Originally Posted by jaymarsch

When I first started out, I couldn’t trust my ears. I had to train my ears by using a tuning fork and use the in tune string to tune the rest (they didn’t have clip on tuners back then and if there were electronic ones they were probably the size of a shoe box :-) ).
I remember being at an intimate concert at Schoenberg’s years ago and I was in the splash row listening to Kenny Edwards being accompanied by the fabulous Nina Gerber. She was putting her guitar in another tuning and suddenly scowled, stared down the tuner and said: “I’ve been doing this a long time and that G note you’re trying to sell me isn’t going to fly.”
She tuned it by using her ear and we’ll, she sounded great to my ears.
Tuning takes practice, ear training and some patience but it pays off. I still remember when I could finally change strings, bring them up to pitch by ear and never be more than a half step or less off. A small achievement but I was excited. LOL!
Best,
Jayne