Iron Maiden · Somewhere in Time · song 2
Wasted Years tuning.
Wasted Years (Iron Maiden, 1986) 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.
Iron Maiden · Somewhere in Time · 1986
About Wasted Years
Wasted Years, written by Adrian Smith, was the first single from Somewhere in Time (1986) and the only song on that album without guitar synthesisers. Its intro is built on the open high E string: in Songsterr's transcription almost a quarter of Smith's lead notes are String 1 played open, rung against fretted notes on the strings below. Dave Murray's rhythm part is almost all chords, with about a hundred slides, and Steve Harris's bass uses its open E more than on most Maiden songs, about one note in nine.
TuneLit measured Somewhere in Time at concert pitch on the 1995 two-disc reissue, within a cent of A 440, and Wasted Years reads about 1 ¢ flat. A guitar at A 440 matches it, and Tune sets plain E Standard. The album's 1998 and 2015 remasters read the same pitch.
Because the intro rings the open high E against fretted notes, String 1 is the one to tune most carefully: if it is a few cents off, the riff sounds sour from the first bar, long before the band comes in. Tune all six strings, then play the intro along with the record and listen to the open string. TuneLit's check from the audio agrees that the low string is E.
Tip: Tune to A 440, then play the intro along with the record and listen hard to the open high E of String 1.
Step by step
Tune your guitar like the record
- Tap Tune like this: the tuner switches to E Standard, the notes Wasted Years was recorded in.
- Turn String 6 to String 1 until each shows ✓ in tune. Wasted Years sits at concert pitch on the record, so the tuner stays at A 440.
- Then play Wasted Years 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 Wasted Years 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. Wasted Years is already in E Standard at A 440, so nothing moves. Slow it down or loop a few bars to learn it, and save the result as a WAV file.
Questions
What tuning is Wasted Years in?
E Standard: E A D G B E, low to high, at the pitch TuneLit measured on the record.