Tag: Musical tuning

Changing Guitar Strings

Nicole Neal2 Comments

I’m not going to tell or show you exactly how to change strings on your guitar today. There are plenty of video guides out there to help you with that (see below). Instead I’m talking about the ‘why’ and ‘when’ side of things.

Why do I need to change my strings? They’re not broken!

All guitar strings, regardless of their make and model, are subject to aging. That is to say they get over-stretched through constantly being under tension, through the process of tuning and through use. Acids, grot and grime from the left hand, and the action of being pressed against the frets will wear the strings at one end, and the action of nails on the guitar and other right hand techniques will wear the strings at the other. So as the strings get older they will be harder to keep in tune.

They will also lose their original tone qualities and responsiveness in terms of the different tones you can extract from them when playing. The bass strings in particular, the ones that are typically wound with a metal, will quickly lose their out-of-the packet “zing” and brightness. Typically the newer the better with the bass strings.

With the treble strings these typically take a few days to a week of playing in and tension running through them to get them really sounding at their best.Over time, however, the treble strings too will fade in their responsiveness and tonal quality. I’ve pieced together a diagram here – Nicole’s string awesomeness scale – to show for you how strings tend to fade over time (with 5 being most awesome and 1 being least awesome). This is, of course, based completely unscientifically on my own experiences, playing style and the types of string I tend to use

Broken guitar strings
Photo credit: Wikipedia

How often should I change the strings?

Just how quick all this happens depends on a number of things, including:

• The type of strings you have on

• How often you play

• How much detuning you do

• How clean your hands are before you play (and how sweaty they are when playing, not to put too fine a point on it!)

So in answer to the above question, the answer is you do need to change your strings somewhat regularly to ensure your guitar and your playing sounds its best. Not to mention it will be easier to keep in tune, and be that bit extra bit easier to play, not having to squeeze the life out of the guitar to get some nice sounding notes out!

For the person that’s playing a few times a week, say half an hour to an hour at a time, most days, I’d say changing your strings about 3-4 times per year is probably about right for you. Again this is very much dependent on those dot points listed above, as well as financial considerations of course of replacing strings.

If you’re performing, you have a recital, a concert or an exam, I would definitely recommend putting a nice fresh set of strings on about a week or so before your performance. This gives the strings time to settle in, whilst also retaining that awesome out-of-the-box sounds quality.

Any other tips for me?

Ooh yes definitely.

  • It’s really not as difficult, fiddly or time-consuming as you think it might be to change your guitar’s strings. Ok, it may take a bit of getting used to for the first couple, but you’ll soon get into the swing of it. Taking it to your local guitar shop for them to restring is really money for old rope (or should that be old strings?). And what happens when the shop is closed or you’re not near to a shop when it happens?
  • Ask your teacher to show you how to do it. Any teacher worth their salt will gladly show how to carry out this essential piece of maintenance.
  • If you don’t have a teacher, there are HEAPS of videos on YouTube that give some excellent guidance on restringing your guitar. Here are a couple of good examples:
  • Avoid taking off all the strings at the same time. Whilst doing that can aid in the cleaning of the fingerboard or soundboard, the sudden change in tension can be detrimental to the neck and soundboard of your guitar. Change them one-for-one. That also minimises the risk of putting the wrong string in the wrong place.
  • When you have a string off the guitar, give the space under the fingerboard a quick wipe with a clean, lint free cloth, and the same on the soundboard. This just removes any grime build up and dust, and keeps your guitar looking as schmicko as you make it sound!

If anyone wants any tips on the types of strings to use, feel free to ask in the comment box below or contact me directly and I’ll be happy to chat further.

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Tune up and tune in – making sure you’re playing in tune

Nicole Neal1 Comment

Playing in tune is such a fundamental part of playing music and something that seemingly is relatively easy for a guitarist to do given that we have frets and all, unlike our four-stringed orchestral cousins.

