How important is:

a) Your guitar being in tune?

b) Learning to tune your own guitar?

(answer: VERY!)

 

Sometimes tuning a guitar can get overlooked. I’ve seen it a LOT from students and even at gigs watching some performers.  It’s never enjoyable to listen to and It can happen for a few reasons:

• Lack of awareness – sometimes beginners don’t realise the guitar needs tuning
• Underdeveloped ear skills – some people don’t hear that it’s out of tune
• Lack of care – not being bothered. Don’t think it’s important – some don’t care
• Lack of attention – sometimes people are so focussed on playing they don’t prioritise tuning
• No tuner – some people wait for others to do it.
• Lack of confidence – some beginners don’t think they can or are too shy to have a go so wait for others to do it for them

Tuning is one of the most basic skills / practises to get into the habit of doing for guitarists at ALL levels. Self- reliance.

DON’T wait to be told by someone else that your guitar is out of tune.

 

Here are 9 very worthwhile reasons to INVEST IN and create the habit of TUNING YOUR GUITAR:

1. The more you do it the quicker you get – Once you get used to the resonance of the individual strings from regular tuning practice your ears and hands get used to the direction you need to turn the tuning peg and the distant to turn it. This becomes automatic and fluent over time.

2. Fine tuning your ears – There is an element of tuning that is ear training if you pay attention.  You’ll start to fine tune your ears to recognise the subtleties of your guitars tuning – The knock-on effect here is that you’d start to hear other nuances within music eg harmonies, chords, being able to pick notes out, improvisation…the list goes on.

3. Gamification – Make it into a game with yourself.  Try and tune the guitar by ear before you check it with the tuner. Have fun, be curious, see your progress.

5. Better playing experience – It will make for a much more enjoyable practise session or performance if you’re in tune. Everything resonates so much better and is much more fulfilling.

6. Better relations – People will be less upset and more tolerant with you – family, neighbours, other guitarists, people at open mic night or gigs. I’m not even joking. We know when somethings out of tune. It’s not an enjoyable sound and it creates a sense of unease in the atmosphere. If you couple that with repeated mistakes and out of time playing it’s quite challenging on the ear for an audience.

7. Buy new gear – A fantastic excuse to buy gear. A good tuner is priceless. Researching and shopping for little gadgets can be something to look forward to. It can also further galvanise your identity as a guitarist as you build your kit.

8. Taking responsibility – By caring for how you sound you’re are taking responsibility for your guitar playing. This connects you to a new level of wanting to sound good and making an effort. These are steps to becoming a guitarist.  The knock-on effect here is that we then tend to care about other elements of it too such as maintenance, the condition of the strings, learning to change strings when you need to etc.

9. Time effectiveness / efficiency – If you are having a guitar lesson, performing or playing with another instrumentalist / vocalist. Tune your guitar. It saves wasting your time and other peoples time, especially if the time / space has been paid for. Tune before you do any of the above.

If you follow the above points in any capacity I assure you your guitar playing experience will be much, much sweeter all round.