Guns N' Roses · Use Your Illusion II · song 4
Knockin' on Heaven's Door tuning.
Knockin' on Heaven's Door (Guns N' Roses, 1991) 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 · Use Your Illusion II · 1991
About Knockin' on Heaven's Door
Guns N' Roses' cover of Bob Dylan's 1973 song, on Use Your Illusion II (1991). The band plays Dylan's G, D, C and G, D, Am shapes, but in E♭ Standard, so their version sounds in G♭, a half step below Dylan's key.
TuneLit measured the Mobile Fidelity gold CD of Use Your Illusion II (UDCD 712) about 3 ¢ flat and this song about 2 ¢ flat: both count as concert pitch, so the setting is plain E♭ Standard at A 440.
The trap is familiarity. If you learned the song from Dylan's chords in E Standard, you will be a half step above Guns N' Roses. Keep the same shapes and tune down a half step; the same shapes in E Standard give Dylan's key instead.
Guns N' Roses played it live from 1987 and first recorded it in 1990 for the Days of Thunder soundtrack; the album take is that recording slightly modified, and at 5:36 it runs more than twice as long as Dylan's. Izzy Stradlin plays rhythm, Slash the lead, with Dizzy Reed's piano underneath. Every chord belongs to G major in shape names, so the G major pentatonic box, the same notes as E minor pentatonic, covers Slash's lines; on the record it sounds in G♭.
Tip: Tune down a half step and play the familiar G, D, C shapes; if the first chord sounds a half step high against the record, you are still in E Standard.
Step by step
Tune your guitar like the record
- Tap Tune like this: the tuner switches to E♭ Standard, the notes Knockin' on Heaven's Door 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. Knockin' on Heaven's Door sits at concert pitch on the record, so the tuner stays at A 440.
- Then play Knockin' on Heaven's Door 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 Knockin' on Heaven's Door 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 Knockin' on Heaven's Door moves up a half step and 3 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 Knockin' on Heaven's Door in?
E♭ Standard: E♭ A♭ D♭ G♭ B♭ E♭, low to high, at the pitch TuneLit measured on the record.