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Half-step Down Songs


GreenDayTheory

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Any Half-step down songs to play on guitar because I recently tuned my guitar to Half-step down and maybe keeping that tuning to my guitar.

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Everything up to Insomniac, (1039/kerplunk weren't accurate turnings but sound better at half step)

Nimrod: take back

Warning: Waiting

21Century Breakdown and Before the lobotomy.  Go a full a step down and you can play Restless Heart Syndrome

Rev Rad: Young Blood

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fun GD fact: dookie isn't exactly in half step tuning. it's close but not exact. every time i play along to basket case in half step it sounds fuckin weird. if you set your guitar tuner to 444hz (if i remember correctly) instead of 440hz then tune to half step down then you got yourself dookie tuning

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9 minutes ago, imXieli said:

fun GD fact: dookie isn't exactly in half step tuning. it's close but not exact. every time i play along to basket case in half step it sounds fuckin weird. if you set your guitar tuner to 444hz (if i remember correctly) instead of 440hz then tune to half step down then you got yourself dookie tuning

Same as the 1039/ kerplunk. In fact if you play the songs from Slappy at like a full step down it sounds better than half a step 

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1,039 was either E standard or D standard. Any track from 1,000 hours is badly tuned but E flat is the closest (even though I think they were aiming for E standard)

Kerplunk-Insomniac are all tuned E-flat

Nimrod is all E standard

Warning - Castaway and Misery are tuned to E flat, the rest are E standard

International Superhits - Maria+Poprock&Coke are on E standard, J.A.R. on E flat

Shenanigans is heavily mixed between E standard and E flat because is has many sessions from many areas, do not attempt to play it from start to finish ever

American Idiot - E standard, Whatsername on Drop D

21st Centublabla - the title track and Before The Lobotomy (maybe See The Light too?) are on E flat and the rest are E standard

Trilogy - all E standard iirc

Rev Rad - don't know

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If you're looking for something to play that isn't Green Day, Rise Against tunes a lot of their songs half step down

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Kerplunk! has some fun one's! Just played One Of My Lies today, so simple, but so good! Android also kicks ass, I just play the basslines on guitar haha

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10 hours ago, imXieli said:

fun GD fact: dookie isn't exactly in half step tuning. it's close but not exact. every time i play along to basket case in half step it sounds fuckin weird. if you set your guitar tuner to 444hz (if i remember correctly) instead of 440hz then tune to half step down then you got yourself dookie tuning

I've never picked up on this but at the same time I don't have a great ear. The album sounds pretty true a half step down to me but I bet you're right since I'm just a hobbyist and not especially skilled. Assuming you're right, is it unusual for a major label release like this to have such unorthodox tuning? Why would this have occurred? Is it as simple as them picking 444hz and saying "well that sounds great" and going with it? Thanks for picking up on this- you learn something new every day!

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16 hours ago, imXieli said:

fun GD fact: dookie isn't exactly in half step tuning. it's close but not exact. every time i play along to basket case in half step it sounds fuckin weird. if you set your guitar tuner to 444hz (if i remember correctly) instead of 440hz then tune to half step down then you got yourself dookie tuning

Never heard that before 

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12 hours ago, TimmyChunks said:

I've never picked up on this but at the same time I don't have a great ear. The album sounds pretty true a half step down to me but I bet you're right since I'm just a hobbyist and not especially skilled. Assuming you're right, is it unusual for a major label release like this to have such unorthodox tuning? Why would this have occurred? Is it as simple as them picking 444hz and saying "well that sounds great" and going with it? Thanks for picking up on this- you learn something new every day!

yeah it's odd it's something you don't really notice until you play along with the song through the same speaker (like my guitar amp has an aux in so i can play along with songs). like i just tested it again a second ago and tuning the guitar to half step down in 444hz matches welcome to paradise exactly. the thing that throws me off for some reason is that if you listen to the studio version and the awesome as fuck live version back to back theres no discernible difference but one would think the boys would be in proper tuning after all these years??

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6 hours ago, imXieli said:

yeah it's odd it's something you don't really notice until you play along with the song through the same speaker (like my guitar amp has an aux in so i can play along with songs). like i just tested it again a second ago and tuning the guitar to half step down in 444hz matches welcome to paradise exactly. the thing that throws me off for some reason is that if you listen to the studio version and the awesome as fuck live version back to back theres no discernible difference but one would think the boys would be in proper tuning after all these years??

