Three Ways to Tune Your Guitar Without an Electronic Tuner

If you play guitar, you know how important it is to have a good sense of pitch so you can keep your instrument in tune. Few things are worse than strumming a chord and finding there are two strings so flat they sound like they've been hit by a steamroller.

Learning to keep your guitar in tune can help you develop that sense of pitch, as you come to recognize what exactly a well-tuned guitar sounds like. Let's face it, anyone can turn their tuning peg until the tuner light turns green instead of red, but when you can tell your strings are properly pitched without mechanical aid you're starting to get somewhere.

Here are three different ways to tune a guitar without an electronic tuner.

1. Matching pitches with another instrument (simplest)

The best method of tuning for a beginner is simply to get the pitches from someone playing another instrument.

If you're playing with woodwind or brass players, make sure to request your notes in concert pitch. For example, someone playing a B-flat trumpet will need to play her D to produce a concert C. That means to match all six strings of a guitar in standard tuning you'll need her to play F#, B, E, A, C#, and another F#.

As the other player gives you the notes, simply tune each string until the pitches match.

2. Fretting the notes for the next string (intermediate)

This is the most common method for tuning. Simply play the note on a lower string that matches the pitch of the next higher one. For example, to tune the A string, you would fret an A on the low E string (the 5th fret). Then you turn the tuning peg for the A string until the pitch matches exactly.

Of course, you have to remember that how hard you press the strings will affect the pitch. So if you push down on the E string until your knuckles turn white, you will likely make your A string sharp. Always be relaxed and touch the strings as lightly as you can while still getting a clear tone. You'll need to make sure your low E string is in tune before you begin.

Every string will be tuned to the pitch of the next lower string when played on the 5th fret except the B string. To tune the B string, play the G string while holding it down at the 4th fret. Once you're finished tuning all the strings, play a couple of chords to make sure the whole instrument is in tune.

3. Tuning with harmonics (advanced)

This method requires that you understand how to play natural harmonics. If you lightly touch a string on the 12th, 7th, or 5th fret, then pluck it, you'll hear a natural harmonic if you don't dampen the string too much. On the 12th fret you'll hear a tone an octave above the open string. The 7th will be an octave plus a fifth, and the 7th two octaves.

The low E string played with a natural harmonic two octaves above the open string pitch (or fundamental) will produce the same pitch as the A string played with a natural harmonic an octave and a fifth above the fundamental - an E, equal to the pitch of the open high E string.

You can continue up the strings, tuning the A, D, and G strings this way. As usual, B is the odd string out. To tune the B string, play the low E string with a harmonic on the 7th fret and pluck the B string open. Adjust the B string to match the pitch of the harmonic. Then you can tune the high E to the B in harmonics.

Learning to tune your guitar is a great way to become familiar with and learning to match pitches, which will help greatly when it comes to playing with other musicians or making your own adjustments on the fly. Each of the three methods has its own advantages, and each will help you hone your skills in a different way.

Jason Barr is a writer, musician, and web designer/developer from South Bend, Indiana.

For more about guitars and the best acoustic guitar strings, check out Guitar Strings and Reviews.

http://EzineArticles.com/6504239

Learn Guitar Solo Pieces Without Crying Over Guitar Tabs

If you're going to learn guitar solo pieces then there will inevitably come a time when you'll need to learn guitar tabs. Unfortunately this can be one of the most frustrating experiences in learning guitar, and is one that puts many people off.

If you've been playing guitar for a little while then the chances are you're self taught. This is one of the unusual aspects of playing guitar - most guitarist are self taught, either working it out themselves or with friends. By learning a few of the most common chords it is possible to have a fairly good repertoire of songs. In fact all you need to learn are about six chords and you can play a huge number of popular songs. Learn eighteen chords and you'll be able to get away with playing most songs.

But of course there's a problem, because this sort of guitar playing is not going to get you playing guitar solo performances in a band. In order to be a solo artist playing in a band or performing on stage you will need to be more accomplished than just being able to strum along to a few basic chords. In order to learn guitar solo performances you will need to learn guitar tabs, and whilst many people assume this is likely to be fairly straightforward, it is anything but.

Some people who have been learning to play the guitar on their own or with friends assume they'll be able to pick up guitar music notation fairly easily, simply because they can already play a number of popular chords. Other people may have learned to play guitar having already learned to play another instrument such as the piano or the trumpet. In these cases they assume that their knowledge and understanding of reading standard notation will simply be applied to guitar music in a fairly straightforward way.

Both of these assumptions are quite wrong however, since a guitar is about the only musical instrument which does not adhere to standard notation. At first glance it may look a little like standard notation, except that instead of the commonly used musical notes such as quavers and crotchets there are numbers instead. But this notation is a very long way from standard notation.

The first problem is that the horizontal bars which look like a standard stave have nothing to do with the notes, but instead are the strings on the guitar. The line at the top is the first string, and the line at the bottom represents the sixth string. So what you're looking at is effectively a graphical representation of the guitar strings themselves, rather than a virtual representation of the notes.

The next problem is that instead of the typical notes you have numbers, which each represent the fret which should be held down. On top of this problem there's also the challenge of pace or speed. There is no system at all within guitar sheet music for suggesting the pace, or to say how long a particular note or chord should be played. This means that unless you have heard the song being performed before, there is simply no way to tell how long each note or chord should be played for!

These are all problems which can flummox both newcomers to musical notation and those with a long and accomplished history of sight-reading music. As a result many people are put off the idea of trying to learn guitar solo performances, and muddle along with just a few chords and a bit of strumming.

This is a shame, because there are ways to help make the process easier, and having an accomplished guitarist show you how they manage can make a big difference. Of course not everyone has access to a catalogue of accomplished guitarists on tap, which is why a growing number of people are finding the process made a good deal easier by taking advantage of the many learn to play guitar video tutorials now available online.

If you'd like to learn guitar solo pieces but need help with learning guitar tabs or improving the standard of your playing visit Allaxess.com for a growing library of free learn to play guitar video tutorials.

http://goarticles.com/article/Learn-Guitar-Solo-Pieces-Without-Crying-Over-Guitar-Tabs/5176866/