Queen · A Night at the Opera · song 11
Bohemian Rhapsody tuning.
Bohemian Rhapsody (Queen, 1975) is in E Standard, about 15 cents flat (A ≈ 436), measured by TuneLit from the record.
Song tuning
E Standard −15 ¢
About 15 cents flat (A ≈ 436).
Measured by TuneLit
15 ¢ flat
The album's value, measured on the CD: Tune moves every string −15 ¢.
Queen · A Night at the Opera · 1975
About Bohemian Rhapsody
Freddie Mercury's six-minute suite from A Night at the Opera (1975): a piano ballad, Brian May's guitar solo, the operatic middle and a hard rock section, ending on a gong. It moves through B♭, E♭, A and F major, and every guitar part is played in plain E Standard with barre shapes; the solo sits in E♭. Do not tune down to chase the flat keys: the tabs and the record both assume a standard guitar.
TuneLit measured Mobile Fidelity's 1992 gold CD. The whole song sits about 15 ¢ flat (A ≈ 436.3), read with high confidence and steady from the a cappella opening to the coda, and the 2000 remaster and the Japanese 2001 CD give the same value within a cent. That is the album's own pitch, so Tune sets E Standard 15 ¢ down. A guitar tuned to A 440 is 15 ¢ sharp against the record, which you will hear in the harmonised guitar lines first.
TuneLit's audio check answers "one semitone higher" for this song. That is its known error on piano songs that rarely touch the open low E: the low notes here centre on B♭, not on E. Every tab agrees on E Standard, so keep it.
Tip: Tune String 6 to the button's E 15 ¢ flat, then check the B♭ barre chord under the first guitar solo against the record.
Step by step
Tune your guitar like the record
- Tap Tune like this: the tuner switches to E Standard, every string −15 ¢, the notes Bohemian Rhapsody was recorded in.
- Turn String 6 to String 1 until each shows ✓ in tune. Bohemian Rhapsody sits 15 cents flat on the record: at A 440 your guitar would sound that much sharp against it, which Tune already corrects.
- Then play Bohemian Rhapsody 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 Bohemian Rhapsody 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 −15 ¢. Choose E Standard at A 440 and Bohemian Rhapsody moves up 15 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 Bohemian Rhapsody in?
E Standard −15 ¢: E A D G B E, low to high, at the pitch TuneLit measured on the record.