Jimi Hendrix · Are You Experienced · song 3
Hey Joe tuning.
Hey Joe (Jimi Hendrix, 1967) is in E Standard, about 7 cents flat (A ≈ 438), measured by TuneLit from the record.
Song tuning
E Standard −7 ¢
About 7 cents flat (A ≈ 438).
Measured by TuneLit
7 ¢ flat
The album's value, measured on the CD: Tune moves every string −7 ¢.
Jimi Hendrix · Are You Experienced · 1967
About Hey Joe
Hendrix's first single with the Experience, recorded in October 1966 and released that December: a slow arrangement of a song that several Los Angeles bands had cut fast. It climbs the familiar cycle of chords from C through G, D and A to E, with open chords ringing on the low strings, and the most-viewed tab gives both guitar parts, the rhythm part and the solo, in plain E Standard. The bass follows in standard tuning too.
On the 1991 Polydor CD the song reads about 7 ¢ flat, the album's own value (A ≈ 438.1), so it shares the album's setting: E Standard, 7 ¢ down. TuneLit's audio check hears E as the lowest open string, as the tabs say. Seven cents is not much, but open chords ring for a long time against the record, and that is where a small offset becomes audible.
If your tab comes from the Monterey Pop Festival of June 1967, it is in E♭: by that summer Hendrix tuned a half step down on stage, and the community tabs of the Monterey set follow him. The studio single stays in E. When the low E clashes with the record, check the reference A before you doubt the tuning itself.
Tip: Tune with the album's button and test your open low E against the E chord that ends each turn of the progression.
Step by step
Tune your guitar like the record
- Tap Tune like this: the tuner switches to E Standard, every string −7 ¢, the notes Hey Joe was recorded in.
- Turn String 6 to String 1 until each shows ✓ in tune. Hey Joe sits 7 cents flat on the record: at A 440 your guitar would sound that much sharp against it, which Tune already corrects.
- Then play Hey Joe 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 Hey Joe 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 −7 ¢. Choose E Standard at A 440 and Hey Joe moves up 7 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 Hey Joe in?
E Standard −7 ¢: E A D G B E, low to high, at the pitch TuneLit measured on the record.