How many folks still tune by ear?

[tlbonehead]

I always get close with the tuner and then fine-tune for my playing needs and style.

[Chordchunker]

Well.........did ya tell your brother he was just a tad sharp?

 

 

Oh he knew..We just did the best we could..lol. We played some big shows back in the Day (Kerrville, King BIscuit, NPR, etc) Pissed him off to buy new harps that were out of tune.. Health laws prevent you from trying them first. I`m sure you`ve seen those bellows type gadgets they use, but you can`t tell a damn thing by those contraptions..

 

That`s why pros spend so much for good harps.. He`s been playing probably 40 years or more and wears them out fairly quickly, but still buys the good ones. The Lee Oskars have replaceable reed kits, but they are a real PIA and rarely work..

[shredder1]

Started playing in the 60s, ear tuning was the only choice. I do have a tuner on the board though, more convienient on stage with all the noise, sometimes tune while playing live

[masterbuilt]

I tune the low-e with a tuner and then blow through everything else quickly by ear.

[~GOD~]

i tune by nose

[Les Paul Lover]

Gobsmacked I am. Gobsmacked. So what age group thinks tuning by ear is a mystical art?

Dunno, but I'm 33 and regularly impress guitar shop sales person but fine tuning a guitar by ear.

Like stackabones, I need the starting note, but can then do a more accurate job by ear than by tuner.

That little clip on {censored}er is handy though.... and it goes from red to green when hitting the right note and I like using it for that too......

[Tartanlad]

Tart, I think you missed my comment ref. banjo players and electronic tuners. An electronic chromatic tuner can be used on just about any stringed instrument. Mine even works great on my fiddle if I can keep it clipped onto the peg box. Sometimes I just clip it to the chin rest instead.

Ye your right Opa..also Chordy

Hey before i got ma 1st guitar i had bought a tenor banjo

and went to pub to show a guy just after i got it in store
he's very gd with guitar likes but can play mando also..and he sais you would be probs better with guitar as it gives you more scope..sais be better going back to store and asking if they would change it for a guitar but its up to yourself..store was just up road but was closed when a went

so i went back to the pub..this other older guy asked for a shot of banjo although he had his guitar with him..he went to tune it up with his guitar tuner and he burst a string on the banjo

the guy whom plays both guitar / mando had told him not to as his guitar tuner would be to strong for a banjo..wasnt an expensive banjo likes
anyhow this ignorant man whom bust string just stretched his arm out hand me back ma banjo
but other guy i mentioned above sais he can be an ignorant sod
give me it and ill put a mando string on it and the guy in store wont notice the difference when u tke it back to exchange for a guitar

later after wkend (I add this banjo really wasnt played at all) i foned guy in store if he'd exchange banjo for a guitar as i sais the banjo had been sitting in corner of room since i had got it just last wk..so he sais as long as its in same nick then he'd allow this once (was gd of him) so i took it back exchanged for a Ovation type guitar with bow back.. payed a bit extra for it
then gave it to ma laddie after i got the Alvarez
he still practices now then on it yet

I since learned from both this forum and the guy whom plays
both guitar / mandolin that better with a solid top wooden guitar
now realise he was correct..you live and learn a guess
So a Chromatic tuner is fine for most any type of instrument
well thats although i struggle a touch with guitar but can change
chords ok and play some songs with strumming now..
so feel the guitar was the better choice for me..
Having sais i also like sound of both a banjo and Mandolin also
nice instruments..

[Samilyn]

I no longer hear well enough to tune by ear, so electronic tuners are a must for me.

My better half always tunes by ear and many times I just hand him my git and say "Pleeeeze".

[blue2blue]

I no longer hear well enough to tune by ear, so electronic tuners are a must for me. My better half always tunes by ear and many times I just hand him my git and say "Pleeeeze".

I'm sorry you're having difficulties with your hearing. I have a heck of a time tuning in a noisy environment myself (and have some fairly serious hearing decay, but probably not too far out of line for someone my age... or at least someone my age how used to stick his head in kick drums looking for the sweet spot for a mic ).

