The Guitar Pitch Pipe And Tuning Fork - How To Use Them

The alternatives to the electronic guitar tuner are the guitar tuning fork and pitch pipe. A guitar pitch pipe has six mouthpieces that correspond to the open strings of the guitar. You blow into the bottom E mouthpiece and you get the bottom E note from a vibrating bit of metal inside the mouthpiece. Simple. You hold the pitch pipe in your mouth while you turn the guitar tuners.

These guitar tuners are readily available from music stores and are a handy way to keep your guitar in tune once you have got used to the difference in sound between a wind instrument and a string instrument. The pitch in a pitch pipe can vary because wear and tear can affect the metal reed inside, as can humidity.

Another popular type of guitar tuner is the tuning fork. I guess it was a temptation to call them pitch forks but the name was already taken. You hit the tuning fork on a handy piece of durable furniture or your knee and it produces the note A at the fifth fret of the first string.

To use a tuning fork pluck the A string with your right hand finger or a pick while a finger of your left hand is lightly damping the string above the fifth fret. Once you have plucked the string, take your left hand finger away and you should hear the harmonic note sounding. Now hit the tuning fork on your knee and hold the bottom of the fork against the body of the guitar. You have to be quick to do this before the sound of the guitar's harmonic dies away. Once you have the knack of getting the fork and the guitar to sound together, you adjust the fifth string until the guitar harmonic sounds exactly in unison with the note from the fork.

To continue tuning, pick the A note at the fifth fret of the first string and tune it to your open fifth string. Or fret the E at the seventh fret of the fifth string and tune the first string to that.

Tuning the guitar using a tuning fork is a little awkward and long winded to explain and a little tricky to do at first but as with all things that need effort, it gives you freedom. The tuning fork will never go out of tune, if you lose yours you can borrow somebody elses and you won't need to depend on the support of an electronic tuner.

Buying an electronic guitar tuner is not really necessary of you are short of money, and you can download free ones from the internet that you can use on your computer.

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