Tuning the Guitar

Book+CDR with video and photo
Kitarrikool Publishing, in Estonian language.

One can occasionally hear funny stories of people who have bought a guitar and return to the shop after a few months (!), complaining that the guitar is out of tune:). Of course, the sales assistants can tune the instrument, but they will have a good laugh afterward. It is like taking a new car back to the shop because you have run out of petrol or the ashtray is full.

The guitar is an instrument that requires very frequent tuning. The tuning is always checked before playing the instrument, and sometimes fine-tuning is required even while playing a piece of music. But provided that the instrument is kept constantly in the same room, the temperature remains the same and the strings are no longer very new, the tuning changes only a little. Guitars with metal strings stay in tune better than guitars with nylon strings. Every guitar player must be able to tune his guitar and this is one of the first things to be learned.

It will take a long time for you to learn to tune the guitar properly, and it requires practice in the same way as playing the instrument does. What makes tuning hard is not turning the knobs but listening. An inexperienced ear is not always able to tell when a string is too high or too low. But all talk of tone deafness is nonsense – everyone with at least a little patience can learn to listen. And patience is one thing you will need when learning to play a musical instrument.