Tuner ・ What, Why, How, Which?
Let me answer the missing questions first.
Who ・ Everyone should use a tuner to tune their instruments.
When ・ All the time.
What is a tuner?
A tuner is a device used by musicians and technicians to measure the pitch of a musical instrument to adjust or correct the input signal to the desired pitch. It basically shows how far you are from the nearest musical note.
Why should you use one?
Whether you are practicing yourself or playing live with a band, your instrument must be in tune with other instruments in order to sound in harmony and musical. If you’re not in tune with others even if you play the right notes on the fretboard you won’t be playing the right song. You are playing something different.
How to tune?
Tuning means adjusting the pitch (tension) of every string on your instrument to a reference point (reference frequency). Reference points of musical notes can be seen here Note Frequencies.
While tuning, you will see a needle that shows your current distance to the reference pitch. You have to tighten or loosen your strings accordingly. When done, start over at least 2 times for all the strings. If you have a floating bridge like a Floyd Rose, you may need to do this a few more times and this is perfectly normal.
Which tuning suits best?
There are plenty of tuning styles in the guitar world. Almost all of the guitars pre-set to “E Standard” before you buy them because it’s the standard tuning.
But there are alternative tunings too and you heard them in a lot of records.
Here are the most used tunings. These tunings are named after the note of the thickest (lowest) string.
