Tuning your guitar to itself is where you tune each string to another string on the guitar. It means that you can tune the guitar without having to use a tuner or pitch tool. More info at Online Guitar Tuning.
Acoustic Guitar Tuners
is a site that takes the terror out of guitar tuning with interesting articles and videos.
Changing your guitar strings goes hand in hand with tuning your guitar. How To Change Electric Guitar Strings has loads of info on when, why and how you should change guitar strings.
Showing posts with label how to tune a guitar. Show all posts
Showing posts with label how to tune a guitar. Show all posts
Monday, March 9, 2009
Sunday, June 1, 2008
Tuning a Guitar - The Definitive Guide
By [http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Iain_James]Iain James
Everyone likes to think that they can tune a guitar perfectly by ear every time. Very, very few can. The guitar is never ever 100% in tune anyway. It's to do with Pythagorean tuning and Tempered tuning, and... now's not the time. We can, however, improve our tuning.
I know tons of players who just give the guitar a rudimentary tune, and don't even bother to get it up to pitch. Just as long as the strings are roughly in tune with each oher, they don't seem to mind.
The easiest way is, of course to use a tuner. An electronic tuner is good, or try an online tuner.
So which gives the best results? An electronic tuner, where it's all visual, or an online one, where you can hear the note that you're tuning to? It's hard to say really, and a lot depends on the individual player using it. One thing thats for certain though, is this: when you use a tuner like the one above, you're using your ears!! I can't believe that staring at the flickering gauge on an electronic tuner does anything to benefit your musicality.
But what about stage tuning? At a gig? I don't know, but if you go to hear an orchestra, someone usually gives our a 'C' and everyone else tunes to it. I remember seeing the CBSO orchestra rehearse once. Sir Simon Rattle asked one of the Clarinets for a 'C'. The clarinetist had a really wide vibrato. When he'd finished the note, Sir Simon said 'Gentlemen, take your pick..'
What Not To Do
The most common mistake I see when watching people tune is this: tuning the 'A' string to the 'E', then tuning the 'D' string to the 'A'. This is terrible!! What happens here is that minor mistakes in tuning are passed on and amplified. By the time you get to tune the low 'E', it's so far away from the high 'E' as to be ridiculous.You've heard of 'Chinese Whispers'...
Here's My Method.
First of all, take a look at this 'tab' of the guitar neck. Just to clarify, when we say 'top', we mean the thinest string. farthest away from you s you hold the guitar in the playing position. Ergo 'lowest' is the thickest string, closest to you. Looks like this:
E------- THINNEST STRING -------
B--------------------------------------
G--------------------------------------
D--------------------------------------
A--------------------------------------
E------- THICKEST STRING -------
Find a point of referance. By that, i mean one note that you can tune to. Like what? Well, my doorbell is C sharp. (Telephones used to ring at C sharp too. It's considered an 'annoying' note thats hard to ignore). Maybe you have something on your mobile phone you can tune your high 'E' to. If you can't find anything, just guess. Here's the method:
1. Get the top 'E' to pitch.
2. Fret the 'B' string at the 5th fret, and tune it to the open 'E'.
3. Fret the high 'E' at the third fret, and tune the 'G' string to this.
4. On the 'D' string, play the note at the 2nd fret, and tune to the open 'E'.
5. On the 'A' string, play the note at the 7th fret*, and tune this to the open 'E'.
6. On the low 'E' string, play the harmonic at the 12th fret, and tune this to the high 'E'.
*(Carefull here: don't use the 7th fret harmonic: The harmonic at the 7th is a Pythagorean 5th, whereas the note at the 7th is an equal tempered 5th. Use the harmonic, and you'll be practically guaranteed to put the guitar out of tune.)
So, you can see what's going on here. Each individual string is being tunes to the high 'E', so that any imperfections aren't being passed from string to string. It works!
Iain James. february, 2007
This article may be viewed in it's original form at: [http://www.lickoftheday.com/tech/tuning.html]lickoftheday.com
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Iain_James http://EzineArticles.com/?Tuning-a-Guitar----The-Definitive-Guide&id=551697
Everyone likes to think that they can tune a guitar perfectly by ear every time. Very, very few can. The guitar is never ever 100% in tune anyway. It's to do with Pythagorean tuning and Tempered tuning, and... now's not the time. We can, however, improve our tuning.
I know tons of players who just give the guitar a rudimentary tune, and don't even bother to get it up to pitch. Just as long as the strings are roughly in tune with each oher, they don't seem to mind.
The easiest way is, of course to use a tuner. An electronic tuner is good, or try an online tuner.
So which gives the best results? An electronic tuner, where it's all visual, or an online one, where you can hear the note that you're tuning to? It's hard to say really, and a lot depends on the individual player using it. One thing thats for certain though, is this: when you use a tuner like the one above, you're using your ears!! I can't believe that staring at the flickering gauge on an electronic tuner does anything to benefit your musicality.
But what about stage tuning? At a gig? I don't know, but if you go to hear an orchestra, someone usually gives our a 'C' and everyone else tunes to it. I remember seeing the CBSO orchestra rehearse once. Sir Simon Rattle asked one of the Clarinets for a 'C'. The clarinetist had a really wide vibrato. When he'd finished the note, Sir Simon said 'Gentlemen, take your pick..'
What Not To Do
The most common mistake I see when watching people tune is this: tuning the 'A' string to the 'E', then tuning the 'D' string to the 'A'. This is terrible!! What happens here is that minor mistakes in tuning are passed on and amplified. By the time you get to tune the low 'E', it's so far away from the high 'E' as to be ridiculous.You've heard of 'Chinese Whispers'...