Tuning fork (Diapason) on resonance box, by Ma...
Taking it back to the old school – a tuning fork (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Having said that, guitarists are not disinclined to poor intonation themselves, bending the strings to produce a note which is a microtone or two out of tune. Anyway, that is not the real subject of today’s blog post (perhaps a topic for another time). Today I’m talking about actually being in tune before we begin to play a single note.

The various woods, and even more so the strings, comprising the classical guitar are highly susceptible to changes in temperature and humidity. So applying the basic laws of physics that we all learnt at school, when materials are cold they tend to contract, and when they warm up they tend to? Yes, that’s right, they expand! Now as wonderful an instrument as the guitar is it still observes the earthly laws of physics and so we have a relatively temperamental instrument in terms of tuning. It seems our wee strings do a lot of expanding and contracting.

Then when you add in the types of strings being used, the effects of the age of strings and how much they might have stretched over time, whether the strings have used different turnings (drop D, or 4th string = F# lute type tuning) this can really effect how the strings stay in tune and how often they need checking and tuning.

At the very least we should check our tuning every time we first sit down to play or practice, or moving from one space or room to another to play. There’s a self-disparaging classical guitarist joke that we spend 90% of our time tuning, and the other 10% playing out of tune. Yup, this is our lot people. Better get used to it.

So how do we tune up?
There are three really simple methods you might want to give a whirl.
(1) Invest in an electronic tuner or tuning app on your smartphone
I’d suggest investing in something that gives you an indication (usually via coloured lights or a needle arrangement – check out the photo of my tuner) of how in tune you are, whether you’re slightly sharp or flat.
You can buy these little devices that perch atop your headstock, they’re not really all that expensive and very easy to use. They are particularly quick and easy to use in performance situations, as they are often come with a piezo-type pickup that rely on vibrations, not just microphones, so you don’t need to play loud to tune. The audience is probably not that interested to hear “doo doo” on the E string as you tune up. They may think it’s the start of your piece!

(2) Invest in a reference tone tuner

When at home (i.e. less ideal for performance situations) you could use a reference tone tuner. This is something that plays you a note that you then tune to.

You can buy dedicated tone tuners for this or you could use an “old skool” tuning fork, but these days you can also get extremely cheap or even free reference tone apps for your smartphone.  I also have the world’s most expensive guitar tuner at home – a piano.

These reference tone tuners will (almost) always give you correct concert pitch, but rely much more on your own ear to discern whether the string on the guitar is the same as the reference note being played (i.e. how in tune you really are). It’s quite a good method for really listening in though and developing your ear; I recommend giving it a try. Once you get your ear in, so to speak, it’s a very fast method, and assure you of playing in the proper pitch, as written by the composer (which can affect how a piece feels when played, but I digress…).
(3) Tuning to yourself, using the  “fifth fret” method

You can also tune the guitar so that it’s in tune with itself. It won’t necessarily be at concert pitch though, unless you have perfect pitch (in which case issues with tuning correctly are probably non-existent!). I used this method solely for many years, much to the annoyance of my then guitar teacher as by the time my lesson rolled around my guitar was pretty much a whole tone out of tune with respect to concert pitch.

You can tune the guitar to itself by playing the fifth fret of the sixth string (low E) – which produces the note A – and then play the open fifth string, which is also an A. These two tones should sound exactly the same, if not you’re out of tune and you need to adjust the fifth string up or down accordingly. You continue doing this for each if the strings, aside from the third string (G). Here you need to play the note on the 4th fret (which produces the note B), to match the open second string (B).

Check out this website which has a simple explanation with photos of how to use the fifth fret method to tune your guitar to itself:
http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/how-to-tune-a-guitar-to-itself-using-the-fifthfret.pageCd-storyboard,pageNum-1.html

You can also check and tweak your tuning using harmonics, but I’ll let you get your fingers around the “fifth fret” option first and we’ll save that method for another post.