1:3 Getting In Tune

This is the first of the posts that I have labeled as essential. In order to be a guitar player, you must be able to get your guitar in tune. I know it sounds crazy that I would even have to say that, but with the first class I taught, a month later kids were bringing in guitars with no way of tuning them, not having practiced tuning them, strung in such a way that they could not be tuned...

I decided that the next time I taught, I would take as much time as necessary to help students get their guitars in tune. Nobody is going to want to keep playing a guitar that sounds bad. So treat this as your first essential guitar skill - tuning your guitar. I'll try to give you enough options so that you can find what works for you.

First, let's learn the notes on the open strings.



Notice that under the note letter names E-A-D-G-B-E I've added the numbers of the strings themselves. Even though you might think the heaviest string would be string number one, we count the strings 1-6 from the bottom up. Go ahead and get that in mind as we'll probably use the numbers some in the future.

See the letters with lines next to them? The idea there is that you come up with a cute saying to help you remember the notes. I use "Eat A Dang Good Breakfast Everyday". I know "everyday" should be two words, but it works. I've also heard "Elephants And Dogs Grow Big Ears", and one that a student, Jared, came up with - "Every Animal Does Good By Eating". Come up with your own and have fun with it.

Now that we know the notes, how do we get the guitar tuned? We'll look at four ways to do it, and the advantages and disadvantages of each. But if you don't want to read, let me skip to the bottom line. Buy an electronic tuner. You'll thank me.