Here's My Method.
First of all, take a look at this 'tab' of the guitar neck. Just to clarify, when we say 'top', we mean the thinest string. farthest away from you s you hold the guitar in the playing position. Ergo 'lowest' is the thickest string, closest to you. Looks like this:
E------- THINNEST STRING -------
B--------------------------------------
G--------------------------------------
D--------------------------------------
A--------------------------------------
E------- THICKEST STRING -------
Find a point of referance. By that, i mean one note that you can tune to. Like what? Well, my doorbell is C sharp. (Telephones used to ring at C sharp too. It's considered an 'annoying' note thats hard to ignore). Maybe you have something on your mobile phone you can tune your high 'E' to. If you can't find anything, just guess. Here's the method:
1. Get the top 'E' to pitch.
2. Fret the 'B' string at the 5th fret, and tune it to the open 'E'.
3. Fret the high 'E' at the third fret, and tune the 'G' string to this.
4. On the 'D' string, play the note at the 2nd fret, and tune to the open 'E'.
5. On the 'A' string, play the note at the 7th fret*, and tune this to the open 'E'.
6. On the low 'E' string, play the harmonic at the 12th fret, and tune this to the high 'E'.
*(Carefull here: don't use the 7th fret harmonic: The harmonic at the 7th is a Pythagorean 5th, whereas the note at the 7th is an equal tempered 5th. Use the harmonic, and you'll be practically guaranteed to put the guitar out of tune.)
So, you can see what's going on here. Each individual string is being tunes to the high 'E', so that any imperfections aren't being passed from string to string. It works!
Iain James. february, 2007
This article may be viewed in it's original form at: [http://www.lickoftheday.com/tech/tuning.html]lickoftheday.com
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Iain_James http://EzineArticles.com/?Tuning-a-Guitar----The-Definitive-Guide&id=551697
Tuesday, January 1, 2008
How To Tune A Guitar
By [http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Bruce_Stewart]Bruce Stewart
Feeling frustrated and wanting to play music that actually sounds good, what really counts when you are playing is that your guitar is in tune with itself and any other instruments you might happen to be playing with. Learning how to tune a guitar is the single most important concept for a beginning guitarist to learn. Unfortunately it can and is often a first stumbling block, the real reason most new guitarists tend to sound bad is most likely because the instrument isn’t in tune. How to tune a guitar will help you keep your guitar in tune you will always sound great, if your guitar is not in tune you will never sound good. Check the tuning frequently especially while practicing, the act of playing the guitar causes it to go out of tune, you should get into the habit of tuning your guitar each time you pick it up to play.
You can tune your guitar a number of different ways and it is highly recommended that every musician own some sort of electric tuner, this is the easiest and most accurate way. You can find tuners that work with electric guitar, acoustic, or both. By becoming familiar with how to tune a guitar, the more quickly you’ll be able to do it with practice many guitarists can get their instruments tuned in one minute.
As previously stated it is recommended that some form of electronic tuner is helpful. However it is strongly suggested that you learn to tune a guitar with one note off a fixed source by ear this will train your ear to the pitch of each note, by tuning your guitar you are correcting the pitch of each string. The electronic tuner listens to the pitch of each string as you strum it one string at a time, and generally uses an easy to understand display, this lets you know if the pitch is too high or too low. Knowing how to tune the guitar by ear is extremely valuable especially at times when you don’t have access to another device.
All the practice and the best technique in the world will not help what your playing sound right if your guitar is out of tune, the major difference between a good sounding chord and one that sounds just awful is in the art of tuning. How to tune a guitar will serve as a foundation for an ongoing experience which will have you playing any guitar style confidently, play anytime no problem. http://howtotuneaguitar.wordpress.com/
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Bruce_Stewart http://EzineArticles.com/?How-To-Tune-A-Guitar&id=711114
Feeling frustrated and wanting to play music that actually sounds good, what really counts when you are playing is that your guitar is in tune with itself and any other instruments you might happen to be playing with. Learning how to tune a guitar is the single most important concept for a beginning guitarist to learn. Unfortunately it can and is often a first stumbling block, the real reason most new guitarists tend to sound bad is most likely because the instrument isn’t in tune. How to tune a guitar will help you keep your guitar in tune you will always sound great, if your guitar is not in tune you will never sound good. Check the tuning frequently especially while practicing, the act of playing the guitar causes it to go out of tune, you should get into the habit of tuning your guitar each time you pick it up to play.
You can tune your guitar a number of different ways and it is highly recommended that every musician own some sort of electric tuner, this is the easiest and most accurate way. You can find tuners that work with electric guitar, acoustic, or both. By becoming familiar with how to tune a guitar, the more quickly you’ll be able to do it with practice many guitarists can get their instruments tuned in one minute.
As previously stated it is recommended that some form of electronic tuner is helpful. However it is strongly suggested that you learn to tune a guitar with one note off a fixed source by ear this will train your ear to the pitch of each note, by tuning your guitar you are correcting the pitch of each string. The electronic tuner listens to the pitch of each string as you strum it one string at a time, and generally uses an easy to understand display, this lets you know if the pitch is too high or too low. Knowing how to tune the guitar by ear is extremely valuable especially at times when you don’t have access to another device.
All the practice and the best technique in the world will not help what your playing sound right if your guitar is out of tune, the major difference between a good sounding chord and one that sounds just awful is in the art of tuning. How to tune a guitar will serve as a foundation for an ongoing experience which will have you playing any guitar style confidently, play anytime no problem. http://howtotuneaguitar.wordpress.com/
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Bruce_Stewart http://EzineArticles.com/?How-To-Tune-A-Guitar&id=711114
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