What is your tuning song?

Jack_

I assume this isn't mutually exclusive to moi.

What song do you use as reference for tuning a guitar without a tuner?

For me it's Guerrilla Radio by RATM, 2nd fret E, open E, 2nd Fret A - I can always use this to get the top E to a relatively good pitch, to then work from using the traditional octaves method.

RandallFlagg

The Jam - Mr Clean, tune open D and the rest from there

usedtobe

I use a tuner.

TTBZ

RATM Know Your Enemy main riff for me

CHRISB50

I tend to use a tuner but ALWAYS strum Gmaj > Dmaj > Cmaj > Emin when I've just finished tuning. It's the law.

proggy

When I've tuned up I always strum an E chord, for some reason it's easier for me to hear if any strings need tweaking.

Don't know why!

Alnico

In my head without a tuner or the record:

So far away - E
Johnny B Goode - A
Rock n Roll - D
Ticket to ride - G
Hotel California - B

It won't be as accurate as a tuner, nothing ever is but if i'm stuck without one they're the songs i hear in my head to tune to.

My 'In tune' chord is G but i add the D in at the 3rd fret on the B string because it sounds a bit more full.

When i use a tuner, i still have to check the G chord to hear it's right.

guitargeek62

440Hz - I can tune to within a few cents from a slack string, and then the rest from there. Close enough for rock 'n roll anyways!

axisus

What is this tuning of which you speak?

EricTheWeary

Well I use a tuner but if by ear I'll play the bassline to The Chain and tune up from there. I'll also play an open G chord slowly as a quick check.

guitarfishbay

Given there are phone app tuners I guess this isn't a much of a thing anymore. Saying that I can usually get quite close to a B (my low string) by ear and a bit of feel (as in his tight the string feels).

olafgarten

I play riffs, first Day Tripper, and then Ohio (But without the Bass Note), and then I strum the chords of Hotel Yorba (G, C, D) 

Voxman

I pick out the notes of a GMaj7, CMaj7 and DMaj7 chord and sometimes do the intro picking to Stairway.  

DulcetJones

Our vocalist used to gab a little between every "mini-set" of 3 songs, I tuned silently with a tuner plugged into the volume pedal's extra out for just that purpose during these verbal assaults on the audience.  So, no.

RocknRollDave

First chord is ALWAYS the "Hendrix chord"...E7b9 or whatever it is...you know the one.

Dunno why. 

Open G is the best chord to check tuning with, though, nowhere for those out-of-tune strings to hide with that one.

Sassafras

I've often said that tuning is overrated.
As long as all the strings are roughly the same tension, that's enough for me.

paul_c2

WTF is, or is the need for, a "tuning song"? It reads like some people are becoming over-reliant on electronic tuners, and don't have a clue what's actually needed, or how to tune the instrument to either itself, or other instruments or references, which is worrying.

KKJale

^I think what the OP is talking about is the OPPOSITE to relying on an electronic tuner. 

A "tuning song" is a song you know so well, internally, that you can sing the first note or the root note to the first chord to within a few cents, every time, without reference to anything... and then use that to rough-tune a completely out-of-tune guitar. In other words, it's a technique for reproducing, or faking, perfect pitch on one specific note.

My "tuning song" used to be the extremely obscure but rather lovely Faded Glamour by Animals That Swim. Lovely big fat chiming D chord intro... I could hit that on the nail just about every time.

I've let the talent slip of late, though. 

paul_c2

But you don't need an entire song to tune a guitar - you just need to know how to tune a guitar.

Voxman

Tune a guitar? - Sorry, you've lost me...

CountryDave

Livin on a Prayer - E
Wanted Dead or Alive - D

Sorry, I'm a child of the 80's

There's also the following (if you want to be just far enough from 440 for it to grate a little).
Take it Easy - nearly G
Layla (intro riff) - almost, but not quite A