- Avoid leaving your guitar in areas with extreme temperature changes, this will definitely mess up the tuning. Dropping or bumping the guitar will also make it go out of tune. Carry your guitar in a case as any damage to it could effect how well it tunes up.
- In a noisy environment you will definitely want to use a guitar tuner. You should purchase a quality tuner. You don’t need to spend a lot. An inexpensive tuner or tuning fork is definitely good enough to start out (I personally use a Snark tuner). Always bring it to gigs and jam sessions. But, remember try to develop your ear by using the traditional guitar tuning method when you can. In the long run you will be just that much better of a musician. Only use a guitar tuner to tune the Low E string and then tune the rest by ear. This will help develop your ear as a musician.
- ALWAYS TUNE UP! When you tune a guitar string, always start below the desired note and tune up to pitch not down to pitch. This will help prevent the string from going flat during play. Even if the note is too high you can stretch the string to give it some slack then tighten it.Play a chord that you know well to test the tuning, if it sounds odd or out a bit it probably is, remember always trust you ear.
Andrew McCormick
714.955.3278
mccormickguitarlessons@gmail.com