True, playing along to Pasalaqua from 1039 and AAF you have to adjust the tuning to make it match the record 

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1 hour ago, Justin said:

True, playing along to Pasalaqua from 1039 and AAF you have to adjust the tuning to make it match the record 

i think pasalacqua is like a quarter step down at 440 or something on the record. like they were aiming for standard and billie couldnt quite hit the notes so they just tuned a bit lower so he could, but for some reason they didnt wanna go all the way to half step down

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Alright, here's the tuning for all the Green Day stuff:

1,000 Hours EP - quarter step down
39/Smooth - E standard
Slappy EP - D standard (except Knowledge in E standard)
Sweet Children EP to Insomniac - Eb (half-step down)
Nimrod - E standard
Warning - E standard (except Castaway and Misery in Eb)
American Idiot - E standard (except Whatsername in Drop D)
21st Century Breakdown - E standard (except the title track and Before the Lobotomy in Eb, Restless Heart Syndrome in D standard)
Trilogy - E standard
Revolution Radio - E standard

You might have to be a little sharp or flat for the early records, but generally these are the right tunings!

As for stuff that isn't GD that's in Eb, Nirvana had a lot of stuff in Eb. Anything from the In Utero era is almost entirely in Eb (except Heart-Shaped Box, All Apologies, I Hate Myself and I Wanna Die and the Unplugged version of On a Plain in Drop C#). A couple of songs from Bleach and Incestiside are Eb too (Floyd the Barber, Paper Cuts, Downer, Beeswax, Mexican Seafood, Hairspray Queen, Aero Zeppelin). The first two Weezer albums are in Eb, pretty much anything by Jimi Hendrix, Alice in Chains, Slayer (post-Haunting the Chapel), Motorhead (post-Overkill). Also, if you're into the Gilman/Lookout scene, a lot of those bands played in Eb too like Crimpshrine (their last EP is a quarter step down though), Tilt, Screeching Weasel's How to Make Enemies and Irritate People album, etc.

There's plenty of stuff in Eb tuning for you to play if you decide to keep your guitar tuned to that! :)
 

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2 minutes ago, Big Cheese said:

Alright, here's the tuning for all the Green Day stuff:

1,000 Hours EP - quarter step down
39/Smooth - E standard
Slappy EP - D standard (except Knowledge in E standard)
Sweet Children EP to Insomniac - Eb (half-step down)
Nimrod - E standard
Warning - E standard (except Castaway and Misery in Eb)
American Idiot - E standard (except Whatsername in Drop D)
21st Century Breakdown - E standard (except the title track and Before the Lobotomy in Eb, Restless Heart Syndrome in D standard)
Trilogy - E standard
Revolution Radio - E standard

You might have to be a little sharp or flat for the early records, but generally these are the right tunings!

As for stuff that isn't GD that's in Eb, Nirvana had a lot of stuff in Eb. Anything from the In Utero era is almost entirely in Eb (except Heart-Shaped Box, All Apologies, I Hate Myself and I Wanna Die and the Unplugged version of On a Plain in Drop C#). A couple of songs from Bleach and Incestiside are Eb too (Floyd the Barber, Paper Cuts, Downer, Beeswax, Mexican Seafood, Hairspray Queen, Aero Zeppelin). The first two Weezer albums are in Eb, pretty much anything by Jimi Hendrix, Alice in Chains, Slayer (post-Haunting the Chapel), Motorhead (post-Overkill). Also, if you're into the Gilman/Lookout scene, a lot of those bands played in Eb too like Crimpshrine (their last EP is a quarter step down though), Tilt, Screeching Weasel's How to Make Enemies and Irritate People album, etc.

There's plenty of stuff in Eb tuning for you to play if you decide to keep your guitar tuned to that! :)
 

You forgot Take Back on Nimrod, Young Blood from Rev Rad and Waiting for Warning. 

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5 minutes ago, Justin said:

You forgot Take Back on Nimrod, Young Blood from Rev Rad and Waiting for Warning. 

No, Take Back and Waiting are in E standard. I'm not sure about Youngblood though, I'd have to listen to it again.

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I think from the videos I saw, Youngblood is half-step down

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1 hour ago, Ric503 said:

I think from the videos I saw, Youngblood is half-step down

It sounds perfectly on E Standard.

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17 hours ago, Justin said:

You forgot Take Back on Nimrod, Young Blood from Rev Rad and Waiting for Warning. 

all of these songs are standard. Waiting is in all different tunings depending on how you see it.sometimes it's standard, other times he plays it in e flat so he can do open chords on the bridge (i, personally, prefer to do this when playing but it's not how it was recorded). at starland ballroom billie played it in standard, but with the chord positioning like it was flat so the song was actually a half step higher.  Billie just chooses to use blue for youngblood, as jason and mike still use their standard tuned instruments and play it in that way. Take Back is basically a typical GD song with four chords so it doesn't really matter, it's just easier to say standard to keep it in style with the album.

