When you’re a guitarist, you understand how essential it truly is to have a good sense of pitch so that you can keep your instrument in tune. Few things are worse than playing a chord and finding there’s 2 strings so flat they seem like they’ve been run over by a steamroller.

Learning how to make your guitar in tune may help you develop that sense of pitch, as you come to recognize what exactly a well-tuned guitar sounds like. To be honest, anyone can twist their tuning peg till the light turns green rather than red, however when you can tell your strings are properly pitched without mechanical aid you’re starting to get somewhere.

Here are three different ways to tune a guitar without an electronic tuner.

1. Matching pitches with another instrument (simplest)

The best system of tuning for a beginner is simply to acquire the pitches from someone playing another instrument.

Bear in mind, if you are playing with an instrumentalist who’s got to transpose you will have to request concert pitches. That means someone who’s playing an E-flat saxophone needs to play their A to sound your C. For the strings of the guitar, he’d need to play C#, F#, B, E, G#, and another C#.

Just turn the peg to match pitch with each new note the other player gives you.

2. Fretting the notes for the next string (intermediate)

This might be the most well-known method. Just fret the lower string for the note for the open higher string. So if you’re tuning the G string you have to play the D string on fret 5, and pluck both strings. Then tune the G string to match.

Bear in mind, in the event you press too much on the string it’s going to make it go out of tune. You will need to ensure that you’re relaxed, and pressing the strings as lightly as possible to get a clear tone. It’s also advisable to be sure to have one string in tune before starting to get a reference pitch. Of course, your strings themselves matter too. You always want to be sure, for example if you’re playing acoustic, that you have the best acoustic guitar strings available.

Every string is going to be tuned to the pitch of the next lower string when played on the 5th fret except the B string. To tune the B string, play the G string while holding it down on the 4th fret. Once you’re finished tuning all the strings, play a number of chords to be certain the entire instrument is in tune.

3. Tuning with harmonics (advanced)

To accomplish this properly, you should know how to play natural harmonics. To play a harmonic, lightly touch a string at the 12th, 7th, or 5th fret and pluck it. You’ll hear a natural harmonic either an octave (12th fret), an octave and a fifth (7th fret), or two octaves (5th fret) above the open string.

The low E string played with a natural harmonic two octaves above the open string pitch (or fundamental) will produce the same pitch as the A string played with a natural harmonic an octave and a fifth above the fundamental – an E, equal to the pitch of the open high E string.

Go on up the strings, tuning the A, D, and G strings in this way. As usual, B will be the odd string out. To tune the B string, play the low E string with a harmonic on the 7th fret and pluck the B string open. Adjust the B string to correspond with the pitch of the harmonic. After that you can tune the high E to the B in harmonics.

If you decide to discover ways to tune wthout using a tuner, you should establish a better pitch sense along with other skills which will greatly improve your musical abilities. This helps whenever you play with other musicians, along with making other adjustments alone. All these three methods of tuning will help hone your skills in one way or another.

 Mail this post