Queen · A Day at the Races · song 1
Tie Your Mother Down tuning.
Tie Your Mother Down (Queen, 1976) is in E Standard, about 21 cents flat (A ≈ 435), measured by TuneLit from the record.
Song tuning
E Standard −21 ¢
About 21 cents flat (A ≈ 435).
Measured by TuneLit
21 ¢ flat
The album's value, measured on the CD: Tune moves every string −21 ¢.
Queen · A Day at the Races · 1976
About Tie Your Mother Down
The opener of A Day at the Races (1976). May wrote it on a Spanish guitar in Tenerife in 1968, years before Queen, and on the record he plays the riff in E Standard and a slide solo, still in standard tuning. On the album it is preceded by a multi-tracked guitar introduction and a Shepard-tone figure made from a harmonium scale.
That introduction and the song do not sit at the same pitch. In 30-second windows the first stretch reads close to concert pitch, while the song after it sits between 10 and 28 ¢ flat. Its overall reading, about 18 ¢ flat, came with moderate confidence and is within 3 ¢ of the album, so Tune uses the album's E Standard 21 ¢ flat (A ≈ 434.8). The riff's open E is also what the audio check hears as the lowest string.
So tune to the riff, not to the intro. A Day at the Races is the flattest Queen album, and a guitar at A 440 sounds clearly sharp against the main riff. The slide solo is the best test: a slide note shows any tuning error at once.
Tip: Tune to the button after the introduction ends, checking the open E of the main riff against the record.
Step by step
Tune your guitar like the record
- Tap Tune like this: the tuner switches to E Standard, every string −21 ¢, the notes Tie Your Mother Down was recorded in.
- Turn String 6 to String 1 until each shows ✓ in tune. Tie Your Mother Down sits 21 cents flat on the record: at A 440 your guitar would sound that much sharp against it, which Tune already corrects.
- Then play Tie Your Mother Down 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 Tie Your Mother Down 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 −21 ¢. Choose E Standard at A 440 and Tie Your Mother Down moves up 21 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 Tie Your Mother Down in?
E Standard −21 ¢: E A D G B E, low to high, at the pitch TuneLit measured on the record.