannot bend with you, so a bend that stops short of its target shows at once.
Tip: Check your tuning against Slash's first solo rather than the orchestral passages, where piano and strings carry notes below the guitar's range.
Step by step
Tune your guitar like the record
- Tap Tune like this: the tuner switches to E♭ Standard, every string −5 ¢, the notes November Rain 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. November Rain sits 5 cents flat on the record: at A 440 your guitar would sound that much sharp against it, which Tune already corrects.
- Then play November Rain 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 November Rain 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 −5 ¢. Choose E Standard at A 440 and November Rain moves up a half step and 5 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 November Rain in?
E♭ Standard −5 ¢: E♭ A♭ D♭ G♭ B♭ E♭, low to high, at the pitch TuneLit measured on the record.