Acoustic Guitar Tuning - How Often Should It Be Done | Guitar

By AllisonThompson
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If you really want your acoustic guitar to sound good all the time then you should be tuning it every time you play it. There really is not any funny about playing a great piece of music out of tune. Although in the beginning, you may become somewhat frustrated when it comes to tuning your guitar you will soon realize the importance of ensuring that yours has been correctly tuned. So it really is worth your time and effort when it comes to acoustic guitar tuning before you beginning playing it.

When it comes to tuning a guitar it will take a lot of practice in order that you are able to learn how to do it correctly and later on you will find that you can easily tune your guitar by ear. However in the beginning there is a much easier way that you can tune your acoustic guitar, by using an electronic tuner. You can easily pick up such a piece of equipment for around $20 and is a good investment for those of you who will be playing their guitars regularly. As well as helping you to tune your guitar much more quickly the tuner will quickly tell you when you have hit the right note on the string that you are tuning.

When you sit down to tune the guitar you put the electronic tuner on a stool or table next to you, then switch it on. Now pluck the first string. The tuner will then be able to sense which of the strings you are tuning through the microphone on it. On the tuner itself is an indicator which will tell you just close to the correct pitch you are. This indicator can also tell you how flat or sharp the pitch of the note is. Then all you need to use is the tuning key on the guitar to adjust the string until the tuner indicates that you the guitar is in tune.

When it comes to tuning a guitar you should always tune up (tighten strings) never tune down (loosen strings). However if you do find at some stage that you have over tightened any of the strings when tuning rather than just loosening them off a little (tune down) loosen them off a bit. Then after loosen the string once more you can begin the whole process of tuning once more. If you tune up rather than tune down you will get much more accurate results each time you do it. Also you will find that your acoustic guitar will stay tuned much better for much longer.

But if you do not want to use an electronic tuner to tune your guitar then to do it by listening yourself you will need to use another source to act as your reference pitch. The best things to use are either another guitar, a piano or tuning fork (but again these need to be tuned correctly as well). Or if you want you could go digital and use an MP3 instead.

When you are going to start tuning your guitar by ear, alone you should start off by tuning the sixth string which will produce a low E note and use this as your reference pitch for tuning the rest of the strings. Once you have the sixth string tuned, you can then move on to tuning the rest of the strings to get them in tune once more. When you are going to tune the other five strings you need to carry out the following steps.

1. Pluck the sixth string that is now in tune and where you finger has been placed on the fifth fret. The note that this produces is the note that you want to hear as you begin to tune the open fifth string. So slowly begin to tighten the tuning key on the top until the sound of the open fifth sounds the same as that of the sixth when your finger is on it above the fifth fret. 2. Now to tune the open fourth string you need to place you finger on the fifth string above the fifth fret and again pluck this to hear the sound it makes. Again as you did in step one you tighten the tuning key until the note of the open fourth sounds the same as the fifth string with your finger on the fifth fret. 3. Next you will do the same steps with the open third string to get it in tune with the fourth string and then do the same with the open second string against the third string. But this time you move you move your finger down from the fifth fret down to the fourth fret when playing the third string to tune the second one. 4. Finally when it comes to tuning the open first string on your guitar you need to place your finger on the second string above the third fret and this will give you the right pitch in order to tune the open first string. Once all these stages have been completed you will hopefully correctly tuned your guitar.

But a great way of ensuring that when first starting to tune your guitar by ear is to also use an electronic tuner as well. Although when it comes to acoustic guitar tuning the old fashioned way is good, but an electronic tuner ensures that you get accurate results every time that you do it.

About the Author

Above we have shown you the steps you will need to take in order to tune your acoustic guitar along with the kind of equipment that you can use when it comes to tuning. To learn more about acoustic guitars and playing them please click here Acoustic Guitar Information.

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