Tuning an electric guitar should be done using a tuner. Consistently using an electric guitar tuner is one of the best practices that a beginning guitarist can follow. One way to understand the value of an electric guitar tuner is to look to professional guitarists. Most professional guitarists use an electric guitar tuner because they appreciate how important it is to be in tune and they understand that relying on an electric guitar tuner is the best way to get, and stay, in tune.
"Tuning" a guitar refers to the process of precisely adjusting each string to produce the correct note. In order to accomplish this, a "reference pitch" is necessary. A reference pitch is a correct note to which the guitar may be adjusted (either higher or lower) until it perfectly matches. The reference pitch may come from another instrument, such as a piano or another guitar, or a tuning device, such as a tuning fork or pitch pipe. Many electronic guitar tuners also feature a reference pitch emitter for tuning by ear. However, making accurate adjustments by ear can be challenging, and even frustrating, especially for beginning musicians.
Some parts of playing the guitar are obvious, for example: fretting chords, picking, strumming, etc. What is not so obvious is that developing a musical ear is just as important. For a beginner to really improve his or her musical ear, it is essential to consistently play in tune.
Double Dropped Tunings: Have the sixth and first strings tuned down one full step.
It used to be that many people used the Boss TU-2 electric guitar tuner as their go-to tuner. There was a problem with the TU-2, however. It was only accurate to +/- 3 cents (a cent refers to 1/100 of the distance between consecutive notes). If you have a highly trained musical ear, you can hear a 3 cents difference. Making matters worse, when two guitarists play together, each guitarist usually has his or her own tuner. If they each had a TU-2 electric guitar tuner, the two guitars could be out of tune as much as 6 cents with respect to each other.
There are many cheap "entry level" tuners, but be careful, as you may end up frustrated by a tuner that is unable to correctly determine the pitch of your strings.
Despite the good accuracy, there were a couple problems with the Peterson strobe tuners, however. First, they were just downright expensive. Second, the quality of the product was not always high. There are a number of stories on the web where people have bought these tuners and they stopped working in relatively short order.
"Tuning" a guitar refers to the process of precisely adjusting each string to produce the correct note. In order to accomplish this, a "reference pitch" is necessary. A reference pitch is a correct note to which the guitar may be adjusted (either higher or lower) until it perfectly matches. The reference pitch may come from another instrument, such as a piano or another guitar, or a tuning device, such as a tuning fork or pitch pipe. Many electronic guitar tuners also feature a reference pitch emitter for tuning by ear. However, making accurate adjustments by ear can be challenging, and even frustrating, especially for beginning musicians.
Some parts of playing the guitar are obvious, for example: fretting chords, picking, strumming, etc. What is not so obvious is that developing a musical ear is just as important. For a beginner to really improve his or her musical ear, it is essential to consistently play in tune.
Double Dropped Tunings: Have the sixth and first strings tuned down one full step.
It used to be that many people used the Boss TU-2 electric guitar tuner as their go-to tuner. There was a problem with the TU-2, however. It was only accurate to +/- 3 cents (a cent refers to 1/100 of the distance between consecutive notes). If you have a highly trained musical ear, you can hear a 3 cents difference. Making matters worse, when two guitarists play together, each guitarist usually has his or her own tuner. If they each had a TU-2 electric guitar tuner, the two guitars could be out of tune as much as 6 cents with respect to each other.
There are many cheap "entry level" tuners, but be careful, as you may end up frustrated by a tuner that is unable to correctly determine the pitch of your strings.
Despite the good accuracy, there were a couple problems with the Peterson strobe tuners, however. First, they were just downright expensive. Second, the quality of the product was not always high. There are a number of stories on the web where people have bought these tuners and they stopped working in relatively short order.
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