Jimi Hendrix · Are You Experienced · song 7
The Wind Cries Mary tuning.
The Wind Cries Mary (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 The Wind Cries Mary
The gentle third single of the Experience, from early 1967. Producer Chas Chandler recalled that it was cut in about twenty minutes at the end of a session, with Mitch Mitchell and Noel Redding hearing it for the first time as they played and Hendrix adding a handful of overdubs. The most-viewed tab has two guitar parts, the chords and the solo, both in plain E Standard.
TuneLit measured it about 8 ¢ flat on the 1991 Polydor CD, within a cent of the album's value (7 ¢ flat, A ≈ 438.1), so the Tune button is E Standard 7 ¢ down. With a guitar at A 440 the record sounds slightly flat against you until you set that offset, which matters on a clean song where every chord rings out.
TuneLit's audio check points a half step up on this song, to F. That is its known blind spot: the open low E is rarely heard, and the low notes it hears center on F. The tabs and the rest of the album agree on E Standard, so the song stays there. The tab of the Monterey Pop performance is in E♭, like Hendrix's concerts from mid-1967; it puts you a half step under the studio record.
Tip: Check the reference on the clean chords of the intro rather than the open low E, which the song barely uses.
Step by step
Tune your guitar like the record
- Tap Tune like this: the tuner switches to E Standard, every string −7 ¢, the notes The Wind Cries Mary was recorded in.
- Turn String 6 to String 1 until each shows ✓ in tune. The Wind Cries Mary 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 The Wind Cries Mary 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 The Wind Cries Mary 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 The Wind Cries Mary 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 The Wind Cries Mary in?
E Standard −7 ¢: E A D G B E, low to high, at the pitch TuneLit measured on the record.