If only every beginner guitar player watched this video FIRST….
To get a good tuner on the app store search Will Ripley or go to: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/will-ripley-tuner-special/id666862703?mt=8
Guitar’s Action – This refers to how high your strings are off of the wood of the guitar.
Beginner guitar players will enjoy the strings as close to the fret board as possible without the strings actually touching the frets. It makes sense, right?
When the strings are low, there is less travel to push your fingers into the strings resulting in less effort and your energy and focus can be put towards playing and enjoying rather than exerting unnecessary energy that will likely lead to frustration.
If your guitars strings aren’t particularly low you’ll want to seek out a guitar tech. They are often referred to as “Luthiers”. It’s pronounced “looth-e-ay”. There are specific guitar builders/ repair people who can help you with this and usually guitar stores have techs that can help you out. It really makes a difference and will help you out a ton.
Tuning your guitar!
You’ll eventually be able to tune by ear – but what’s more in common is to use an electronic tuner. Yes, tuning by ear is important and a skill that you’ll develop eventually, but I’m sure that you’d agree that focusing on playing and learning techniques are more important that struggling with learning how to tune.
Guitars go out of tune all the time. Temperature, seasons, moving, packing and un packing your guitar will force it out of tune.
If you have an Apple product you can use my tuner which you can find in the app store by searching “Will Ripley” or by visiting this link: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/will-ripley-tuner-special/id666862703?mt=8
I also think that Korg makes a pretty good tuner if you wanted to get a physical version.
This will be a great opportunity for you to learn the names of the strings which is really important. Starting with the big string and moving towards the thinnest, the order is E, A, D, G, B, e
Here are some tips for tuning your guitar – aside from my video!
-Tuning is really easy, you just want to get that needle dialed right in the centre.
-Background noise will get picked up by the tuner. It’s best to be plugged into the tuner (if you have an electric) or tune in a quiet area
-Tuning up to the note (tightening) will result in the string being more solid on the guitar
– Pick the note consistently, move the tuning peg simultaneously and constantly adjust until you nail the tuning
-Make sure that you’re tuning your string to the right note! You might be tuning your E string to a D# or something else if you’re not careful – which will sound bad with all the other strings. The readout of the tuner (chromatic tuners in particular) will tell you what note you’re tuning to.
For full length, step-by-step videos, check out https://www.campfireguitarstar.com/starthere