Darren Williger

Guitar Tuning Tips

Everyone who plays a guitar, even those who play one occasionally know the importance of keeping it in tune. As with various other kinds of string instruments, a guitar which is not in tune will not produce the desired sound. Tuning is an essential aspect of guitar playing for anyone who is even the least bit serious about playing one.

Properly tuned guitar strings will be this way:

• 1st string - "E" note or the "Mi (high)" sound
• 2nd String- "B" note or the "Ti" sound
• 3rd string - "G" note or the "Sol" sound
• 4th String - "D" note or the "Re" sound
• 5th String- "A" note or the "La" sound
• 6th string - "E" note or the "Mi (low)" sound

A variety of ways exist with which a guitar player can tune their guitar properly. These are some of the usual methods of picking a guitar which you can select from:

Guitar Pitch Pipe:

This method will usually entail buying a guitar pitch pipe from a music store in your neighborhood or buying one from an Internet website that sells them. A guitar pitch pipe will produce a sound dependent on the particular pipe that you blow. Six holes can be found on a guitar pitch pipe and these holes are set to match the six strings which can be found on your guitar.

Piano or Keyboard:

A guitar can also be tuned with a piano or keyboard. What should be done is that the keyboard or piano should be used to get the tone and then the guitar can be tuned to the particular tone.

Electronic Guitar Tuner:

While this is the easiest option for anyone who wants to tune their guitar, it is also the most expensive option from all the others which are available. An electric guitar tuner has an indicator which informs you if a string is properly tuned instead of you having to bother yourself about the details.

Online Guitar Tuner:

This option for guitar tuning has become a whole lot popular in recent times. What this does is that it allows you utilize the Internet to tune your guitar by making use of online guitar tuning software.

A lot of online guitar tuners are available for a fraction of the cost it would ordinarily take to get your guitar tuned. As long as you are Internet enabled, an online guitar tuner is a welcome tune to have in mind when you intend to keep your guitar primed for action at all times.

A lot of people tend to find out that the art of tuning a guitar takes a great amount of patience as well as skill, but it is advisable that a person learns how to do it properly. By learning, you can save yourself the money that would ordinarily be spent paying someone else to get your guitar tuned. You can tune your guitar easily home and you will notice that your guitar sounds a lot better when you have it properly tuned.

Darren Williger is a tea drinking, guitar playing, low carbohydrate eating, wine making sales maker who writes for LearnGuitar.WS, GuitarDetails.com, and LawOfAttraction.WS.

How to Pick a Guitar Properly

Learning how to pick a guitar properly is just as important as learning how to play. Sounds from a guitar are made by picking the strings of a guitar. Sometimes picking is called “plucking”, but you shouldn’t get confused if that term is used, they are all essentially the same thing. Different ways exist through which you can pick a guitar and they are:

• Picking.

• Strumming.

• Playing.

• Sliding.

• Sweeping.

In the end what it boils down to regardless of how you do it, is that you need to make the strings vibrate in order to arrive at the sound that you need. When picking a guitar is involved, a lot of vibrations exist. Think for example of the standard style of picking a guitar which means that you have to hold your pick between the flat of your thumb and the side of your index fingers. This can easily be done with your fingers anchored or when they are spread across the pick guard. A lot of people prefer this standard pick style and make use of it when they play the guitar. A number of other people tend to discover that pressing their thumb against the side of a finger may prove rather disconcerting so they opt for an alternate pick position.

One version of the standard style usually involves keeping the remaining fingers placed in a fist. The fist may be loose or tight but that doesn’t matter. No contact will exist between your hands or the guitar, all that will touch is your pick. What some people find troublesome about this picking style is that they tend to easily lose control while they play and the fingers may slip easily.

One other pick style that may be used as well, is one in which the palm rests on the bridge, sometimes behind or at other times in front. You can also have your fingers open or closed in this position. This tends to be very helpful for people who play an electric guitar and would rather avoid feedback.

Another different picking style is called circle picking. With this you hold he pick the same way that you do in the standard style but you move by flexing the first joint in your thumb and your index finger extends past the second joint. You can then slide the pick over the string before crossing it, turning in counterclockwise on the down strokes and clockwise on the upstrokes. You will actually make a circular motion while playing.

