Playing the guitar is not all about learning chords and songs, but also about knowing how to tune a guitar by ear. There are other ways out there available to any musician to tune their guitars, but to know how to tune it by ear is one of the most useful skills you will learn because this strengthens your musical foundations and your sensitivity to the differences of sound, tone, and pitch.
However, knowing how to tune a guitar by ear takes a lot of practice. Some people just have a natural talent for it and they can get it in days or weeks, while some have to work harder to build that skill of learning how to tune a guitar by ear. In learning how to tune a guitar by ear, however, we must realize that there are some very common mistakes a lot of people make. Read on and find out what these are, and hopefully, you can learn from it and avoid them.
How to Tune A Guitar by Ear – Mistake 1: Thinking that you don’t need to learn tuning by ear
There may be some of you out there who do not see the value of knowing how to tune a guitar by ear because there are digital tuners available anyway to do the tuning for you. That may be true to some extent, there are digital tuners, but you should not depend solely on those things to tune your guitar. Digital tuners are accurate, but if you depend on them too much, you will become lazy. By knowing how to tune a guitar by ear, you are actually training your ears to become more sensitive to sound, tone, and pitch. Learning how to tune a guitar by ear actually is more advantageous than you think – not only do you learn to tune a guitar by yourself, you also become more sensitive to the sound and tone. This makes you hear more easily when something is out of tune or sounds off.
How to Tune A Guitar By Ear – Mistake 2: Not “tuning up” to a note
Another common mistake beginners make in learning how to tune a guitar by ear is not “tuning up” to a note. Tuning up means tightening the string, or going up to a sharp, while tuning down means going down to flat. A common mistake made in learning how to tune a guitar by ear is when you end your tuning with loosening action, instead of a tightening. When this happens, the string tends to go out of tune more because of the slack left on it. If you feel that you have reached the right pitch already through loosening, go down flat a little bit more and then tighten the string again until it reaches the right pitch. This way, there is no slack left on the string.
How to Tune A Guitar By Ear – Mistake 3: Forgetting to change your strings
Most beginners get so excited about learning to play and how to tune a guitar by ear that sometimes, it is easy to forget one of the most basic things – your guitar strings! If you are using an old guitar with old strings, then this is more likely to go out of tune because guitar strings also suffer from the wear and tear of usage. The sweat, oils, and dirt that come from our hands when we play also add to the wearing down of our guitar strings. In knowing how to tune a guitar by ear, it is also very important that we always remember to properly care for our instrument. To prolong your guitar’s life, wipe it down after you use, especially the strings, so that you remove the oils and dirt that stick to it while you play. How often you change your guitar strings will also depend on you – how you play, how sweaty do your hands get, how dirty your guitar strings get, and so on. Of course, it is always better to have a fresh set of strings ready – you would not want to have a string snap right in the middle of a jam session now, would you?
As you go along, you will probably make more mistakes, but don’t be discouraged, because that is how you learn even more. These are just some of the common mistakes made in learning how to tune a guitar by ear.