How to Tune a Guitar or Bass

One of the first steps after buying and making the decision to learn to play guitar, is learning how to actually tune it. The good news is that the methods are a plenty, the hard part is finding the right one.

There are many different ways to go about tuning a guitar, and over time I suggest that you learn all of them, just so that you are that much more empowered with guitar knowledge. How to tune a guitar is relatively simple depending on the route you take.

Using a piano

The piano method is how I learned to tune my own guitar when I first started, but I don't recommend this. First of all, you'll need to know how to locate middle E, and second, if you're using a piano - there's a good chance that the piano itself may be out of tune. A keyboard will work best, but again you need to have some prior knowledge of the layout of the keys, and will need to know the names of the strings on your guitar in order to tune them correctly.

Using a tuning fork

You can use a tuning fork, but this takes a little patience and practice, plus the pitches may throw you off guard and lead you down the wrong path if you are just getting started.

Using harmonics

If you are a beginner then you will definitely want to skip this one. This process involves using natural harmonics, but is typically used by more experienced guitar players to double check themselves. This isn't the most accurate method, because if the strings are kind of old then the harmonics will throw off the pitch.

Using other people

That one sounds kind of like a joke, but having someone else to tune to can be quite popular. The biggest problem with this is having to rely upon the other guy. Some people are even so sure that they are in tune, but we're trying to rule out the easiest and best method here.

Using a digital tuner

This is probably the most desirable method, as its easy and takes the guess work out of. Typically a tuner will have a little needle with a set of numbers. You'll have negative and positive numbers, with a zero in the middle. With each string that you try to tune, you want to get the needle as close to that zero as possible. If its a little off - no big deal, but you just want the needle, or in some cases a green light, to show up.

You can download a tuner like this completely for free on the internet, but there have been rumors that these aren't always the most accurate. Investing a small amount of money can get you a tuner that you and your friends can both use, and in a lot of cases they usually come with certain effect pedal boards, or even amps.

About the Author

Jon loves to teach and playing guitar. He is very active in the composing and recording process, and is a movie fanatic.
If you need direction to learn and master guitar, help with strings, tuning, learning chord to learn and master guitar, then I highly recommend that you get professional instruction to a learn and master guitar

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