How to tune your guitar by ear
Sure, a guitar can be difficult to tune.
But what if you don't have a tuning device nearby and are suddenly put on the spot by friends, family members or an audience of 1,000 spectators that you just realized may mistake you for a hack and boo you off-stage because you left your tuner sitting on your coffee table at your house 100 miles away?
Whew...
Well, my friends, today you will find out how to come out on top of this sometimes tragic situation -- and you may just end up a little better for it.
The first step is absolutely the trickiest -- think of any song that begins with or was written in the key of "E" so you can get a internal machination of what the lowest (sixth) string should sound like.
A musical key, as defined by Wikipedia, is "a group of pitches (or scale) upon which a musical composition is created in traditional, classical, western, art and pop music."
Simply speaking, the key in which a song is written dictates what notes or scales will be used. Typically, one can identify this note as being at the beginning of a song or (more typically) the first note of the song's chorus, though this isn't always the case.
Standard tuning for any six-string guitar is as such: E-A-D-G-B-E, beginning with the lowest string (considered the "sixth" of the six strings, this low-E string is located closest to your face when playing, or literally located at the "highest" point as far as actual altitude is concerned).
Granted, this isn't the easiest thing to do, so I thought I would provide several well-known songs as examples that may just make this process a little easier.
* Incubus -- "Drive" (The very first note played is an E)
* Red Hot Chili Peppers -- "Under the Bridge"
* The Beatles -- "Norwegian Wood"
* Bob Dylan -- "Don't Think Twice"
* Jimi Hendrix -- "Purple Haze"
* Pearl Jam -- "Yellow Ledbetter"
* Foo Fighters -- "Best of You"
* Taylor Swift (for the younger, less legitimate musicians out there [that's right, I said it!]) -- "Mean" and "Red"
* Johnny Cash -- "Folsom Prison Blues"
* Mariah Carey -- "Beautiful"
* Billy Joel -- "Uptown Girl"
* Joan Jett and the Blackhearts -- "I Love Rock 'n' Roll"
* Elton John -- "Candle in the Wind"
Personally, I have utilized the first note of the song "Drive" by Incubus many times to accomplish this goal. And, honestly, if you can't imagine a song playing in your head, you probably don't know how to play a guitar, let alone understand how to tune the darn thing.
However, I digress...
Once you have your sixth (or E) string correctly tuned, the attention now turns to the fifth string -- an "A."
By placing one's finger on the fifth fret of the sixth string (the A-position), one can now easily discern that the sixth string parallels the pitch of the fifth string -- or the "A" string.
Now, simply pluck both strings, returning your hand to the fifth-string tuning key as many times as is necessary until both strings are exactly the same pitch (note that resignations will revurberate throughout the body of the guitar once the correct pitch has been reached).
Repeat this process for the rest of the strings, noting that the "B" string (or "second" string -- the second highest in terms of pitch and literally the second thinnest) will be tuned by pressing down on the fourth fret of the D-string (or "third" string).
When finished, the first and sixth strings should both resound with the note of E with the aforementioned being exactly four octaves higher.
If followed correctly (and if this blog was written correctly) your guitar should now sing its way into the hearts of anyone listening to your music.
I hope this self-help article will assist musicians young and old to develop a more-independent style of playing and, potentially, save them from the embarrassment that ultimately led to the creation of this blog.
- -- Posted by localman on Fri, Mar 4, 2016, at 4:45 PM
- -- Posted by Carla Hurst-Chandler on Sat, Mar 5, 2016, at 7:32 AM
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