 

sorry to everyone about being in this thread like holy hell guitar stuff is kinda my thing lol

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4 hours ago, imXieli said:

all of these songs are standard. Waiting is in all different tunings depending on how you see it.sometimes it's standard, other times he plays it in e flat so he can do open chords on the bridge (i, personally, prefer to do this when playing but it's not how it was recorded). at starland ballroom billie played it in standard, but with the chord positioning like it was flat so the song was actually a half step higher.  Billie just chooses to use blue for youngblood, as jason and mike still use their standard tuned instruments and play it in that way. Take Back is basically a typical GD song with four chords so it doesn't really matter, it's just easier to say standard to keep it in style with the album.

 

sorry to everyone about being in this thread like holy hell guitar stuff is kinda my thing lol

Interesting, I also prefer Waiting in EFlat, I have all the licensed sheet music books and they say those songs are in éflat which was why I thought it was. But they're all interpretations 

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10 hours ago, imXieli said:

all of these songs are standard. Waiting is in all different tunings depending on how you see it.sometimes it's standard, other times he plays it in e flat so he can do open chords on the bridge (i, personally, prefer to do this when playing but it's not how it was recorded). at starland ballroom billie played it in standard, but with the chord positioning like it was flat so the song was actually a half step higher.  Billie just chooses to use blue for youngblood, as jason and mike still use their standard tuned instruments and play it in that way. Take Back is basically a typical GD song with four chords so it doesn't really matter, it's just easier to say standard to keep it in style with the album.

 

sorry to everyone about being in this thread like holy hell guitar stuff is kinda my thing lol

If he uses it for Blue,it should be 1 fret higher and it works fine.

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22 hours ago, Justin said:

Interesting, I also prefer Waiting in EFlat, I have all the licensed sheet music books and they say those songs are in éflat which was why I thought it was. But they're all interpretations 

have you looked at the dookie book? burnout says its in standard lol. i personally don't trust those no matter how "official" they are

16 hours ago, GreenDayTheory said:

If he uses it for Blue,it should be 1 fret higher and it works fine.

exactly. jason and mike play the main riff like this tuned to standard

      C#5    F#5  G#5
E|-----------------------|
B|-----------------------|
G|--6-6-6---------------|
D|--6-6-6--4-4--6-6-6-|
A|--4-4-4--4-4--6-6-6-|
E|----------2-2--4-4-4-|

billie plays it like so tuned to eflat

     D5       G5     A5
eb|------------------------|
Bb|------------------------|
F#|--7-7-7---------------|
C#|--7-7-7--5-5--7-7-7-|
G#|--5-5-5--5-5--7-7-7-|
Eb|----------3-3--5-5-5-|

OR like this (it's open chords, billie plays like this a lot if he can i've noticed)

        D       G     A
eb|--2-2-2--3-3----------|
Bb|--3-3-3--3-3--2-2-2-|
F#|--2-2-2--0-0--2-2-2-|
C#|--0-0-0--0-0--2-2-2-|
G#|----------x-x--0-0-0-|
Eb|-----------3-3---------|

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On June 22, 2017 at 5:05 AM, imXieli said:

have you looked at the dookie book? burnout says its in standard lol. i personally don't trust those no matter how "official" they are

exactly. jason and mike play the main riff like this tuned to standard

      C#5    F#5  G#5
E|-----------------------|
B|-----------------------|
G|--6-6-6---------------|
D|--6-6-6--4-4--6-6-6-|
A|--4-4-4--4-4--6-6-6-|
E|----------2-2--4-4-4-|

billie plays it like so tuned to eflat

     D5       G5     A5
eb|------------------------|
Bb|------------------------|
F#|--7-7-7---------------|
C#|--7-7-7--5-5--7-7-7-|
G#|--5-5-5--5-5--7-7-7-|
Eb|----------3-3--5-5-5-|

OR like this (it's open chords, billie plays like this a lot if he can i've noticed)

        D       G     A
eb|--2-2-2--3-3----------|
Bb|--3-3-3--3-3--2-2-2-|
F#|--2-2-2--0-0--2-2-2-|
C#|--0-0-0--0-0--2-2-2-|
G#|----------x-x--0-0-0-|
Eb|-----------3-3---------|

Lol i can't try this right now i broke a string 

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I prefer having my acoustic guitar tuned in Eb all the time. I just keep a capo with me at all times and put it on the first fret when necessary.

I just like the sound of slightly looser strings better :)

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