I have no experiance with the guitar and I was given a electric but I don't have any amp. Can I tune an electric guitar with out an amp just playing the strings?
Thanks in advance for any help you can give.
Session
Hi,
The short answer is yes you can. :)
The longer answer is that you can get tuners that clip onto your guitar and pick up the sound vibrations through the wood, or ones that have a different kind of small mic that picks up the sound through the air. Some can even do both, and let you switch between the two. Or you can use find a free tuner on the internet that plays the pitches and you have to match them by ear. There should be enough sound unplugged for any of those options, but when you're completely new to it all it might be easier to use one that gives you some kind of dial or pointer to follow, rather than by ear. With a bit of practice you'll get the ear thing going though.
It's also good to play through an amp at least some of the time, if you can, as the technique can be a little different from playing acoustic guitar. But for a while you'll have your hands full just teaching your fingers to go where you tell them to, so I wouldn't worry too much about rushing out to buy an amp straight away.
Good luck, it's a great hobby. :)
Chris
Can you spare $15?
http://www.musiciansfriend.com/accessories/korg-ca-1-chromatic-tuner/502061000000000
I wrapped a newspaper ’round my head
So I looked like I was deep
Have to agree with Kent. Get yourself a decent tuner that you can plug in to and tune that way. No sense in spending hundreds on a guitar and not popping for a $15 tuner.
Check out my guitar blog at http://www.sixstringmadness.com
There's also the 5th fret method for tuning with your ears.
Would have explained it myself, but would have got lost. :?
http://www.get-tuned.com/5th-fret-tuning.php
"If I had a time machine, I'd go back and tell me to practise that bloody guitar!" -Vic Lewis
Everything is 42..... again.
Everyone should learn to tune by ear first in my opinion.
Everyone should learn to tune by ear first in my opinion.
Assuming they have the ears for it.
When I was starting, it took me many months to be able to hear the difference between in tune and not when playing the same note on different strings.
My ears get confused by the different timbre/quality of the notes on different strings. Even though the electronic tuner told me they were the same, I heard them as different.
If I haven't picked up my guitar in too long, I still have trouble tuning by ear some days.
After all these years, I still struggle to learn songs by ear.
I wrapped a newspaper ’round my head
So I looked like I was deep
Get yourself a usb cable (paid 35 for mine at target) and download audiacity or even better the Guitar Rig 5 Demo. Full function for 30 minutes then you have to re-start. Theres a tuner built into that but you need to learn to tune with your ear. If you go to jguitar.com theres a tuner there for elect. and acoustic versions with different tunings.
I'm not affiliated with either Guitar Rig or Jguitar, I just use them
