Iron Maiden · Powerslave · song 8
Rime of the Ancient Mariner tuning.
Rime of the Ancient Mariner (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 Rime of the Ancient Mariner
Rime of the Ancient Mariner closes Powerslave (1984) and runs over thirteen minutes, Steve Harris's retelling of Coleridge's poem with a long, quiet middle section. It is in E Standard and leans hard on the open low E: in Songsterr's transcription about a quarter of the notes in both main guitar parts are that open string, mostly palm-muted, alongside the E at the 7th fret of String 5 and the D at its 5th fret. Harris's bass sits on the E at the 7th fret of his A string about a third of the time.
TuneLit measured Powerslave about 5 ¢ sharp on the 1995 two-disc reissue (A ≈ 441.3), and the Rime reads about 4.5 ¢ high; the 2015 remaster gives about 6 ¢. Tune sets E Standard +5 ¢.
Over thirteen minutes a guitar drifts, and palm-muted open strings hide the drift until the quiet middle section or the harmony leads expose it. Tune up before you start, and check again before the band comes back in after the quiet passage. With so much of the song on the open low E, String 6 is the one to watch: it carries the riff from the first bar. TuneLit's check from the audio agrees that the low string is E.
Tip: Tune to E Standard +5 ¢ and check the palm-muted open low E against the main riff before you play the whole song.
Step by step
Tune your guitar like the record
- Tap Tune like this: the tuner switches to E Standard, every string +5 ¢, the notes Rime of the Ancient Mariner was recorded in.
- Turn String 6 to String 1 until each shows ✓ in tune. Rime of the Ancient Mariner 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 Rime of the Ancient Mariner 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 Rime of the Ancient Mariner 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 Rime of the Ancient Mariner 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 Rime of the Ancient Mariner in?
E Standard +5 ¢: E A D G B E, low to high, at the pitch TuneLit measured on the record.