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Old 12-06-2017, 03:43 PM
Todd Tipton Todd Tipton is offline
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Join Date: Jun 2017
Location: Charlotte, NC
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If one has a good ear but little experience with a classical guitar, it can be a humbling experience. There are great responses already, so I'm not sure what else I can contribute.

First off, if someone doesn't already know it, the classical guitar will quickly show a player that God played a very cruel joke on us: the twelve notes are not equally spaced out in nature. This is why tuning via harmonics at the 5th and 7th frets yield treble strings that are flat. This tuning method makes the false assumption that those notes are equally spaced out. The harmonic tuning method is evidence that they aren't. Headaches.

And if that isn't enough, there is the third string. It is spawned from Satan himself...lol. I discover a funny thing when I began exploring old tablatures for the barogue guitar: especially the ones with scordatura (alternate tunings). At the beginning of most pieces were written octave tunings for each of the strings. I suppose there is nothing new under the sun.

To this day, the best method I find for tuning is simply the octaves of A, B, D, and E. And if I can manage to make the 3rd string sound kind of okay when I play and open C major chord AND and open E major chord, then I am doubly blessed. I can make EITHER chord sound great, but then the other sounds lousy.

I had played other types of music for YEARS before I ever THOUGHT about a classical guitar. How I accidentally stumbled on the classical guitar is a worthy story, but is off topic. The point is, I never experienced those type of tuning problems prior to playing classical.

For me, I think part of it wasn't just the INSTRUMENT I played, but the style of music. Most of the time I was playing scales or power chords. At other times I was playing full chords or other such things. Everything sounded fine. I mean why wouldn't it, I already knew how to tune, right? ...lol

Even with the simplest of repertoire, I think there is something different going on. There is far more attention to how notes work together and with each other. There is more harmony either real or implied. Take that and couple it with a finicky nylon string. You suddenly have very real problems you thought you already solved. I was once working with a flautist who was having some difficulty with a particular passage as she had to bend a note in order to be in tune. I don't know a thing about the flute, but I joked and said, "you guys do that, too?"

And even if you get all of that settled, there is the issue of the third string. Especially around the fist and second frets and how it works with the nut. The first string can be a real devil too as is there is far less margin of error. The thickness of the string has to be uniform throughout or the string will not be capable of playing in tune.

There have been times where I've placed a brand new first string on a guitar, only to have the 12th fret play flat compared to the 12th fret harmonic. I have the bad habit of not changing my strings as often as I should. Sure, I am the "expert" in knowing it is almost always the 4th string to break first...lol But I'm also the "expert" in noticing all too often: great sounding trebles far beyond the life of my basses if...there is that if...IF they still had good intonation. You think WE have it bad. I used to play historical period instruments. It took me less than a week to figure out why the first course (pair of strings) was the only course not doubled. Thank God for Nylon...lol

So, I'm not sure anything I wrote is helpful. In summary, I'd say this: It took me a long time to figure out what I just wrote. Tune in octaves. Then check the C and E chord. Check those trebles at the 12th fret to make sure the strings are good. You have to bend notes sometimes. Sometimes a section of music sounds really bad. If there isn't a spot where you are free to quickly adjust tuning in flight, then you have to compromise by tuning a string slightly off so that everything sounds reasonable. Tuning in flight is something you learn to do. And finally, it isn't as monumental as it sounds once you start doing it. :-)
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