Learning how to tune your guitar is ranked among the most significant skills that an experienced guitarist cum singer should have. This skill will strengthen your ability for ear training of the guitar. As a guitar player you are supposed to be responsible for your guitar and if you undertake to tune your guitar on your own will make your ear sensitive to all sounds coming from the guitar you are using. Hence it will help to make your guitar playing skills fast.
Table of Contents
Why Learning How to Tune Your Guitar Is So Important For Every Guitar Player?
Tuning the guitar is an important feature to be thoroughly mastered right from the beginning. Only if the strings are tuned to the correct pitch will it able to produce the musical sounds required. Hence, it is always better to learn how to tune your guitar, so that you become independent. Let me give you some tips on the guitar tuning.
Electronic tuners are available in all musical stores which will help you to tune your guitar. Alternately you can get the tuning done by paying. This, of course, is an expensive proposition. It is always better to learn to tune your guitar. Some music stores teach you this skill for free, and some of them charge a nominal fee. Any which ways, the guitar is your instrument, and you get the best feel of it, and if you learn to tune it the result will be better, and you can pick up the guitar and play whenever you want.
In music, nothing compares to having an instrument that is playing and staying in tune perfectly. A guitar that is not only in tune will not only be painful too but will also be painful to the listeners and making it have a great tune can be both a time-consuming and frustrating process for amateurs. We advise that getting the perfect tune should be done along with picking, chording, fretting of the instrument. Tuning is defined as the process entailing the manipulation of a guitar’s tuning pegs to ensure that every string rings at the guitar’s correct pitch or note. Three key ways exist for doing this: electronic tuning, reference tuning, and relative tuning. The above processes are similar regardless of the type of guitar: acoustic or electric, whether it makes use of steel or nylon strings.
A Guitar Can Be Tuned To Various Notes
Finger stylists, as well as blues players, are known to use altered tunings. Nevertheless, a guitar tuning that is standard exists, and every guitar student should start with it. The tuning entails low on to the high, E, A, D, G, B and E. The E that is high when using a piano, the E that is above the middle C directly. From there, the tuning goes downward.
Guitar Strings And Tuning Order
As you know the guitar strings are E, A, D, G, B, and E. Always start with tuning the bottom E to the pitch required and follow up with A which is the second string from the bottom, then D which is the third-string from the bottom. Again follow up with G which is the fourth string from the bottom and then the B which is naturally the fifth string from the bottom. Finally, you should tune the top string which is the high E string. You will note that the high E string is the thinnest string and the bottom E string is the thickest. Remember, that when you turn the tuning peg to tighten the string, the pitch becomes higher and when you loosen the string the pitch becomes lower.
Methods of Tuning Your Guitar
1) Reference Tuning
Reference tuning refers to the tuning of the strings of the guitar to a different source like another guitar, pitch pipe or piano. The pitch known as the reference is played first then comes to the pitch that is referred to as corresponding (commonly a string that is open) upon the guitar. The pegs used for tuning are subsequently turned to either the right or left side, moving the pitch’s string down or up until the reference instrument’s pitch, as well as the guitar’s pitch, is the same. This is most likely the hardest method, and it is advisable to get a knowledgeable person to work with you twice until you grasp it.
2) Relative Tuning
Relative tuning presents the procedure involved in making your guitar tune to itself. Chords and notes will have just the right sound so long as the player’s guitar is not playing with others. , but the whole guitar’s pitch could be too low or too high when in comparison with another instrument. Play the string of the E that is on the lower side, then playing the string of A open follows. The two pitches should be similar. Move the A string’s tuning key either sharp or flat as needed until when the two strings ring simultaneously at the very same pitch. Repeat the procedure for the guitar’s width except for the B or second string. For the tuning of this string, playing should be done onto the G or third string on the guitar’s fourth fret. Go back to fret number five for the tuning of the string of the high E.
