The first thing a beginner guitarist should master is tuning the instrument. Playing a poorly tuned instrument can damage your hearing, and besides, it usually causes protests from others. Six-string and seven-string guitars have different tunings, and besides, some musicians use their own tuning method.
What is needed for this?
Regardless of how many strings your guitar has, you will need one of the following items:
- tuning fork;
- a computer with Internet access;
- a well-tuned piano.
You can buy a tuning fork where you bought your guitar. The most popular version is a kind of whistle that produces several sounds. If you don't have anything like this, you can tune your guitar using your computer. There are several special programs for guitarists. In addition, a built-in tuner can be found on popular guitar sites.
The most common guitar program is GuitarPro. It is licensed, but you can find its free counterparts.
Piano tuning
If you have a six-string guitar, you will need the first octave "mi" sound on the keyboard. This sound corresponds to the first string of a six-string guitar. This tuning fork is convenient because it will also tell you how to tune the rest of the strings. Twist the peg until the string is exactly the same pitch as the piano. Hold the second string at the 5th fret. It must match the first open. The third string is clamped at the fourth fret. The pitch coincides with the open second. Hold the fourth, fifth and sixth strings at the 5th fret and compare with the open previous one. Remember that the strings are numbered from thinnest to thickest. Accordingly, the first is the thinnest string, the sixth is the thickest.
For adjustment, it is better to use a special knob. This makes the process much easier.
Tuning by tuning fork
If you have a whistle-type tuning fork that emits multiple sounds, find the "mi" sound. Tune the first guitar string along it, and then proceed in the same way as in the previous case. It may also happen that you have a tuning fork in the form of a "fork", on which you need to knock with a special hammer. Such a tuning fork gives the sound "la" of the first octave. Hold the first string at the 5th fret and tune to that sound. Tuning by a tuner is no different from tuning by a tuning fork, only the sound is emitted by an external acoustic device. In addition, using the tuner, you can effortlessly compare the sound of each string with a reference.
Seven-string guitar tuning
The seven-string guitar is less popular than the six-string guitar, but now more and more musicians appear who want to master this instrument. There are several variations of the seven-string tuning. The most common is the tonic triad tuning. Find the "D" key of the first octave on the piano. Tune the first string along it. Further, the order is as follows. The second string is clamped at the third fret and compared to the open first fret, the third string at the fourth fret is built on the open second fret, the fourth is at the fifth fret, and is built on the open third. The fifth string is clamped at the third fret, the sixth at the fourth, and the seventh at the fifth. The result is a G major triad, where the first, fourth and seventh strings give the sound "D", the second and fifth - "B", the third and sixth - "G". Some musicians tune the seventh string as an "A". There is also a tuning option with a seventh "C" string.
