LESSON 24 ( Advanced Tuning Techniques )

LESSON 24
Advanced Tuning Techniques

            There are several ways to tune the guitar. The most accurate is a two part method that will be described here. The first part is the most commonly used method which tunes the guitar fairly accurate,
but still leaves room for improvement which will be described in part two.

Part I

           For this part you will tune the high E- string either to an E- tuning fork or to the E given at the beginning of the tape. Once the first string is in tune you would then play the fifth fret of the Bstring
(which by the way is an E) and tune that string until the two pitches match (24.1). Now the first two strings are in tune. You continue by playing the 4th fret of the third string which needs to match the open B- string (24.2). The next three steps are:

(24.3)

1. Compare the 5th fret of the D- string with the open G- string. 

(24.4)

 2. Compare the 5th fret of the A string with the open D- string. 

(24.5)

 3. Compare the 5th fret of the E- string with the open A- string.

This process should be repeated once since the change in the tension of the strings can affect the already tuned notes.

                                                                                                                                                       

Part II

            Your guitar is now roughly in tune. The shortcoming of the above described tuning method is that while each string is in tune with the next one, the guitar as a whole is probably not. Check the tuning by playing the following chords: G Major, D Major, and E Major. You will notice that some are better in tune than others.

 

You will have to adjust the tuning now. It might be that your E Major sounds fine, but when the D Major chord is played the F sharp on the E string might sound sharp. If you listen to the advanced tuning section on the tape you will hear how I went about tuning the guitar as exactly as possible.Use your intuition. If a note sounds sharp or flat to you, you are probably right, and you will have to change the pitch of the string. It will take a while to develop your ear to hear every little intonation problem,so do not get frustrated; just keep on trying.