Standard Guitar Tuning
3 Types of Guitars
Whether you're an avid guitar soloist or just picking up and learning how to use your first guitar, Standard Guitar Tuning is an essential know-how to ensure great sound. Before we begin, let's review the 3 types of guitars. These are:
- Acoustic Guitars
- Electric Guitars
- Bass Guitars
Acoustic Guitar
The Acoustic Guitar is a great companion for solo players and for bands alike. One of the benefits of playing on an acoustic guitar is the lack of equipment required to play. All you need is yourself and a guitar to make great sound.
These types of guitars range on a low end of under $100 to several hundred dollars for a very good brand.They are generally made of wood with a large body which amplifies the vibrational sounds of the strings and turns it into music. Although some acoustic guitars have electric hook-ups for an amplifier, it is not necessary to use one to make the sound.
Electric Guitar
An electric guitar is set up in a similar structure to an acoustic, though has one major difference - the necessity of an electric amplifier to create the sound. Electric guitars have a slimmer build than an acoustic and are generally easier on the fingers when first learning to play.
What is unique to an electric is the large array of sound you can create simply by using different amplifiers and sound settings. For our tuning purposes, both guitars will be tuned in a similar fashion.
Bass Guitar
The bass guitar is designed specifically for lower notes to provide a boost to the music being performed. It generally is not a guitar for solo performance. The bass guitar is similar in style to an electric guitar - requiring the hook-up to an electric amplifier. However, these guitars generally have 4 strings (though some have 6) as well as a longer neck. Tuning of this guitar is covered in another one of my hubs.
Standard Guitar Tuning - Background
Standard Guitar Tuning is as it sounds, the most common method of tuning a guitar. All other tunings are variations of the standard tuning method, and include names such as drop tuning and open tuning. If you're looking to start learning guitar, standard guitar tuning is the method to use.
Looking at the 6 strings of your typical acoustic or electric guitar, you have the following notes:
E - A - D - G - B - E
When holding the guitar with the neck in the left hand, the string closest to you is the left most E, which produces the lowest pitched sound. Moving right, A on up through the highest pitched E are strings which progressively produce higher pitched sound.
Tuning your Guitar
To tune the instrument, you must turn the tuning pegs - the six metallic knobs on the headstock, which sits atop the neck of the guitar.
To tune, you can use a guitar tuner, generally available on Amazon for a low price. You can also tune by ear, listening to the proper sounding notes from the youtube video below:
Double Check
Once you've tuned your instrument, you can check the sound by playing any note or chord and adjust any strings which need re-tuning. Now you're ready to play.
