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Why you can’t tune a guitar – and how to fix it

 

There is no one way to tune a guitar.

OK, so why is this true?

One reason relates to the physical layout of a guitar compared to a piano or even a violin. Each note on a piano has its own string (or strings). You tune that note to where you want it, and you’re good to go. Every time you hit that key you get the note you want.

On a guitar, however, you’re asking six strings to produce dozens of notes each. And the way you produce those notes is by pressing down on the string. So let’s say you get your low E string in perfect tune: the minute you push down on the string on a fret, you are bending the string a tiny bit, which makes the tuning a tiny bit sharp, especially if your strings are high off the fret board.

You’ll notice the problem gets worse the higher you move up the fret board. Maybe your open chords sound beautiful, but then you go to hit a barre chord on the ninth fret and it sounds terrible. This problem sounds worse still if you put more pressure on the string. (A violin should have the same problem, but there are no frets, so the player can adjust his fingering to solve this problem.)

Also, the lower strings on a guitar tend to ring sharp the harder you play them. So if you’re playing a style of music where you tend to hit your low strings particularly hard, you will sound more out of tune.

We’re not done with our reasons why you can’t tune a guitar, but let’s pause here, because these are very common problems, especially amongst acoustic guitar players, and James Taylor has a rather nice method of tuning that can help solve these problems.

Guitar Tuning is an important process and for this user needs to good knowledge on different guitar parts as well.

How NOT to tune a guitar

1. Do not use the fifth fret and seventh fret harmonics. Many guitarists learn this method. You play a harmonic on the fifth fret of your low E string, then play a harmonic on the seventh fret of your A string, and then tune your string until they match. You can listen for the vibrations. When the vibrations are gone, the strings are, apparently, in tune. You repeat this all down the guitar (expect for the B string) and hope that this will tune your guitar. But it won’t.

2. Do not tune to a chord. You’ve probably tried this at home. You’re tuning your guitar and you play the open D, G, and B strings. And you tweak the B string until it sounds perfectly in tune with your D and G strings. Glorious, right? But then you play a D chord… and your D note on your B string is way flat. You check your B again and it sounds great. But now: check that B with a tuner, and you’ll see it’s about 14 cents flat of what a “standard” B should be.

Read More: Guitar Tuning Process and how to fix it

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