Your Guitar

Learn How To Tune Guitars-Your First Stop To Fame And Fortune

It's been through three wives. To me a guitar is kind of like a woman. You don't know why you like 'em but you do.
Waylon Jennings on his Telecaster

An important part of playing the guitar is knowing how to tune guitar. If your guitar is out of tune, then everything you play will sound lousy, and no one will want to listen, including yourself. You should tune your guitar each time you pick it up to play.

Learning how to tune guitars doesn't have to be difficult. For beginners, it can seem complicated at first, but that's usually because your ear hasn't developed the sensitivity to pitch that more advanced players have. Here are a few pointers on how to tune guitar.

Before you can even begin to learn how to tune guitar, you'll need a tuner. A tuner can be a tuning fork, a piano, or an electronic tuner (available at most music stores). Developing your skills in how to tune guitars can get better over time and with practice.

Tuning up is more effective than tuning down. In your quest to learn how to tune guitar, you'll learn that tuning the instrument means nothing more than tightening each string to get it to the correct tone. It's easier to get the right tone by tightening the string (tuning up) than it is by loosening the string (tuning down). Anyone who knows how to tune guitar will always tune up.
Standard tuning, used in most guitar-playing situations, means you'll tune your guitar strings to E, A, D, G, B, and E (going low to high). Once you master how to tune guitar to standard tuning, you can play around with alternate tunings to see what results you get.

There is a concept known as relative tuning, which means that you can adjust your guitar to be in tune with itself, and even if the E doesn't perfectly match the E tone on another instrument, you'll be fine as long as the strings are in tune with each other. This only works when you're playing alone, and not trying to play along with a piano or other instrument. When someone shows you how to tune guitars, you'll most likely tune your guitar to that other person's tones.

You can learn how to tune guitars by using a book, as long as it has an accompanying CD or audio source. You can also learn how to tune guitars by downloading instructions and a pitch tone from the Internet. Some people learn how to tune guitars with a pitch pipe or electronic tuner from a music store.

Learning how to tune guitars by ear will probably take some time and a lot of practice. The more you play and tune your guitar, the more accustomed you'll be to the correct tones. Over time, you'll probably know how to tune guitars pretty well without the need for a lot of fancy equipment. Before you know it your guitar will be i tune and you will be ready to how to strum the guitar. There will be no stopping you now!