Acoustic Guitar 101

with Scott Law

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Acoustic Guitar 101 - Section 1

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Acoustic Guitar 101 Lessons: Lesson 11: Tuning the Guitar - Part 5

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[MUSIC]
Okay, so anyway, back to it,

we've gotten up to where we
can kind of listen to that and

think, all right, that sounds good.

Now we're gonna do the E string,
referencing off that beat.

[MUSIC]
I mean, let's go sharp for kicks.

[MUSIC]
As I mentioned in

self-reference number one,

it's always cool to check

out chords that you know.

[MUSIC]
D sounds good.

[MUSIC]
Okay, we're in the ballpark there, okay?

All right, now we're gonna go down,
we still got two strings left

that are underneath that
reference fourth string, D.

Now we gotta tune the A string to the D.

[MUSIC]
Went

a little sharp.

Tune up to the note.

[MUSIC]
Cool,

now we can check it.

Sounds good.

All right, E.

[MUSIC]
I'm tuning the E, the low D,

sixth string, to the A, fifth string.

[MUSIC]
Went a little

too far there.

[MUSIC]
Well let's see.

[MUSIC]
Well,

the G sounds good.

Just playing a G chord here.

We will learn about that.

All right, now you see what I did.

Now, [SOUND] okay, we've gotten this far.

We have a G chord sounding good thus far.

What happens if we move to
some other chords, though?

Back to what I was talking about
where this is an imperfect science.

And we have the opportunity
to compensate a little bit.

And where that B string sounds in

a way it can be a little confusing.

And just getting them all to
ring in tune with each other,

what happens if I play an E chord?

[MUSIC]
Not

exactly in.

So
[MUSIC]

the A is a little sharp.

[MUSIC]
The B,

a little flat.

[MUSIC]
So

I try to get

that E chord.

[MUSIC]
And the G chord to be reasonable.

Maybe that's a little bright.

[SOUND] That third string.

[MUSIC]
So, now this goes on and on,

you can drive yourself crazy with it.

Cuz you'll go to play a C chord,
[MUSIC]

that E note's a little bright.

[MUSIC]
So [LAUGH] the message is,

is that to get it perfectly in
tune it takes some tweaking.

And you gotta keep after it, and

really perfectly in tune
is a total relative thing.

And the most important thing about
this whole endeavor is to listen.

And really train your ear.

This is some of the best
ear training you will get,

is just being able to
tune your instrument.

And as frustrating as it can be in the
heat of the moment, I urge you to do it

with a tuning fork reference, and
do it by ear as much as possible.

I guarantee you, I really feel strongly
that you'll get more out of it

in the long run if you learn to
hear it and adjust it accordingly.

And when you're playing,

it's not like you're tuning
your guitar once and that's it.

Every couple tunes,
the thing will drift out of tune.

Or if you go to a different key it might,
like we saw how playing out

of a different home key like G or
E, how that affected it.

So it's like kind of a constant thing,
you gotta stay on top of.

And anyway, there's two self-reference
versions that actually cross over.

You saw where I was
double-checking myself.

And using all of the tuning methods and
references,

and using chords [SOUND] can be very,
very helpful.

[MUSIC]

?

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Acoustic Guitar 101 Lessons: Lesson 11: Tuning the Guitar - Part 5

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