One of the most attractive things about playing the guitar over other instruments is the array of alternate or non-standard tunings that are available to the guitar player. These different tunings can make the guitar sound entirely different and add depth and uniqueness to the songs and melodies being written.
"Tuning" a guitar refers to the process of precisely adjusting each string to produce the correct note. In order to accomplish this, a "reference pitch" is necessary. A reference pitch is a correct note to which the guitar may be adjusted (either higher or lower) until it perfectly matches. The reference pitch may come from another instrument, such as a piano or another guitar, or a tuning device, such as a tuning fork or pitch pipe. Many electronic guitar tuners also feature a reference pitch emitter for tuning by ear. However, making accurate adjustments by ear can be challenging, and even frustrating, especially for beginning musicians.
Some parts of playing the guitar are obvious, for example: fretting chords, picking, strumming, etc. What is not so obvious is that developing a musical ear is just as important. For a beginner to really improve his or her musical ear, it is essential to consistently play in tune.
Not surprisingly, continually playing on an instrument that is out of tune will prevent a beginner from developing his or her musical ear at a normal rate. Making matters worse, many beginners do not want to spend much on their first guitar and therefore they end up with a cheaply made guitar that goes out of tune easily. The result can be real frustration.
For tuning acoustic guitars, the quality of the tuner's microphone is very important, as this is only input source. The better the quality microphone, the more accurate reading you will receive.
Many people, including myself, are fans of the late Davy Graham who was greatly travelled and used these influences in his guitar playing and writing. He is probably best known for DADGAD tuning which he used so he could play along with musicians in Morocco, even though it is essentially a Celtic tuning (the global power of music!). This in turn ended up influencing Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin on songs such as Kashmir.
Despite the good accuracy, there were a couple problems with the Peterson strobe tuners, however. First, they were just downright expensive. Second, the quality of the product was not always high. There are a number of stories on the web where people have bought these tuners and they stopped working in relatively short order.
"Tuning" a guitar refers to the process of precisely adjusting each string to produce the correct note. In order to accomplish this, a "reference pitch" is necessary. A reference pitch is a correct note to which the guitar may be adjusted (either higher or lower) until it perfectly matches. The reference pitch may come from another instrument, such as a piano or another guitar, or a tuning device, such as a tuning fork or pitch pipe. Many electronic guitar tuners also feature a reference pitch emitter for tuning by ear. However, making accurate adjustments by ear can be challenging, and even frustrating, especially for beginning musicians.
Some parts of playing the guitar are obvious, for example: fretting chords, picking, strumming, etc. What is not so obvious is that developing a musical ear is just as important. For a beginner to really improve his or her musical ear, it is essential to consistently play in tune.
Not surprisingly, continually playing on an instrument that is out of tune will prevent a beginner from developing his or her musical ear at a normal rate. Making matters worse, many beginners do not want to spend much on their first guitar and therefore they end up with a cheaply made guitar that goes out of tune easily. The result can be real frustration.
For tuning acoustic guitars, the quality of the tuner's microphone is very important, as this is only input source. The better the quality microphone, the more accurate reading you will receive.
Many people, including myself, are fans of the late Davy Graham who was greatly travelled and used these influences in his guitar playing and writing. He is probably best known for DADGAD tuning which he used so he could play along with musicians in Morocco, even though it is essentially a Celtic tuning (the global power of music!). This in turn ended up influencing Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin on songs such as Kashmir.
Despite the good accuracy, there were a couple problems with the Peterson strobe tuners, however. First, they were just downright expensive. Second, the quality of the product was not always high. There are a number of stories on the web where people have bought these tuners and they stopped working in relatively short order.
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