The studio version, is it in open E/D, open G or standard tuning? Live it's in standard but what about the studio version? Sounds right in open E.

guitar 1 : open E
guitar 2 : standard tuning
(transcribed by Jeff Perrin in Guitar legends n°94)

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Christian
guitar 1 : open E
guitar 2 : standard tuning
(transcribed by Jeff Perrin in Guitar legends n°94)

OK thanks, guitar 2: is that the lead guitar? I know that one is in standard but wasnt 100% sure about the rhythm.

I'm glad this thread exists! I'm going home to try it in open E



[thepowergoats.com]

It's in standard.

This guy seems to do it in standard? Maybe not, but open E sounds right to me. Live it's standard on higher fret.

Skipstone, Keith has always played the song live in standard tuning. But if you listen to the Let It Bleed-version, you'll find the riff differently played. And the studio tuning is either open D og open E. I think even Keith has confirmed that.

Ah, I've read all the so many guitar magazines and Keith has never talked about playing Gimme Shelter in any open tuning, I've only ever seen mention of the actual guitar falling apart at the end of the take.

It can be played in minor fourths but it also has the majors in there as well. And that open tuning would require a capo since the song is in C#minor with the bottom being an A.

Listen to the notes in the riff. You will always miss some of them with standard tuning, as Keith does live...

I always play it in open G
But thats usually half drunk at a quarter past

Sounded good to me!

The tremolo guitar on the studio version is most definitely tuned to open E.
He probably uses standard tuning live so he can play lead lines etc.

There is no tuning in the Rock Band video game version.


(going a bit off-topic - sorry)

It's funny, I'd thought they'd used a "soundalike bunch" for the game (like CYHMK in Guitar Hero II) - but it actually is the official Stones studio version in the Rock Band game.

Some of you might find it horrendous that they use these Stones songs in games, but hey: they got my 17-year old nephew into the Stones!

[thepowergoats.com]

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skipstone
Obviously YOU are gay ASSuming every goddamn thing Keith does is in some open fuc*king tuning. All you have to do is watch how Keith Richards plays it - in STANDARD. Don't be such a self righteous ponce.

Who me? I never do that, I know many of the classics are in standard tuning. Gimme Shlter is a bit difficult though. Live: standard but studio: are you sure about standard? Sure sounds like open E, not G, but E.

[www.judasmagazine.com]

Much of the distinctive sound of Dylan’s ’66 acoustic guitar comes from his altered tunings. The two alt. tunings most commonly used in blues, folk and rock are Open E (or D) and Open G. Open E is the ‘Elmore James’ style much used by 60’s British Blues bands (done to death many would say, by Peter Green’s Jeremy Spencer-era Fleetwood Mac) but also put to more original use on songs like the Stones ‘Gimme Shelter’. Open G (especially the 5 string variant) became a staple of the Stones post-‘Honky Tonk Women’ sound. It seems to have entered mainstream British use via Ry Cooder who played on the Let It Bleed album filling Brian Jones’s chair and whose guitar parts mysteriously vanished, only to re-appear, played almost note for note by Keith Richards (a technique known in the trade as a ‘Sponge Job’). Though there are examples to the contrary, Open E has come to be associated broadly with electric Chicago Blues, while Open G is more of an acoustic, country blues tuning. Muddy Waters’ earliest recordings use open G - in fact is was said at one time you could tell which Delta plantation a player came from by his tuning, and a few key phrases indigenous to that tuning.

[www.geocities.com]

Jumpin' Jack Flash led the charge - although that one was in open E (as was Gimme Shelter, the opener from 1969's Let It Bleed album), while other Stone's classics such as Honky Tonk Women, Tumblin' Dice and later Start Me Up, emerged in open G.

I asked this same question months ago and got pretty much the same answer. Any official transcription of the song that I've seen has one guitar in open E. I couldn't understand exactly why everybody thought it was in open tuning because it can be played in standard and Keith has played it in standard in concert ever since 1969.


But there is a slight difference in the riff on the studio version. I was also very skeptical that Keith used open E on the studio recording for a long time, but I became convinced by people on this board that it was true.

For me, it's easier to play it like that:

You can't play whats on the studio version in standard, I'm meaning the whole track. There are various parts throughout the song that are only really playable if you're tuned to open E.

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His Majesty
The tremolo guitar on the studio version is most definitely tuned to open E.
He probably uses standard tuning live so he can play lead lines etc.

Agreed, it's Open E. I play it in open G at our gigs.

Rolling Stones Tribute

Play Rolling Stones

I reckon open E on the original. I've played it in open G, open E and standard tuning over the years and only in open E can you get all of the nuances of the original.

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Christian
For me, it's easier to play it like that:

Is that a tab book of only Stones songs? Where did you get that?

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skipstone
Obviously YOU are gay ASSuming every goddamn thing Keith does is in some open fuc*king tuning. All you have to do is watch how Keith Richards plays it - in STANDARD. Don't be such a self righteous ponce.

And maybe you should acknowledge some people have more knowledge than you. The main rythm part of Gimme Shelter is in open E. At every turnaround at the 12th bar you hear the droning of the low E, which basically defines the song.

And to be really a "ponce": the tuning on Gimme Shelter is dropped, not open.

Mathijs

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Mathijs

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skipstone
Obviously YOU are gay ASSuming every goddamn thing Keith does is in some open fuc*king tuning. All you have to do is watch how Keith Richards plays it - in STANDARD. Don't be such a self righteous ponce.

And maybe you should acknowledge some people have more knowledge than you. The main rythm part of Gimme Shelter is in open E. At every turnaround at the 12th bar you hear the droning of the low E, which basically defines the song.

And to be really a "ponce": the tuning on Gimme Shelter is dropped, not open.

Mathijs

What do you mean dropped? Is that the term for open E or is it in open D or something? I'm not too sure on some of these technical terms.

I've only played it in standard. I know he does the minor fourths but that doesn't have to mean it's open. I'll have a listen. I've always thought it was standard, it sounds it to me. A dropped E? That sounds odd. The key is C#minor, which I know entails an E, but to have it be a main drone on the undernote seems it would not work right.

Watch that BTB video, Keith does it as a bar chord as well as fourths but all in standard (obviously). Open G with a capo, sure. But if you're doing the proper open G tuning then playing the lead bit can be confusing.

And you lot thinking you know more about guitar, you have no idea what I know about guitar or what I do. Not to be too...poncy.

It's late here and I've not read through all the posts, but-----this song is in a minor key? Not on my recordings. I tried doing that and it's not in a minor. But it is late here!!!! Cheers.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2008-03-27 05:10 by 5string.

hey skipstone the guy who knows everyfing about geetar
"open tuning would require a capo since the song is in C#minor with the bottom being an A."
actually it briefly goes to E at the "bottom" hence the advatange of being tuned to E

It's not in a minor key.


It's in C# but the lead guitar parts are played in the C# minor pentatonic scale, but the song itself is in C# major.

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ozstoner
actually it briefly goes to E at the "bottom" hence the advatange of being tuned to E

yeah, it actually needs that note to really sound dark and menacing (and the F# as you go back up to the C#)... if he plays it in open G live--why?

open G i BELIEVE, originated from what was called Hawaiian tuning or "slack key"