Guitar Tuning – Are You Making These Mistakes Too?

A friend of mine came to me and asked me to teach him how to tune his brand new classical guitar. I agreed and wrote him a chart showing him how to do it and asked him to do it by himself so I could help him if he could not ‘feel’ the pitch correctly. After some corrections here and there and a lot of frustration he finally made it and returned home happily.

Early in the morning on the next day he called me and complained to me because now one of his Guitar Tuning peg refused to work, no matter how hard he tighten the peg the tune did not change. Feeling annoyed I had to calm myself and asked him as nice as I could to come again to my house.

He showed up and handed the guitar to me. I checked it, everything looks OK except one string that became very tense. Yes, he turned the wrong peg and ruined my life that day …

Does it sound familiar to you?

Well, I have to admit that sometimes when in rush I did the same stupid mistake. I turn the wrong peg and pick the the out-of-tune string…

Other mistakes that is more technically related is the way you re-string your guitar:

1. New strings tend to go out of tune no matter how good you tune the strings. Always stretch your strings as you are tuning them to pitch. Hold the string being tuned around the 12th fret and pull it away from the acoustic guitar body. Use your power wisely, remember you don’t want to break your string. Classical guitar strings are more difficult to tune compared to the steel acoustic guitar strings.

2. Watch the string condition. A string with broken wrapping material needs replacement immediately. The more it damaged the worse intonation you will get.

3. If you can afford it, get one quality guitar tuner. It will save your time because sometimes you can’t trust your ears.

4. Always tune your guitar up. Even if your guitar string tuning is a bit higher you can not just lower it to the intended pitch. Instead, go low furthermore and then raise the tension up to the desired pitch.

For those of you with tight budget you can always download Guitar Tuning software to your computer or tune the strings online. There are two types of computer based guitar tuners. The first one will give you the reference pitch and you have to use your ears to judge. The second one requires a set of computer microphone. You will be able to see the results on your computer screen, similar to what you see on the real guitar tuners.

Can you visually SEE whether your strings are in tune without the help of the guitar tuners? Yes, I found one good source that briefly explain the process. It is pretty simple method that guides you to see the results. First you have to judge the pitch as usual by your ears and then LOOK at the string to make sure they are in tune. I provide you the link in the signature box for your convenience.

Seeing is believing, I can’t agree more …..

Xavier Arcoix

Visit the Beginner Guitar Lessons Blog to find out more details on easy guitar tuning method that needs no guitar tuners at all.

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Xavier_Arcoix

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