3) Electronic Tuning
For the guitar player who is just starting out, electronic tuning presents the simplest form for the guitar player to plaster. This approach makes use of a music electronic tuner to find the right pitches. Electronic tuners can be found in music stores and retail for $20-35. Commonly, where these things are concerned, whatever you pay for is what you get, and sadly the most expensive tuners are usually the easiest to use and the most accurate as well. Buy the best affordable tuner model you can find as it will ultimately be worthwhile. While every tuner model is different in the way it operates, the common principle goes for every model. Refer to the operation manual for your tuner for the instructions that go with your model specifically. Most of the electronic tuners come with two different models: manual and automatic.
4) Auto Mode Tuning
The auto mode tuning method is more suitable for experienced guitarists. And its assumption is that the strings you are using are sensibly close to having the ideal tune. As regards to this discussion, only the old-fashioned kind of mode will be covered. Commonly where this mode is concerned, you choose that you want to tune by ensuring that you hit the up as well as down buttons that are on the tuner you are using. Ensure that the tuner and guitar are very close, where an electric music tuner is concerned; it needs to be connected physically to your guitar using an instrument cable measuring ¼”. Continue playing the string several times to see whether the tuner shows a sharp or flat for the chosen note. While playing the specific note, change the string’s peg that is used for tuning using your free hand, and this should continue until there is an indication of tuning of the particular string. Commonly, this is shown using a light that is green in color coming on.
5) Alternative Method: Tuning Your Guitar Online
It was a long search for me to find proper information about how to tune my guitar online. Before starting, however, let me tell you that tuning a guitar is the same thing as tuning the individual strings on it. The order of the strings to be tuned is from top to bottom: E-A-D-G-B-E.
- Speaking of the strings, let’s talk about their relative positions. The low E which is located below the middle C is the first E note.
- The next string which is below the first one is called A and it is also below middle C.
- D is the third-string and it is just below A in the guitar. It is positioned above middle C.
- G, which is the fourth string and just below D, is also above the middle C.
- The fifth string called B is again going to be above middle C.
- The bottommost string is the sixth string and it is another E. This note is the second E note after the middle C. This makes its distance with the first note two octaves.
Don’t let this confusing information scare you. You will find it useful when you try to understand the benefit you can get from online guitar tuning services.
Electronic Tuning VS Online Tuner? Which One Is Better?
This was the question that has been eating my mind when I first started to look for information about how to tune my guitar online. If you have some money you can spare, you may find buying an electronic guitar tuner handy. It is not so possible to travel with a computer for every gig that you are going to be playing. And this is a very true assumption for many musicians out there. However, with the wide usage of the internet these days, you can turn an iPhone into an electronic guitar tuner within a matter of seconds. The Internet can also supply you with many guitar song tabs and chords and even lyrics. The online guitar tuning services mean to you that whenever you can connect to the internet, you can actually tune your guitar and do even more with other music material. There is always a possibility that you will find an electronic guitar tuner useful, but the online guitar tuners have a better positive effect on the ear training of the guitar players.
Where Can I Find A Quality Guitar Tuner?
The internet houses many fine quality online guitar tuners that you can use to your advantage. It was the thing that I discovered when I looked for how to tune my guitar online. Google search about the online guitar tuners can alone yield more websites than you can ever visit. There are some criteria that you should be aware of when you are trying to find a suitable online guitar tuning website. You need to check out the note quality of each string that has a digital sound on the website.
If the pitch is not noisy enough, you will not be able to hear it very clearly while trying to tune that string. If it is loud enough, it will help you to have an idea of how the sounds compare, so you are going to be able to get the pitch that is correct for the real guitar. If the website can provide some sustain also, it will come handy when you are making your final adjustments with your tuning because it gives you some time to check the sounds of your guitar with the website. It is also cool if you happen to find a website that offers open tunings or modal tunings. If you are a guitar player who likes to play the guitar with drop tunings or a special tuning, you will benefit from the website’s specialty well. Anyway, it is a great thing to know that you always have a large number of online guitar tuners ready to help you out with the tuning process.
I hope it is useful for someone to know what I had gathered as knowledge when I started to look for how to tune my guitar online.
Leave a Reply