Soundgarden · Down on the Upside · song 6
Blow Up the Outside World tuning.
Blow Up the Outside World (Soundgarden, 1996) is in E Standard 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.
Soundgarden · Down on the Upside · 1996
About Blow Up the Outside World
A slow-building single from Down on the Upside (1996), written by Chris Cornell, that starts quiet and ends in loud power chords. Unlike many Soundgarden songs it uses plain E Standard, as Kim Thayil said himself. The verses mix several acoustic guitars with Thayil's electric part, which uses a lush spring-reverb tremolo, and the ending switches to full distorted power chords that Cornell himself compared to AC/DC.
TuneLit measured it at concert pitch, a couple of cents from A 440, and that is what Tune uses. Nothing here needs a special setting, which makes it a good song to learn the album's feel before the C G C G G E songs.
The tremolo and reverb hide small tuning errors in the quiet part and expose them in the loud ending, where the power chords and the acoustic guitars all ring together. Tune carefully at the start, and check again before the ending if you play the whole song through. Some acoustic versions online drop everything a whole step; the record is standard.
Tip: Tune at A 440 and check the open G and B strings against the clean opening chords, where the record is barest.
Step by step
Tune your guitar like the record
- Tap Tune like this: the tuner switches to E Standard, the notes Blow Up the Outside World was recorded in.
- Turn String 6 to String 1 until each shows ✓ in tune. Blow Up the Outside World sits at concert pitch on the record, so the tuner stays at A 440.
- Then play Blow Up the Outside World 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 Blow Up the Outside World 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. Choose E Standard at A 440 and Blow Up the Outside World 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 Blow Up the Outside World in?
E Standard: E A D G B E, low to high, at the pitch TuneLit measured on the record.