Lesson 10
How to tune your axe to an album, CD or song
Hi Everyone! Welcome back.
In the last lesson, we finished up with the Major Pentatonics. Now with that lesson,
we are now finished with enough "theory' to start our lessons into the "Iommi Style"
of playing your axe.
So let's look at his tuning style. As you are probably aware of, he began tuning to
standard E (at first, for the first 2 albums), then tuned down to C# for the albums up
to Technical Ecstasy and Never Say Die.
There are reasons behind this and many theories, but all could only be answered by Mr.
Iommi himself as to the true nature of it all.
How do you tune to an album? Well, part of the previous lessons was to help your ears
get use to the sound of notes on the fret board. The more you practice the scales and
modes across the board, the more familiar you'll becaome with the various notes, and
their sound.
So let's take a standard E tuning. My first recomendation is to buy a tuner. The Korg
GT-3 is an inexpensive, highly accurate tuner. You can use it to tune the bass as well
as your axe. Either plug into the GT-3 or switch it to the "I" position without
plugging in your axe.
Next, pluck your axe and adjust your machine head until the LED is centered at 440Hz,
or "Standard" Tuning, as it is sometimes refered to. Continue to do the same for the
remainder of the strings until you are in tune.
But, now you've got a standard E tuning, what about the lower tunings Iommi is so
famous for. How do you go about determining the tuning of a song or the CD??
Back to ear training of the notes. Learn to "pick out" notes that you can positively
identify.
Let's look at a song off of "Master of Reality", and one of my favorites, "Into the
Void".
In the first second of the song, Tony slides down from a presumably "unknown" fret to
a note that begins a riff in Blues Scale. In earlier days, I recorded just this
portion of the song and tuned to that note. I used a dual tape deck and recorded
the note over and over, about 10 times! If you didn't have a duale cassette, then
you'd have to play the note, try to tune, stop the tape, rewind and do it all over
until you had the tuning.
Not to side track or anything, but I grew tired of this. Then I descovered the Ibenez
RP-50. It allowed you to record up to 15 seconds of music and repeat it indefinately!
So I purchased one and it changed my entire learning curve!! Now days, they make
phrase samplers that blow the Ibenez RP-50 out of the saddle, but if you can get one,
I would highly recomend a phrase sampler! It will decrease your learning curve!
Any how, as it turns out, the note is an open E on the 6th string. This can be
"verified" at 3:01-3:04 on the CD, as this note is also an open E. Verifying the note
is important. In this case, it is a note that can only be played with an open E string.
It is a note that cannot be replicated any other way. This makes it an excellent note
to tune your axe by!
So let's get started. First, on your stereo, isolate the guitar as much as possible.
With our example, this is simple because Tony is the only one playing. Later, this may
not be as easy with the mixing and overlay of modern recording. In the early days,
they seperated the instruments, whic made it much simpler to isolate individual
instruments off the recordings. Can you hear the difference between "Master of Reality"
and "Iommi"??
Ok, next, turn the destortion on your axe off. The cleaner you tune, the cleaner your
sound will be when you play. It will also make tuning using harmonics much easier.
To tune your axe to this note, play the recorded note and pluck your string that you
are tuning to. In this example, the Open E. Listen to the harmonics of the note and
adjust your machine head until the resonance of the notes are equal. What this means
is that you'll hear "waves" of sound at the notes are different in frequency. As you
adjust your axe to the note recorded, these waves come tighter until you can't hear any
variance in sound. At that point, you are in tune with the recorded note.
Using one of the methods above, (i.e. recording the note or phrase sampling), tune your
axe to that note. Then use the conventional method of tuning your axe by using the
5th fret and harmonic tuning to complete tuning your axe.
Ok, these aren't the only ways to tune either!
Of course, you could use a synthesizer, piano or tuning flute.
Other ways of tuning are to check out a tab page and see if the author included the
album tuning on his/her tabs.
Check out commercial tab sources. I would recoment Hal Lenoard books. They seem to be
THE most accurate.
Ask other, more experienced guitarist. If they are decent folk not stuck on themselves,
you'll find that they are willing to share info with you.
Take lessons from a local guitarist, college, or music store. All willl be willing to
help you learn the art of tuning your axe to a song or album.
Let me say a word about a chromatic tuner. I have the Korg DT-3. It allows me to
quickly tune to any available tuning for my guitar or bass. In order to tune down to
Iommi's C# or the modern tunings used by some great guitarst today, a chromatic tuner
is the bomb! (Yeah, I didn't use the word $h^t). The run around $50 U.S. but I have
had mine for about 6 years and don't regret the purchase.
