Radiohead · The Bends · song 3
High and Dry tuning.
High and Dry (Radiohead, 1995) is in E Standard, about 16 cents sharp (A ≈ 444), measured by TuneLit from the record.
Measured by TuneLit
16 ¢ sharp
The album's value, measured on the LP: Tune moves every string +16 ¢.
Radiohead · The Bends · 1995
About High and Dry
The gentle single from The Bends (1995), and an odd one out on it: Wikipedia says it began as a 1993 demo made at Courtyard Studios with the band's live engineer, Jim Warren, and was rediscovered and remastered for the album. It is in standard tuning, with an acoustic strumming open chord shapes and electric guitars on top; the open B and E strings ring through the changes between an F♯ minor seventh shape, A and E.
On the 2016 XL LP The Bends sits about 16 ¢ sharp (A ≈ 444.2), and High and Dry reads about 13 ¢, close enough that Tune uses the album's value and sets standard tuning 16 ¢ up. At A 440 your guitar sits a sixth of a semitone under the record: small on a strum, obvious on the held chords and the falsetto lines over them. The LP runs about 0.45 % shorter than the CD, so a CD or a stream sits nearer 8 ¢ sharp.
The trap is the next song. High and Dry is nowhere near the quarter-tone-sharp songs of the album (Planet Telex, Just, Black Star), so do not carry their setting over, and Street Spirit (Fade Out), which closes the record, sits 23 ¢ flat. Retune between songs rather than once per album, and keep the open B and E strings in tune with each other, since they sound in every chord.
Tip: Set the tuner 16 ¢ up for the LP (about 8 ¢ for a CD or a stream) and check the open B and E strings against the first chord.
Step by step
Tune your guitar like the record
- Tap Tune like this: the tuner switches to E Standard, every string +16 ¢, the notes High and Dry was recorded in.
- Turn String 6 to String 1 until each shows ✓ in tune. High and Dry sits 16 cents sharp on the record: at A 440 your guitar would sound that much flat against it, which Tune already corrects.
- Then play High and Dry 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 High and Dry 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 +16 ¢. Choose E Standard at A 440 and High and Dry moves down 16 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 High and Dry in?
E Standard +16 ¢: E A D G B E, low to high, at the pitch TuneLit measured on the record.