 

Before I had a good sense of, let's call it, pitch direction (when two notes were close, I couldn't tell which was higher and which was lower, at least not without at least subvocalizing them), I tended to rely on the beat frequencies generated by out of tune pairs during relative tuning. And those beat tones are still a very valuable signal.

 

But an alternate approach that's been working quite well for me in the last few months is (as noted above) 'placing' a reference tone in my (short term) auditory memory, stopping the ringing of that string and then using the remembered pitch as reference. It sounds like something that would be hard or require a better pitch sense than I might have thought I had, but it's actually easier and quicker for me than trying to do relative tuning by letting the reference tone ring. That said, I still do the latter in order to check for beat tones signalling out-of-tuneness. But the actually tuning I do using the tone in memory so that I'm not having to deal with all those conflicting resonances, which tend to confuse my ear.

[baldbloke]

How many of us do a lot of tuning by ear, since the advent of the electronic tuner? Having an electronic device that does a job for you, tends to cause your skills at doing that job manually, to atrophy. How many of us do a lot of simple math with pencil and paper, since the advent of the calculator? An additional question is, how many of us "sweeten" the tuning a little after we've used the electronic tuner? Most of us should be doing that. Some tuners have a rather loose pitch tolerance (IOW, they lie to you... they say you are on pitch, when you aren't). And, unless your guitar has perfect intonation, the pitch of fretted notes will be off to some degree. Just gracing everyone with the utter and profound displeasure of my presence .

 

 

Darn. And we wuz havin' such a good time an' all.

 

FretFiend, your calculator point is a good one. I too am guilty of using calculators for stuff I really should be doing manually (Laziness, accuracy, time saving - delete as appropriate)

 

My own personal view on tuning is same as yours, and many others who have posted here. E-tuners are helpful but fine tuning manually is beneficial. The "atrophy" statement is, I think bang on.

[baldbloke]

I no longer hear well enough to tune by ear, so electronic tuners are a must for me. My better half always tunes by ear and many times I just hand him my git and say "Pleeeeze".

 

Hmmm, that's what I say to my missus. But, erm, that's a different topic.

 

Samyliyn, my hearing seems to be going the other way. Auditory (is that the right word?) problems run in my family - to some degree. Over the past few years, I have been turning down the volume on the TV to what I think is an acceptable level. But my wife and visitors have extreme difficulty hearing volume levels I still think are too loud. Then, on the other hand, there are days when I can not enjoy conversations because it's a PIA asking everyone to repeat themselves.

 

(But I don't tell them I have the car stereo turned up to 11 when I'm driving alone:p)

[EdBega]

I use to start by tuning the E with someone elses guitar then play an A note (5th fret) on the E string to tune the open A string on so on to the G string play a B note on the 4th fret for the open B string then back to an E note on the B string 5th fret for the open e string. After that compared the open E string and E note 7th fret of the A string ... down to the open G string and G note on the 8th fret B string then back to the 7th fret for a B note on the e string . I wasn't that good at it and this was before tuning forks were invented ... :poke:

Short answer I mostly use a tuner now but the G always sounds a hair flat to me.

[jamesp]

I've never gotten the atrophy thing. Does using a Metronome ruin a player's sense of timing? Or doing fingering drills cause dexterity to taper-off?

My thinking is that the tuner's visual feedback only reinforces what the ear is hearing and improves a players sense of pitch by repetitive listening to the "correct" pitches. Everybody who can tune ends up "sweetening" anyway.

I think tuners allow guys to forget how bad they were at tuning before tuners came along.

[baldbloke]

I've never gotten the atrophy thing. Does using a Metronome ruin a player's sense of timing? Or doing fingering drills cause dexterity to taper-off? My thinking is that the tuner's visual feedback only reinforces what the ear is hearing and improves a players sense of pitch by repetitive listening to the "correct" pitches. Everybody who can tune ends up "sweetening" anyway. I think tuners allow guys to forget how bad they were at tuning before tuners came along.

 

I would have thought metronome introduces timing which then becomes a learned skill by repetition. Same with finger exercises. By not reinforcing timing and motor skills then there is a risk of degradation.

