Tips & Tricks: The CORRECT Guitar Tuning for Norma Tanega's "You're Dead" / by Music Orange

If you’re both a guitar player and a fan of the FX series “What We Do In the Shadows”, you’ve no doubt tried to pick out the great Norma Tanega tune “You’re Dead” which is used as the series theme song. It’s not too difficult to get close using an open-G tuning, but try to execute some of the riffs that Tanega plays between verses and you’ll soon realize that open-G tuning is not quite right. Here is the tuning I am 99% certain that she uses: D2-G2-F3-A3-B3-D4. One of the riffs that clinched this for me is this one that she plays right after the first verse:

There really is no other way she would have played this. Of course this means you can’t just strum the open strings to get your G chord like you can if you use open-G. You’ll have to play one of these two chords (Tanega plays both at various times) and do that hammer on using your ring finger:

It should also be mentioned that Tanega does not flatpick - she plays fingerstyle and is likely using a thumb pick.

-Michael