What You, Guitarist Should Know ?

Now that you have the guitar, the very first thing to learn is how to tune it. This may sound crashingly obvious, but I have met students who have been messing about with the instrument on their own for months and are still totally incapable of tuning it. I even had the bloke, who when I complained of his lack of tuning, said: 'But I paid twenty quid for this guitar, and they said it was in tune when I brought it!' and he wasn't kidding.

A plectrum guitar should hold its basic tuning pretty well, once its strings have had time to settle down. But even so, the tuning should be checked at least each time you pick it up to play. During a playing session an experienced guitarist checks his tuning constantly and adjusts as necessary. In solo playing, the fact that a string is out of tune shows itself immediately to the ear when playing a passage across the strings. In chord playing, an out of tune string will make the chord sound wrong, and two out of tune strings will give a total effect something like musical toothache.

One method of tuning is to use a piano. The illustration below shows you where to find the notes you need for this.

It is helpful when tuning to a piano to place your foot on the right-hand pedal. This will cause the piano note to sustain and make it easier to compare the corresponding note on your guitar. Begin by finding the E above Middle C then pick your 1st string. Remember, the 1st string is the thinnest one on the instrument, and the 6th is the thickest. I stress this point, because students often find the numbering of the strings confusing in the first stage.

Well, how is your 1st string? Chances are it's out of tune. If you're starting from scratch with a new set of strings, or a guitar that hasn't been tuned in years, then it will be way out. To make matters worse, it is likely that you will have difficulty in comparing the pitch of the piano note with that of the guitar. The reason for this lies in the different tones of the instrument, coupled with the fact that at this stage your ear is not accustomed to such exacting tasks.

Don't worry too much if you're a bit of a 'tin ear' at the outset. I have known students who held up the class for long enough during the initial tuning sessions, winding away grim faced at their creaking machine heads. Tuning was about as simple to them as boarding moving bus with a parcel under each arm and they usually ended up sharp or flat, leaving the final adjustment to me. And yet, later on, some of these same students have become exceptional players, with great left-hand agility and tuning, as their ears have developed, presents no difficulty at all.