Guitar Set-Up Basics - How to Tune Your Guitar
There are many ways to tune your guitar, using tuning forks, pianos, digital tuners etc.
In this article I'll explain how to use them and what tunings to tune too.
The easiest and most common way to tune a guitar is by using a digital tuner.
They are so cheap right now you can get them for pocket change.
They work simply by picking up the sound of your guitar.
For example you turn the tuner on and play an A, the tuner is looking to hear a frequency of 440Hz, when you strike the A note if its sharp or flat the tuner will tell you which way to turn the tuning peg.
You turn the tuning peg tighter if its flat and loosen it if the note is sharp.
Digital tuners are cheap and great to use, some like the clip on tuners available tune your instruments through vibration and are not effected by other sounds around you, great if you often have to tune up in a loud environment.
Stage Tuners for guitar If you are playing live gigs you want to make sure you are always in tune, nothing is more embarrassing than playing an out of tune instrument to a crowd.
I'd rather play the worse song I've every written in tune to a huge crowd, than a great song out of tune.
It's just embarrassing and you look like a complete idiot.
One of the first pedals you should buy if your planning on playing live gigs is a pedal tuner such as a boss, korg or zoom pedal.
The are designed to take on the full assault of gigging and are easily readable from a distance on the floor, they are also adjustable and will help you tune to any tuning you need on stage.
What tuning to use with a guitar The common standard tuning is EADGBe on a 6 string guitar, this is taken from the classical tuning and has been used for centuries.
This is the tuning that everybody should learn.
Other tuning are used in different styles of playing such as slide you often tune to an open chord such as open G, often referred to as a 'Spanish tuning', the guitar is tuned to DADGBD, when you play all open strings it will be a Maj G chord.
Other tunings are used but for now I'll leave it there, if your new to guitar you don't want to be playing about too much with tunings you really want to concentrate on learning to play in standard tuning.
Finally if you want to learn more about this go to Guitar set-up with Dirty Roger.
In this article I'll explain how to use them and what tunings to tune too.
The easiest and most common way to tune a guitar is by using a digital tuner.
They are so cheap right now you can get them for pocket change.
They work simply by picking up the sound of your guitar.
For example you turn the tuner on and play an A, the tuner is looking to hear a frequency of 440Hz, when you strike the A note if its sharp or flat the tuner will tell you which way to turn the tuning peg.
You turn the tuning peg tighter if its flat and loosen it if the note is sharp.
Digital tuners are cheap and great to use, some like the clip on tuners available tune your instruments through vibration and are not effected by other sounds around you, great if you often have to tune up in a loud environment.
Stage Tuners for guitar If you are playing live gigs you want to make sure you are always in tune, nothing is more embarrassing than playing an out of tune instrument to a crowd.
I'd rather play the worse song I've every written in tune to a huge crowd, than a great song out of tune.
It's just embarrassing and you look like a complete idiot.
One of the first pedals you should buy if your planning on playing live gigs is a pedal tuner such as a boss, korg or zoom pedal.
The are designed to take on the full assault of gigging and are easily readable from a distance on the floor, they are also adjustable and will help you tune to any tuning you need on stage.
What tuning to use with a guitar The common standard tuning is EADGBe on a 6 string guitar, this is taken from the classical tuning and has been used for centuries.
This is the tuning that everybody should learn.
Other tuning are used in different styles of playing such as slide you often tune to an open chord such as open G, often referred to as a 'Spanish tuning', the guitar is tuned to DADGBD, when you play all open strings it will be a Maj G chord.
Other tunings are used but for now I'll leave it there, if your new to guitar you don't want to be playing about too much with tunings you really want to concentrate on learning to play in standard tuning.
Finally if you want to learn more about this go to Guitar set-up with Dirty Roger.
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