Finally, I'll close with a chart to show some various tunings. Also, I'd like to
recomend the book, "The Alternate Tuning Guide for Guitar" by Mark Hansen. It is a
nice book that will go WAY past what we are discussing here. Remember, I am doing
this after Iommi's style!
Here are the charts:
------------------- Dropped Tunings --------------------
Drop D Tuning:
6 (E) - D
5 (A) - A
4 (D) - D
3 (G) - G
2 (B) - B
1 (e) - e
DADGAD Tuning:
6 (E) - D
5 (A) - A
4 (D) - D
3 (G) - G
2 (B) - A
1 (e) - D
"Instant" 7 String Tuning:
6 (E) - B
5 (A) - F#
4 (D) - D
3 (G) - G
2 (B) - B
1 (e) - E
------------------- Slack Tunings ---------------------
Concert, or half-step Tuning (Iommi uses this quite often live):
6 (E) - Eb
5 (A) - Ab
4 (D) - Db
3 (G) - Gb
2 (B) - Bb
1 (e) - Eb
C# or 1 and a half step tuning (Iommi uses thi one often!!):
6 (E) - C#
5 (A) - F#
4 (D) - B
3 (G) - E
2 (B) - G#
1 (e) - C#
1 Step Tuning (Check out "After Forever" and "Sweet Leaf")
6 (E) - D
5 (A) - G
4 (D) - C
3 (G) - F
2 (B) - A
1 (e) - D
Perfect 4th (He uses this on "Meat" off of "Iommi"):
6 (E) - B
5 (A) - E
4 (D) - A
3 (G) - D
2 (B) - F#
1 (e) - B
------------------- Open Tunings ---------------------
Open D Tuning (Popular with Godsmack):
6 (E) - D
5 (A) - A
4 (D) - D
3 (G) - F#
2 (B) - A
1 (e) - D
Open G Tuning:
6 (E) - D
5 (A) - G
4 (D) - D
3 (G) - G
2 (B) - B
1 (e) - D
Open E Tuning:
6 (E) - E
5 (A) - B
4 (D) - E
3 (G) - D
2 (B) - F#
1 (e) - E
Are these the ONLY tunings?? Nope, but they are some of the most common ones. Try
them out and see what you think!
See ya next lesson!
Mike
Here's an e-mail that I sent to "gavin sam" about tuning:
Hi!
First of all, let me thank you for the kind words about my site! I really appreciate them.
Now about that bad ear. I really wouldn't call it a "bad ear". It just takes time to "hear" where Tony or other musicians are playing.
One key that may help you is to play an open E note over and over, not listening to the "sound" of the note, but the tone. E has a deep tone, as you know. It's unmistakable when it rings. Once you have it's tone embedded in you, then you can recognize it when the songs are de-tunned.
Some samples of Standard tuned E notes that you can hear are on "Wicked World" at 2:09 and, of course, "War Pigs", the opening E.
You can do the same with the open A string as well.
This is how I got started.
Ok, you say you have a Zoom 505 2 Tuner I'm not familiar with this tuner, but let me help ya out. If you want to use a tuner to drop tune, then you'll need a chromatic tuner. I use the Korg DT-3 digital tuner.
To start out, get your copy of "Master of Reality" CD out. This CD has 2 different tunings on it.
Let's start with the simplest tuning, "Into the Void". There's lots of places to practice the Open E tone.
The opening slide starts at the 12th fret and slides to an open E string.
Now listen to the main riff! {I hope that this comes across ok in e-mail}
-------------------------
-------------------------
-------------------------
-------------------------
----5h7--7-7-7-7---------
--0------0-0-0-0---------
{..pm..}
Pure E delight!!!
If you plug your tuner in and play the CD at 3:02-3:04, there is an open E preceding the bridge. Your tuner will register this "E" as C#, or one and a half steps down from Standard tuning. This is where Tony is tuned at this time.
To tune your guitar to C#, plug your guitar into the tuner and tune down until it registers your low E string as tuned to C#. You can now tune the other strings by using the standard tuning method. Place your finger on the low E string on the 5th fret and tune your A string to the E string, and so forth!
Or, using your tuner, tune the strings as follows:
E=C#
A=G#
D=E
G=B
B=F#
e=C#
Now that you have a C# tuning, be aware that the neck on your axe may "relax" a bit since the strings don't have the tension that they would when tuned to Standard E. Also, if you experience any "buzzing", you can either change to .10 gauge strings, adjust your rear bridge string settings or both.
I hope this truncated lesson will help you achieve that low sound that you're looking for!
Practice the heck out of this song, not just to master it, but to hear that low E tone!
Keep jamming!
Mike
http://www.geocities.com/headlesscross.geo/tabmain.html
Si Vis Pacem, Para Bellum!!
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