Iron Maiden · Powerslave · song 2
2 Minutes to Midnight tuning.
2 Minutes to Midnight (Iron Maiden, 1984) is in E Standard, about 5 cents sharp (A ≈ 441), measured by TuneLit from the record.
Measured by TuneLit
5 ¢ sharp
The album's value, measured on the CD: Tune moves every string +5 ¢.
Iron Maiden · Powerslave · 1984
About 2 Minutes to Midnight
2 Minutes to Midnight, the first single from Powerslave (1984), was written by Adrian Smith and Bruce Dickinson around a mid-tempo riff that keeps pivoting on the open A string. In Songsterr's transcription the open A is a quarter of Smith's notes, answered by fretted notes at the 5th and 7th frets of Strings 4 and 3. Steve Harris doubles that A an octave down at the 5th fret of his E string, the most common note in his part, and drops to his open E about one note in eight.
TuneLit measured Powerslave about 5 ¢ sharp on the 1995 reissue (A ≈ 441.3), and this song reads about 4.5 ¢ high, the album value. The 2015 remaster reads it about 2 ¢, within a few cents. Tune sets E Standard +5 ¢.
Because the riff keeps returning to the open A, String 5 is the one to get right first. The open low E of the guitars comes in mostly in the rhythm and harmony part, about one note in eight there. Dave Murray's lead part in the tab has about eighty slides, and a slide that lands a few cents away from the record is easy to hear, so tune before you practise them. TuneLit's check from the audio agrees that the low string is E.
Tip: Tune String 5 first and match its open A with Harris's A an octave below at the 5th fret of his E string.
Step by step
Tune your guitar like the record
- Tap Tune like this: the tuner switches to E Standard, every string +5 ¢, the notes 2 Minutes to Midnight was recorded in.
- Turn String 6 to String 1 until each shows ✓ in tune. 2 Minutes to Midnight sits 5 cents sharp on the record: at A 440 your guitar would sound that much flat against it, which Tune already corrects.
- Then play 2 Minutes to Midnight 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 2 Minutes to Midnight 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 2 Minutes to Midnight moves down 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 2 Minutes to Midnight in?
E Standard +5 ¢: E A D G B E, low to high, at the pitch TuneLit measured on the record.