Iron Maiden · The Number of the Beast · song 6
Run to the Hills tuning.
Run to the Hills (Iron Maiden, 1982) 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 · The Number of the Beast · 1982
About Run to the Hills
Run to the Hills was the lead single from The Number of the Beast (1982) and a UK top-ten hit, a gallop that the drums and Steve Harris's bass drive from the opening bars. The record is in E Standard, but the guitars barely touch the open low E: in Songsterr's transcription Adrian Smith's rhythm part is mostly power chords on D, A, G and C, rooted at the 5th and 3rd frets of String 5 and the 5th and 7th frets of String 4, and palm-muted more than half the time.
TuneLit measured the album at about 2 ¢ sharp on the 1995 reissue, concert pitch, and Run to the Hills reads about 5 ¢ high; the 2015 remaster reads it about 3 ¢. Either way a guitar at A 440 sits with the record, and Tune sets plain E Standard.
If you know the song from concerts, you may have heard it differently: Adrian Smith says he now plays Run to the Hills in Drop D on stage, a habit he picked up after rejoining the band in 1999. That is the live version only. The 1982 recording is in E Standard, as every tab says and as TuneLit's check from the audio confirms. Dave Murray's lead part in the tab has about a hundred bends, so keep an eye on String 2 and String 3.
Tip: Stay in E Standard at A 440 for the record, and check the D at the 5th fret of String 5, where the verse riff keeps landing.
Step by step
Tune your guitar like the record
- Tap Tune like this: the tuner switches to E Standard, the notes Run to the Hills was recorded in.
- Turn String 6 to String 1 until each shows ✓ in tune. Run to the Hills sits at concert pitch on the record, so the tuner stays at A 440.
- Then play Run to the Hills 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 Run to the Hills 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 Run to the Hills moves down 2 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 Run to the Hills in?
E Standard: E A D G B E, low to high, at the pitch TuneLit measured on the record.