These aren’t the only ways that a guitar can be picked, a number of other ways exist and some may have no name. Every guitar player will define their own rhythm and have their feel. When you have discovered a comfortable pick style, then it will be a whole lot easier to play without straining your fingers or wrists and without losing control over the chords and the sound you intend to produce. At this stage you will be a much more confident guitar player.

Darren Williger is a tea drinking, guitar playing, low carbohydrate eating, wine making sales maker who writes for LearnGuitar.WS, GuitarDetails.com, and LawOfAttraction.WS.

Why Using a Guitar Fingering Chart Helps

Is the guitar an instrument which you have always wanted to learn how to play? Do you know how to read music properly or play other musical instruments but fall short when it comes to playing the guitar? Perhaps you wonder at what the different chords are and the strings that you need to pick in order to play a particular tone. You should rejoice in the fact that you're not the only one in this dilemma, a lot of new guitar players often find themselves in this situation and the beauty of it all is that a lot of resources are available to help you get past this. One of these many essential resources which will make your guitar playing days is the guitar-fingering chart.

How exactly does a guitar-fingering chart help you if you want to learn how to play the guitar? Guitar fingering charts help in a whole lot of ways and some of the major ways it can prove beneficial to you are listed below, you can learn various things including:

• How to read music notes.
• Music chords.  Learn the chord chart.
• Learn finger placement.
• And more.

A guitar-fingering chart helps take the mystery out of where to place your fingers and exactly what to do to strum the guitar to produce the sound you want to make. The actual type of fingering chart you choose will depend on whether or not you are using an acoustic or electric guitar. The chart will show you where each string is represented so you can play any song you want from reading different music charts.

You can get chord charts for either acoustic guitars or electric guitars as well. A standard guitar playing chart will describe the note names for each string and fret, what this will do, is help you understand the layout of each guitar and that way you know where to place your fingers to produce the necessary chords which you want to hear.

If you're searching for a kind of guitar fingering chart, a lot of different options are available for you to choose from. If you are unable to find what you need in particular at a local music store, then you can easily check online or at the various music supply stores in places other than your neighborhood. Online is usually the most preferable method as with this method you can easily stay home and have the guitar fingering charts delivered to your doorstep.

Becoming a great guitar player is essentially about learning something new and practicing it as frequently as you possibly can. Using a guitar fingering chart is one way to ensure that you are doing the right thing. In no time at all you will memorize the chords and frequent practice will mean that guitar playing turns to something which is natural to you. There is no plausible reason why you shouldn't take advantage of a guitar fingering chart and learn how to play the guitar rather easily and without much ado.

Darren Williger is a over-motivated, guitar playing, low carbohydrate eating, wine making sales maker who writes for LearnGuitar.WS, GuitarDetails.com, and LawOfAttraction.WS.

Understanding the Tuning of a Guitar

To be known as a guitar player, it is necessary for you to know the tuning process of the instrument, where all the tuning pegs are turned in such a way that every string strums at the right note or pitch. There are 3 primary ways in which a guitar can be tuned: reference tuning, relative tuning and electronic tuning. Irrespective of the fact that the guitar is electric or acoustic or whether the strings are made of nylon or steel, these processes hold true for all. While the guitar can be tuned to a varied set of tunes, blues players and finger stylists prefer using altered tunings. Be that as it may, there is a standard guitar tuning method, which should be the starting point for every student learning to play the guitar. This standard tuning method is low to high - E, A, D, G, B and E. The high E is from a piano, which is the E directly above middle C. tuning of the guitar starts downward from this note.

Reference tuning is all about tuning your guitar holding another source as standard. This could be a pitch pipe, a piano or another guitar. First the pitch of the reference instrument is played and then a similar pitch, mostly an open string is played on the guitar to be tuned. Then the tuning pegs can be turned left or right as needed, which makes the pitch go up or down, till both the pitches of the guitar to be tuned and the reference instrument, match completely. This is the most difficult part of this method but can be grasped if someone knowledgeable about the process, shows you a couple of times how to do it.

Relative tuning is the process by which the guitar is tuned on its own. So, when the guitar is being played solo, the notes and chords sound perfectly right, but when compared to another instrument, which is tuned differently, it will sound either too high or too low.

