Estimated reading time 4 minutes
Table of Contents
Introduction
What common mistakes do people make when tuning their guitars? We’ll discuss the three most important tuning tips plus three bonus tips. Read more to fix the three most common mistakes that people make when tuning their guitars.
This post uses musical terms. For definitions, see the Glossary at the end of the article.
What Common Mistakes Do People Make When Tuning Their Guitars #1
What common mistakes do people make when tuning their guitars? First, not bothering to tune often enough.
Guitarists often get lazy about tuning. However, this is bad for your ear. If your notes don’t stay relatively consistent, you’ll never build up an accurate melodic pitch template in your memory. Tune every single time you play.
What Common Mistakes Do People Make When Tuning Their Guitars #2
What common mistakes do people make when tuning their guitars? Not changing their strings.
You might say, “What? I thought this was a tuning tip?” Simply put, it affects your ability to get your guitar in tune.
According to Jim Ferguson, the harmonics on old strings start to go bad (become inharmonic) when dirt and oils from your hand coat the strings. Plus, the frets dent the strings, making them asymmetrical, also leading to inharmonicity.
Check your intonation at the 12th fret by first playing the fretted note then playing the 12th fret harmonic for each string. (See the harmonics video below.)
“The fretted tone should be exactly the same pitch as the harmonic tone. Usually, in the case of old strings, the fretted tone will be flat – just how flat is one method for determining how bad the strings are.
“A noticeable difference should prompt a change in strings. A quarter-step is intolerable to most musicians, and anything beyond that could affect your ear for true tones” (The Guitar Player Book 381).
When the string’s harmonics become “inharmonic,” it makes it impossible to get all the different chord voicings on your guitar in tune. You may get one or two chords in tune, but the rest will be out of tune. This’ll also be bad for your ear.
Harmonics Video
What Common Mistakes Do People Make When Tuning Their Guitars #3
What common mistakes do people make when tuning their guitars? Tuning only using the frets or an electronic tuner.
Many rock guitarists tune without using either an electronic tuner or fret references. So, if you want to get the sound of classic rock guitar, you need to tune without frets or tuners to aid you. How do you do this?
Read the following posts to learn how to use harmonics and open strings to tune open tunings. Also, check out the last link to learn how to use a strobe tuner to tune a rock version of standard tuning:
Concluding Thoughts to “What Common Mistakes Do People Make When Tuning Their Guitars?”
What common mistakes do people make when tuning their guitars? We just discussed three common issues, but it’d be easy to find more. For example:
- Forgetting to damp the other five strings (by touching them) when using an electronic tuner. It confuses your tuner, so don’t do that.
- Having all the guitarists tune their own guitars using separate electronic tuners. How hard you pluck the string, and how quickly you tune after doing so, will affect the tuning. Therefore, it’s best to have one guitarist tune all the guitars. Do this and your band will sound better.
- Only tuning with an electronic tuner. Your guitar will sound better when you tune by ear.
There you go! You now have the three most common mistakes that people make when tuning their guitars, plus three bonus tuning tips. Have fun playing!
© 2023 Geoffrey Keith
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Glossary
How to Change Keys in Supplemented Equal Temperament
Have you tried retuning your synth, but gotten frustrated by the limited number of keys? Do you want your keyboard’s chords to sound stronger when playing brass, string, and organ sounds? Supplemented Equal Temperament (SET) is a new and powerful tuning system that allows your chords to sound stronger and more in tune. Kurzweil’s PC3K synth also makes it a breeze to switch keys while using SET. Read more to learn how to change keys in Supplemented Equal Temperament. Estimated reading time 7 minutes.
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How Chords in Supplemented Equal Temperament Work
Are you frustrated that your synth chords sound out of tune? Supplemented Equal Temperament is designed to play chords that sound more in tune than the regular piano tuning: equal temperament. Learn how to better tune your chords in Supplemented Equal Temperament tuning. Estimated reading time 3 minutes.
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How Do I Switch from Minor Key Shaped Notes to Standard Notation – Part 2
How do I switch from minor key shaped notes to standard notation?” Sight singing minor keys in standard notation can be challenging. Because it can be difficult to figure out if you’re in a major key or the relative minor. Read more to learn how to transition from shaped notes to standard notation for minor keys. Estimated reading time 3 minutes.
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Question, How Do I Get Better at Sight Singing?
“What purpose do accidentals serve in reading sheet music?” Sharps, flats, and naturals (collectively called accidentals) grew out of a problem that needed to be fixed in the mediaeval music notation. The music theorists of the time slapped their fix onto the preexisting notation system, and that fix is still with us to this day. However, having confused generations of budding musicians, the results of the fix leave a lot to be desired. Click to answer the question, “What purpose do accidentals serve in reading sheet music?” Estimated reading time 3 minutes.
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