Bruce Dickinson

Ruflux said:
I'm pretty sure they said everyone was in drop D, which was kind of a surprise when the song originally came out. I imagine that even includes Steve, since there was no "we all tuned down, well except for Steve" like there was for Mother of Mercy which was also apparently in drop D for all the guitarists.

Of course in practice Davey and Steve just played in E standard live and it works out fine that way too so obviously they didn't exactly rely on it that much. Considering that, I imagine the gnashing of teeth would've been the guys complaining about needing an extra guitar switch live, which is why we ended up with just Adrian and Janick playing in drop D live.
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Mother Of Mercy has the whole guitars tuned a step down, not a drop D tuning.
 
Ruflux said:
I'm pretty sure they said everyone was in drop D, which was kind of a surprise when the song originally came out. I imagine that even includes Steve, since there was no "we all tuned down, well except for Steve" like there was for Mother of Mercy which was also apparently in drop D for all the guitarists.

Of course in practice Davey and Steve just played in E standard live and it works out fine that way too so obviously they didn't exactly rely on it that much. Considering that, I imagine the gnashing of teeth would've been the guys complaining about needing an extra guitar switch live, which is why we ended up with just Adrian and Janick playing in drop D live.
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The guitar in the left channel is tuned to standard on the studio recording (presumably Davey).
 
matic22 said:
Mother Of Mercy has the whole guitars tuned a step down, not a drop D tuning.
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Not according to Adrian, per this interview. I know he mixes D and drop D there, but it's obvious he's referring to drop D since he mentions Bruce's solo work using the tuning a lot. Judging by what he said, I assume they moved the melody down to D, but somehow messed about with it a bit so they could play it with drop D guitars. I mean if it was in D proper, Steve's bass would be completely out of key, so it kind of has to be drop D, doesn't it?
 
Ruflux said:
Not according to Adrian, per this interview. I know he mixes D and drop D there, but it's obvious he's referring to drop D since he mentions Bruce's solo work using the tuning a lot. Judging by what he said, I assume they moved the melody down to D, but somehow messed about with it a bit so they could play it with drop D guitars. I mean if it was in D proper, Steve's bass would be completely out of key, so it kind of has to be drop D, doesn't it?
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It wouldn't be out of key. You just need to move it 2 frets lower :D . It's also possible that Steve tuned a whole step down for that song. What I understand from the interviews is that they played MOM in standard, but it was too high for Bruce to sing, so they tuned lower to D standard. It's also possible that the whole recording was pitch shifted.
 
Perun said:
That sounds likely. Has anyone even heard of Roy Z since 2005?
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He played guitar and were the producer for Rob Halford’s solo album back in 2010, and he also was a part of the touring band. Otherwise, don’t know what else he’s been up to...
 
matic22 said:
It wouldn't be out of key. You just need to move it 2 frets lower :D . It's also possible that Steve tuned a whole step down for that song. What I understand from the interviews is that they played MOM in standard, but it was too high for Bruce to sing, so they tuned lower to D standard. It's also possible that the whole recording was pitch shifted.
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Yeah, but that complicates thing a lot, and I'm not so sure Steve would've been willing to do that. Plus if the bassline goes low enough there's nowhere to go, but admittedly you can just alter it to avoid that.

Either way though, I dunno. To my ears the song doesn't really sound like it's in D standard, it sounds like it's in a lower key than usual, but it just doesn't sound like the guitars are low enough to be in D. Maybe it is, but I just can't hear it. The difference between E standard and D is large enough that it's immediately noticeable, and it just doesn't sound like it's there on Mother of Mercy.
 
Ruflux said:
Yeah, but that complicates thing a lot, and I'm not so sure Steve would've been willing to do that. Plus if the bassline goes low enough there's nowhere to go, but admittedly you can just alter it to avoid that.

Either way though, I dunno. To my ears the song doesn't really sound like it's in D standard, it sounds like it's in a lower key than usual, but it just doesn't sound like the guitars are low enough to be in D. Maybe it is, but I just can't hear it. The difference between E standard and D is large enough that it's immediately noticeable, and it just doesn't sound like it's there on Mother of Mercy.
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The D open chord in standard/drop D always sounds a bit off, because of the nature of the instrument (the 3rd between B and G strings). The open chords at the beginning sound to me like it's a D chord played with the E shape (in standard tuning). I never tried to play the song in both D standard and drop D. Might do just that tomorrow and tell you what I discover (which is more logical way).
 
GhostofCain said:
I once read Bruce mention that he has a few guitars lying around at home in different tunings. I would not be surprised if he had one in drop D...
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matic22 said:
It was Janick who said that. I'm 99% sure of that. That resulted in the intro of The Talsiman, which has 4 different tuned acoustics on it.
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Confirmed Janick is the one with guitars all over his house:

https://www.premierguitar.com/articles/23207-iron-maiden-out-of-thin-air?page=1

This interview is circa TBOS though, so not sure if this detail links directly to The Talisman by any cause-and-effect. The reference for the intro to The Talisman is in the TFF interview already posted by Ruflux above.

(Sorry, off-topic - this is Bruce's thread!)
 
matic22 said:
It was Janick who said that. I'm 99% sure of that. That resulted in the intro of The Talsiman, which has 4 different tuned acoustics on it.
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I remember that too, but Bruce has said a similar thing of having guitars and other musical instruments lying around at home. He also added that he was hoping that would make his kids become interested in music (this was before they joined bands).

Not a strange thing at all being a musician. ;)
 
matic22 said:
The D open chord in standard/drop D always sounds a bit off, because of the nature of the instrument (the 3rd between B and G strings). The open chords at the beginning sound to me like it's a D chord played with the E shape (in standard tuning). I never tried to play the song in both D standard and drop D. Might do just that tomorrow and tell you what I discover (which is more logical way).
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What key is Death or Glory in?

Parts of the rhythm guitar open string chugging on the new live album sound lower than standard tuning.

The reason I mention this is if it is in a different tuning then either Dave or Janick must be tuned that way as you can hear the open string chugging underneath adrians solo.
 
srfc said:
What key is Death or Glory in?

Parts of the rhythm guitar open string chugging on the new live album sound lower than standard tuning.

The reason I mention this is if it is in a different tuning then either Dave or Janick must be tuned that way as you can hear the open string chugging underneath adrians solo.
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Death Or Glory is standard. But there are quite a few key changes; the bridge is in d minor and the solos are in f# minor, while the most of the song is in e minor.
 
GhostofCain said:
I remember that too, but Bruce has said a similar thing of having guitars and other musical instruments lying around at home. He also added that he was hoping that would make his kids become interested in music (this was before they joined bands).

Not a strange thing at all being a musician. ;)
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Can you link to this? It would be interesting to hear what instruments Bruce has got, besides a few guitars and his piano.

Apart from musical instruments, I believe he has said he possesses a real Dalek :D
 
Black Abyss Babe said:
Can you link to this? It would be interesting to hear what instruments Bruce has got, besides a few guitars and his piano.
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I wish I could remember which interview it was!

Here is a picture of Bruce's living room just in case it is of any interest:

https://www.instagram.com/p/BOczuumjVyp/?taken-by=griffindickinson


Black Abyss Babe said:
Apart from musical instruments, I believe he has said he possesses a real Dalek :D
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He does. He also has a massive collection of silly hats. :lol:
 
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