The Importance of Keeping in Proper Tune

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I cannot sufficiently stress the importance of having your guitar in proper tune whenever you are playing. It not only makes your playing sound better, but you will reap huge benefits as far as ear training is concerned.

Every time you play or practise,
tune your guitar first !!!

Below, you will see a comparison of musical notes versus the frequencies they represent.

 
 

The way of things

Each musical note is named as such to represent a specific frequency in the sound spectrum. For instance, there's an A at 220Hz, NOT 221, or 219, or anything else nearby. People with perfect pitch can tell the difference. (There's enough people with perfect pitch or just plain good ears out there to make it necessary to have you guitar in tune if you want to sound good).

The next note above the A is A#, or "A sharp" (also called Bb, or "B flat"). It vibrates at about 246 Hz. There's about a 16Hz difference from the A. There is a separation between each note and the surrounding notes. You can see that there is quite a lot of space that is not part of standard Western music.

That particular A must be 220Hz. Of course, the other octaves of A are at different frequencies. The next higher octaves of A are 440Hz, 880Hz, then 1760Hz, then 3520Hz, etc. To arrive on the next octave you simply double the frequency of the current octave, or divide the current frequency by 2 to go to the next lowest octave. This system has been in place for a long, long time and our ears have come to accept it.

Human hearing range

The human ear can detect pitches from as low as 16 vibrations per second to as high as around 20,000 vibrations per second. For instance, the piano contains a pitch range from 30 to 4,000 vibrations per second (or 4KHz). Frequency is measured in Hertz (Hz), therefore 100 vibrations per second is 100Hz.

Use a tuner

If you tune your guitar to itself only, you most likely will not be on standard pitch. One day your A might be 445Hz (instead of 440Hz) and the next it might be 443Hz, etc. Changes in temperature alone will cause your guitar strings to expand and contract enough to keep your guitar from holding a constant pitch.

You should always use an electronic tuner to tune your guitar before you start playing, and maybe several times during your playing or practise, as the guitar will go periodically out of tune just from the stresses of use.

The reason for tuning with an electronic tuner is that changes in temperature can affect other tuners (such as pitch pipes, tuning forks, and other instruments). The electronic tuner always calculates the same pitches, regardless of temperature, so it is more exact.

Not for tradition

The reason for always having your guitar in perfect tune is not to obey tradition. It's a standard that everyone has agreed on already. All the songs you hear on CD's or radio or tapes are on this standard. They are all tuned to standard pitch. If you want to figure out those songs, you'd better be on standard pitch, too.

More importantly, if you are always in a slightly different tune, your ears will never get a chance to "anchor" themselves to proper pitch and you'll never get to recognize chords just by hearing them.

If your guitar is always in tune, you'll soon develop your ear to the point where you will recognize certain notes and chords just by hearing them !!!

When your ear constantly hears an A played on the guitar as 440Hz (or 880Hz, or 1760Hz, etc.), then it will begin to recognize that pitch, and when you hear an A chord, for instance, you'll recognize it as an A. You won't spontaneously develop perfect pitch, however, your ear will retain a memory of certain notes and chords and this will take you a long way in figuring out your favorite songs and recognizing what other guitar players are doing.

To sum it up

To sum this up, ALWAYS having your guitar in proper tune will:

• Make your playing sound better
• Greatly improve your ear
• Help you to recognize chords
• Keep you in tune with radios, CDs, and cassettes
• Make figuring out songs a LOT easier

P.S.   If that isn't enough, you won't be breaking as many strings, if you keep in proper tune. Since the strings are made to handle a specific range of stress, and that range happens to coincide with the range of stresses that happen WHEN YOUR STRINGS ARE IN TUNE.