tuning by ear and coming up flat

[djphelan01]

I've been practicing trying to tune my guitar by ear (no fork, tuner etc). While I am getting much better, I always seem to be a half step flat from standard tuning (I check it with the a tuner after I am done).
If I'm playing along with Stevie Ray Vaughan or some others who tune down, I will tune down to match. Although most of the time I play in standard tuning.

Is this due to lack of skill, or is that what my hearing will always tell me? Should I try and compensate and tune as if I think it's sharp?

[AndrewG]

Originally Posted by djphelan01

I've been practicing trying to tune my guitar by ear (no fork, tuner etc). While I am getting much better, I always seem to be a half step flat from standard tuning (I check it with the a tuner after I am done).
If I'm playing along with Stevie Ray Vaughan or some others who tune down, I will tune down to match. Although most of the time I play in standard tuning.

Is this due to lack of skill, or is that what my hearing will always tell me? Should I try and compensate and tune as if I think it's sharp?

Very few people are born with either perfect pitch or relative pitch accurate enough to tune an instrument with no external aids. It really isn't a big deal if you can't tune accurately without a tuner to at least give you one reference tone (eg A440); most of us, I suspect, cannot.

[Ken C]

If you are consistent, then the rest can be learned. Familiarize yourself with the 440 A. Forget the guitar for a moment. Just "learn" that one note. Then you should get closer to the perfect pitch.

I remember breaking strings trying to tune without any aid when I was learning...before electronic tuners...and finally I got a reed tuner. Later, I used a harmonica since I was playing with one a lot.

Now, I can get quite close without a tuning aid, providing it is a familiar six-steel string guitar. (But not my tenor!)

In a store, I picked up a rosewood Gibson J-45 and it was way out of tune and I quickly went to near perfect. Within thirty minutes, I tried the same thing on a rosewood Guild... I couldn't get anywhere close. "Does someone have a tuner I can borrow -- please?"

Ken C.

[SongwriterFan]

Why even try?

Just spend $20 for a tuner, and go!

[djphelan01]

Originally Posted by SongwriterFan

Why even try?

Just spend $20 for a tuner, and go!

I have tuners, 4 to be exact. I just wanted to learn to do it so when a reference such as a tuning fork or tuner isn't available, I'd be able to get a guitar tuned pretty close to standard tuning.

[SongwriterFan]

Originally Posted by djphelan01

I just wanted to learn to do it so when a reference such as a tuning fork or tuner isn't available,

Always make sure there IS one available.

If you''re not playing with other people, it won't really matter if you're flat or sharp . . as long as you can get the relative pitch OK. Most of us get fairly close to that by just fretting the other strings to tune.

But for me, the tuner is a much faster way, and it always sounds better.


To get the entire guitar perfectly in tune, the problem is remembering exactly what one note sounds like. Doesn't really matter what note it is (though it'd be easier if it's an open string on the guitar, like an A).

The vast majority of us, though, can't remember a specific frequency that closely.

[Glennwillow]

DJ,

I think your experience is typical of most of us -- few people have perfect pitch and if you do, it may be a disadvantage. Relative pitch is mostly what matters, and inexpensive and accurate tuners solve all your problems.

From a practical standpoint, tuners work wonders for stopping arguments between people playing together who hear things differently.

Regards, Glenn

[rforman15]

Tune to a chord. Then tune to another chord. Then tune to another chord. Where there are discrepancies compromise.

[brianmay]

. . . in the 60s and 70s, the comment always used to be 'It was in tune when I bought it'.

Still works for me - good luck by the way, I am always dazzled by a friend who can sing note perfect from a 'standing start'.

Amazing.

I am boring and still use a D or G tuning fork - nice to know my harmonicas are in tune too.

[brad4d8]

Originally Posted by djphelan01

I've been practicing trying to tune my guitar by ear (no fork, tuner etc). ....Is this due to lack of skill, or is that what my hearing will always tell me? Should I try and compensate and tune as if I think it's sharp?

It's not something I've consciously tried to do, but a couple of years ago I was trying to tune a guitar when I had no access to a fork or tuner, and came up within a few cents of a=440 when I did get a tuner to check. I think after almost 50 years it just is lodged in my brain somewhere. So, I'm thinking that just more time and it may get in your head as well.
Brad

[donh]

Originally Posted by djphelan01

I have tuners, 4 to be exact. I just wanted to learn to do it so when a reference such as a tuning fork or tuner isn't available, I'd be able to get a guitar tuned pretty close to standard tuning.

if there is no reference around, then it doesn't matter. you get to Just Play. all you need is close enough that the strings aren't floppy or breaking.

[JTC111]

Originally Posted by djphelan01

I've been practicing trying to tune my guitar by ear (no fork, tuner etc). While I am getting much better, I always seem to be a half step flat from standard tuning (I check it with the a tuner after I am done).
If I'm playing along with Stevie Ray Vaughan or some others who tune down, I will tune down to match. Although most of the time I play in standard tuning.

Is this due to lack of skill, or is that what my hearing will always tell me? Should I try and compensate and tune as if I think it's sharp?

What I do when a tuner isn't available is to sing a song whose first note I know and then tune that note first. For example, if I sing "Fly Me to the Moon" in my head, I always start it on an Ab. Even without a tuner, I can get that Ab within a few cents of being spot on. I tune the G string fretted at the first fret to Ab and then I tune the other strings off of that one.
Hope that helps some.

[brad4d8]

Originally Posted by JTC111

What I do when a tuner isn't available is to sing a song whose first note I know and then tune that note first.

That's probably the way it works with me, too, although internally. When I sang a lot, many of my songs started on 'g', so that's the string I usually try to tune first without a tuner. I don't sing the note, though, just internalize it.
Brad

[Glennwillow]

Originally Posted by JTC111

What I do when a tuner isn't available is to sing a song whose first note I know and then tune that note first. For example, if I sing "Fly Me to the Moon" in my head, I always start it on an Ab. Even without a tuner, I can get that Ab within a few cents of being spot on. I tune the G string fretted at the first fret to Ab and then I tune the other strings off of that one.
Hope that helps some.

This is a good idea and probably actually works.

In Daniel Leviton's book, "This Is Your Brain On Music," he states that research shows the people remember songs in their actual key, so that the starting note typically IS within a few cents of the true starting note.

Thanks, Glenn