Sonic Youth · Daydream Nation · song 2
Silver Rocket tuning.
Silver Rocket (Sonic Youth, 1988) is in A2 C3 C3 G3 G♯3 C4 at concert pitch (A 440), measured by TuneLit from the record.
Measured by TuneLit
At concert pitch
The album's value, measured on the CD.
Sonic Youth · Daydream Nation · 1988
About Silver Rocket
The second track of Daydream Nation (1988), a fast Thurston Moore song with a long noise section before the last verse. Thurston plays A C C G G♯ C, low to high, and Lee Ranaldo A A E E A A. Thurston's tuning stacks two C strings in unison and puts G and G♯ side by side, so an open strum carries a built-in half-step clash.
Daydream Nation measures at concert pitch and Tune uses A 440; this song reads a few cents sharp on its own, too little to matter. The same pair of tunings returns on Candle and Kissability on this album and on Cinderella's Big Score, Theresa's Sound-World and On the Strip later.
Getting to A C C G G♯ C means raising the low E five half steps to A, raising the A string to C, dropping the D string to the same C, keeping G, and dropping the top two strings to G♯ and C. That is a lot of extra tension on the low string, so tune it up slowly, or fit a lighter gauge there.
Tip: Tune the two C strings against each other until they lock, then check the G and G♯ pair: it should rub, not beat out of control.
Step by step
Tune your guitar like the record
- Tap Tune like this: the tuner switches to A2 C3 C3 G3 G♯3 C4, the notes Silver Rocket was recorded in.
- From E Standard: String 6 up 5 half steps (E → A), String 5 up 3 half steps (A → C), String 4 down a whole step (D → C), String 2 down 3 half steps (B → G♯), String 1 down 4 half steps (E → C); the other strings stay.
- Turn String 6 to String 1 until each shows ✓ in tune. Silver Rocket sits at concert pitch on the record, so the tuner stays at A 440.
- Then play Silver Rocket 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 Silver Rocket instead. Add your own copy, for example from your CD (it never leaves your device); the link already says the song is in A2 C3 C3 G3 G♯3 C4. Choose A2 C3 C3 G3 G♯3 C4 at A 440 and Silver Rocket moves down 3 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 Silver Rocket in?
A2 C3 C3 G3 G♯3 C4: A C C G G♯ C, low to high, at the pitch TuneLit measured on the record.