Guitar – Tuning to Perfection
Guitar – Tuning to Perfection
By Mike Beatham
It doesn’t matter how dazzling you are on guitar, one strike of an unharmonious string will destroy any charisma you had.
The problem is, too many guitarists neglect tuning as though it is some 5 minute job to “get out the way” before you practice or noodle. Get out of this mindset immediately. You need to spend time 
tuning your guitar to make sure chords all over the neck sound in tune and harmonious.
Unfortunately, fretted instruments made of wood can never be tuned perfectly (sorry, I mislead you slightly with the title there!), but there are quick methods you can use to accurately tune your guitar to the human ear…these are just for introductory purposes…
1) 5th fret method – the classic tuning method which most beginners favour. This method simply involves fretting a string (at the 5th fret, except for the G string) and matching the note with the next open string. Your ear has to be well trained for this to be accurate, and there is an awkward exception involving the B string, which on most guitars needs to be manually adjusted to be in-tune on most chords.
2) Harmonics – tuning harmonics are a quick and accurate way to tune your guitar to itself. It involves creating a resonating harmonic on two strings at a time, and picking out what sounds like a vibrating effect between them. This “wobbling” effect is created when two naturally harmonious intervals are off-kilter, so all you need to do is tune up or down to resolve the vibration into one, straight resonating harmonic. This is a really accurate way to tune, because you’re tuning an open string to another open string, rather than a fretted string to an open string which causes natural inaccuracies. You can learn more about creating the harmonic and this great tuning technique at the end of this article.
Tweaking and double checking
3) Comparing note for note, string for string – this is basically where you find a note on your fretboard, and compare it with the same note, or its octave, on another string at another fret. E.g. comparing the G note on the E string at fret 3 with the octave G note on the D string at fret 5 – these two notes should sound the same (but of course, the octave will be higher in pitch). This is seen as a more practical method of “tweaking” your tuning because you’re comparing notes on strings that will likely appear simultaneously within chords – therefore, if they’re even slightly out of tune with each other, the chord will be ruined. More obviously…
4) Comparing double tones in chords – chords that use 4 or more strings often include double tones (e.g. the root note appears twice in the chord), and open position chords down at the first few frets (e..g E major, G major, C major etc.) double open tones with fretted tones. Try playing the E major open position chord, one of the first chords you will have learned – the A string at fret 2 should be almost perfectly harmonious with the open B string, because they are the same note, just an octave apart. You may find the notes are slightly off, so adjusting will give you a more practical compromise when it comes to tuning for chords.
General good tuning practice
There are several ways to tune your guitar, but it’s important that you tweak after you’ve tuned up (or think you have anyway!)
What I do is use a few tuning methods, like the ones detailed above, because often you’ll find you can reach a good compromise between the few methods to really get well-balanced tuning. By well-balanced, I mean that some chords (e.g. full barre chords vs floated chords that mix open strings and fretted strings) will need to be compromised to ensure any chord you play sounds acceptably harmonious.
At first, you don’t notice, but as your ear becomes trained, you begin to pick up on nuances in the tuning of your guitar. The key thing to remember is you must spend time tweaking your tuning, no matter which method you use.
Just don’t become too obsessed – remember to leave some practice time to actually play some guitar. ;o)
Mike Beatham runs a free, easy to follow and growing guitar lessons resource. You can learn more about effective guitar tuning at www.fretjam.com
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Jazz Up Your Blues Guitar
This series will show you a few ways of adding a little jazz flavour to your blues playing. Starting with this lesson on 9th chords. Taught by Justin Sandercoe. Support notes at www.justinguitar.com
Fun Easy Guitar Tabs For Beginners
fun easy guitar tabs that they can start playing right away. There are hundreds of websites online that list these easy guitar tabs and of course there is YouTube for the video lessons of these songs, but I could not locate any one site that put every thing together in one easy location.
Below are 5 popular guitar songs that any beginner can learn how to play with a bit of practice. You can play all of these songs on acoustic or electric guitar.
“Mr. Jones” by the Counting Crows, which is their first big hit on the radio and probably their most well known song to date.
“Summer of 69′” is by the well known rocker from canada, Bryan Adams. I thought this would be a great song to learn for all of you rock fans out there.
“Heart of Gold” by Neil Young, is from his 1972 Album Harvest. Surprisingly this is Neil’s only #1 hit song.
“Who Will Save Your Soul” by Jewel, was the first song released from her album Pieces of You. Jewel wrote this song when she was only 16 yrs old during a visit to Mexico.
“Margaritaville”, a well known song by pop artist Jimmy Buffett from the album Changes in Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes.
The good thing about learning any song on guitar is that you can make it your own. If the original proves to be too difficult at first, then slow it down and make your own version.
If you want to sing and play these songs, don’t try and do both at first. Learn the song on guitar first and then slowly incorporate the singing into it, otherwise you will become quite frustrated.
Take Your Guitar Playing to the Next Level
Learning how to play your favorite songs is definitely a great way to learn, but you are seriously limiting yourself if that is your only method of learning. Why not invest in your guitar playing right now by getting your hands on the most popular home study course for guitarists called Learn and Master Guitar. Trust me…You will be glad that you did.
===> Follow this link for more information about Learn and Master Guitar
Summer of 69′ by Bryan Adams
Click Here for Summer of 69 tabs
Click Here for the Summer of 69 Chords & Lyrics
Summer of 69 Video Guitar Lesson:
Heart Of Gold by Neil Young
Click Here for the Heart of Gold Tabs
Click Here for the Heart of Gold Chords and Lyrics
Heart of Gold Video Guitar Lesson:
Mr. Jones by the Counting Crows
Click Here for Mr. Jones Guitar Tabs, Chords & Lyrics
Mr. Jones Video Guitar Lesson:
Margaritaville by Jimmy Buffet
Great in depth lesson including the Margaritaville Guitar Tabs, Chords & Lyrics
Margaritaville Guitar Video Lesson:
Who Will Save Your Soul by Jewel
Click Here for Who Will Save Your Soul Tab, Chords & Lyrics
Who Will Save Your Soul Guitar Video Lesson:
Free Online Acoustic Guitar Lessons For The Beginner
Looking for 
free online acoustic guitar lessons? What beginner isn’t?
There is certainly no shortage of free lessons online, but many of the lessons you will find are not of the best quality.
I came across a real gem on YouTube today. Chances are you are already familiar with this guy. If not, I highly recommend you stop what you are doing and check out the following free video lessons below.
The following 
acoustic guitar lessons are from a gentleman by the name of Justin Sandercoe. Justin is a very talented London based guitarist, songwriter, performer, producer and educator.
You can listen to some of his original music over at his myspace page. He is currently in the process of recording his first solo record which features vocal songs as well as instrumental guitar pieces.
I have learned a great deal by watching Justin’s videos and I know you will as well.
Enjoy the free online acoustic guitar lessons below and be sure to also check out Justin’s website here.
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