Guitar Tuning Essentials

Introduction
So the first thing you want to do when you pick up your guitar is to tune it. I have found that many starter pack guitars don't stay in tune very well. If you're serious about learning guitar, investing in a nice guitar that will actually stay in tune is important.

Standard Tuning Notes

When we tune our guitar, we need to know what notes standard tuning needs to be in:

• E - This big fat top, kind of chunky guy.
• A
• D
• G - My G, for some reason, does seem to go out of tune more than the rest.
• B - This one's a little out of tune.
• E - The little skinny one at the bottom.

Tuning Challenges
Tuning is one of those things on stage that I dread the most. It's a strange thing; I'm pretty confident and comfortable on stage, but anytime I have to tune in front of the crowd, like between songs, I panic. You want to keep the flow going, and tuning sort of stops everything. Sometimes my band will keep going while I quickly tune.

What I would do alone, just bust it out, boom! I can tune a guitar, becomes stressful when I have to tune quickly on stage.

Touring Experience

On a lot of tours, I actually have a guitar tech that comes with us and helps out the band and myself. I typically bring a few guitars along and switch between songs if needed.

I've been privileged during most of my touring career to have someone who keeps my guitar in tune for me. However, I've been doing a lot more solo and duo touring lately.

My Favorite Guitar

One of the things I love about my acoustic guitar, a Fender Paramount series parlor guitar, is its size, which is easy to keep my arms around. Plus, it has a tuner built right into it!

• It runs on a battery.
• You can plug it into a DI (Direct Input).

I can show you how it works: I just press this button on, and you can see the screen that helps me tune. That's pretty convenient, having it built right into the guitar! While it may not be as reliable as a Boss pedal tuner, I think it gets the job done.

The Importance of Tuning

Tuning is absolutely essential. If your guitar is not staying in tune, you're not going to have any fun at all.

People sometimes drop tune, where they'll do a drop D or change the tuning of the guitar for different songs. Alternate tunings are not something I've really experimented with, but I know of artists like Laura Marling and Joni Mitchell who do a lot of that.

Drop D Tuning - This is where you drop your top string down to a D. If you're picking things out, it can provide a fun new palette to work with.

Conclusion

But I usually just stay in standard tuning. As long as you're in tune, you can hop in with the band and have so much fun, provided they're all in tune as well. That's the thing, it should be fun! You should be having fun, and that's why you should be doing it in the first place.