For this, you have to play the A string open and the low E at the fifth fret. Match the tones of these two pitches, which should be exactly the same. Now you have to move the tuning key for the string to sound flat or sharp as is deemed necessary, till both the strings sound the same, at the same pitch. You could do this process for the entire width of the guitar, with the exception of B string. To tune the second or B string, you need to play the third or G string at the fourth fret. Then return to the fifth fret to tune the high E string.

Of all the methods of guitar tuning, the electronic tuning method is perhaps the easiest for even a beginner guitarist to learn. The correct pitches are located and set by an electronic tuner. You could buy an electronic tuner from any music store and it costs between $20 and $35. Expensive ones are better in the sense that they are more accurate and are easier to use. It is better to buy the best model that you can afford as it lasts longer and good in the long run. Though the basic principles are the same for all models, you might find that the operating system for each model may vary from one another. To know how your particular electronic tuner works, it is best to refer to the Users’ manual pertaining to your tuning set. Usually electronic tuners have work on two modes – automatic or manual. The tuners which operate on automatic mode are meant for experienced guitarists and presume that the strings are reasonable close to being ‘in tune. Let us discuss the manual mode for your convenience. In the manual mode, a string is tuned by striking the up and down buttons of the tuner. You just have to ensure that the guitar is close to the tuner or it is connected to the electronic tuner by the one-fourth inch instrument cable. Go on playing the string to check whether the tuner is showing ‘flat’ or ‘sharp’ for the particular note that you have chosen. While you are still playing the note, manipulate the tuning peg of the string with the other hand till such times that the tuner shows that the note struck is in tune. You would usually see a green light in the tuner, which is indicative that the string is in tune.

About the Author:

Darren Williger is a tea drinking, guitar playing, low carbohydrate eating, winemaking salesmaker who writes for GuitarDetails.com, LearnGuitar.WS, and TopSalesMaker.com.

Learning How to Replace a Guitar String

Anyone who has a guitar should learn that understanding how to replace a guitar string is one of the most essential guitar tricks that they have to learn. Guitar owners will experience a lot of cases where their guitar strings break or become worn and old and thus require replacement in order to produce better sound. Learning how to replace guitar strings is very essential because when the time comes for it to be done; you really don't want to find yourself worrying about not knowing how to do it.

Replacing strings is something that applies to every guitar player, regardless of whether you play the electric guitar or the acoustic one. By doing this on your own you can save yourself the time and save yourself money from having to hand your guitar over to someone else to fix. Sometimes time is largely the main reason you have to learn how to fix a guitar string, your guitar string may snap before a performance or an important event and you may have no one to turn to when that happens. This is why it is a lot smarter to learn how to fix guitar strings yourself.

In addition to changing the strings on your guitar, you will need to know how to tune them so that they play properly and create the proper sound. It is usually suggested that you re tune your guitar each time you change a string just to be sure everything is working how it should .It is also necessary so that you ensure your guitar is producing the required sound.

Tools Needed for Changing Your Guitar Strings

What will you need to change your guitar strings? There are some tools that you can use to make this job a lot easier. Here are some tools you will need:

• Wire snips.    
• Pliers.    
• Clean polish cloth.       
• Guitar polish.       
• String winder.    
• String.

There are many different types of strings used on guitars. These include:

• Nylon.    
• Metal.    
• Other.    

They may be old strings, cheap strings or new strings. To change the string on your guitar, you first need to put some slack in the old string. Then you can uncoil the old string from the peg and remove the other end of the guitar string from the bridge. At this point, you can throw the old string away.

At this time, it would be a smart idea to polish and clean you guitar to help it last for much longer. The string should then be placed back in and connected through the bridge. After this everything should be coiled up to the proper tension and the guitar should be re tuned until it sounds just perfect and you can proceed to enjoy playing your guitar with a new string.

A lot of people find the idea of being able to repair their own guitar strings rather exciting and empowering. Think of the freedom which is felt from the ability of being able to fix your own guitar strings instead of getting someone else to do it for you.

Darren Williger is a over-motivated, guitar playing, low carbohydrate eating, wine making sales maker who writes for LearnGuitar.WS, GuitarDetails.com, and LawOfAttraction.WS.