 

Looking/listening? I suspect the visual aspect of a tuner can outweigh, (be perceived as more important than), the accompanying note by newer players. The audible tone is in danger of becoming ignored in favour of the meter needle. Musicality, the goal, then becomes second to a measurement.

[jamesp]

I would have thought metronome introduces timing which then becomes a learned skill by repetition. Same with finger exercises. By not reinforcing timing and motor skills then there is a risk of degradation. Looking/listening? I suspect the visual aspect of a tuner can outweigh, (be perceived as more important than), the accompanying note by newer players. The audible tone is in danger of becoming ignored in favour of the meter needle. Musicality, the goal, then becomes second to a measurement.

 

 

That what I meant by if everybody's "sweetening." Everybody who can tune, is tuning by ear. If they can't tune then at least a tuner will get them close.

 

Losing the ability to tune hasn't been my experience with tuners. My experience has been that I no longer have to argue with guys about whether they're out of tune or not. And some of these guys are very fine players, too. Chordchunker's mando guy being a case in point. If Steve's talking about who I think he's talking about, then the guy is a monster player! But he can't tune. Still, no one who heard him would question his "musicality."

 

Playing music is the goal. Get over tuning and get on with it.

[Tartanlad]

1/ I was lead to believe to tune by ear was to begin with the
lowest and thickest string Tune to E

2/ Put finger on 5th fret of 6th string E this gives tuning for 5th string A

3/ Put finger on 5th fret of 5th string gives the pitch of the 4th string, which is D

4/Place finger on 5th fret of 4th string to get pitch of the 3rd string the G

5/Place finger on 4th fret of 3rd string to get pitch of 2nd string the B

6/ Place finger on 5th fret of 2nd string to get pitch of 1st string E

But with tuners what the heck..

[recordingtrack1]

I force myself to tune by ear mostly when I am at home, just to stay in practice. (I do get lazy sometimes) When I am recording a piece I want it right in case I try to over dub another instrument over it. When I am out in public, I use my tuner without exception. Often, it's so noisey it's hard to tune by ear anyway.

[baldbloke]

My experience has been that I no longer have to argue with guys about whether they're out of tune or not.

 

Lol,

 

I've never played in a band but now you've said that, I can imagine the arguments that must have taken place in the days before tuners.

[Tartanlad]

Using tuners in a way is like cheating :blah:

But having sais such i may buy another tuner soon

always handy to have another on standby.. ye cheater

[gull12]

I've tuned by ear for about thirty years. Not always right on, but usually pretty close. Back in the old days, we used to argue about who had the best pitch pipe. Arguing was less interesting back then.

[SkippyX]

I wouldn't say tuning by ear is going out of fashion, but its definitely not as common, at least for people my age. I've learned to tune by ear somewhat, and the other guitarists around me are amazed by that, like its some sort of special ability .

I use a A440 tuning fork to get A. Then I do harmonics @ the 5th & 7th frets to get it close. Then I fine tune.

I know three guys, who are really pretty good players, that look at me like I've got two heads when I do that.

[guildfire]

Use a tuner when playing with others. Nobody wants to hear your version of "correct" tuning. If you play solo, knock yourself out with tuning by ear.

[DeepEnd]

Years ago, mom taught me to tune a ukulele using the "My dog has fleas" method (you sing a little four note song and tune to the notes). I also have a decent sense of what a 5 semitone interval sounds like. I can tune that way if necessary but I can only get the guitar "in tune with itself." I used to have an E tuning fork and I'd tune to that. Nowadays I use an electronic tuner and sweeten the G string by ear.

[erold]

I feel that tuning by ear helps my pitch perception, so I try and do that when I have the time. Still a beginner tho, so it doesn't always work that well, and if I just want to play I'll use a tuner to help me.

[Yamaneck]

I just did a workshop, and noticed that many younger players are unable to tell when their guitars are in tune, i.e., whatever their tuners tells them, is gold! They haven't learned to hear this.

Don't get me wrong, tuners are great! I come from the bad old days, pre-tuners, pre-monitors. Tuners will get you in the ballpark, but you still have to find your seats.