Here's a really useful method for tuning your guitar when you haven't got a tuner to hand. This will allow you to tune your guitar so that it is in tune with itself, but not necessarily in tune with other instruments.

It's done like this:

Play the 5th fret on the low E string. Tune the open A string to this note.
Play the 5th fret on the Astring. Tune the open D string to this note.
Play the 5th fret on the D string. Tune the open G string to this note.
Play the 4th fret on the G string. Tune the open B string to this note.
Play the 5th fret on the B string. Tune the open high E string to this note.

This is shown in the first part of the video.

The second half of the video shows the same method but using natural harmonics. If you don't know how to play natural harmonics, check out this lesson.

The natural harmonic produced from the 5th fret on a string should be the same pitch as the natural harmonic produced from the 7th fret on the next string. This works for all the strings except the G and B pair. For these strings you have to use the first method outlined above.

The advantage of this method is that when you play the two harmonics and then tune the second one up to the first, you can hear the two notes resonate. This is caused by the two sound wave interfering and the result is a pulse effect. As the two notes become closer and closer, their frequencies will become in-phase and you will notice the pulse effect dissapear.

This is much more precise than the first method. If you cannot hear the pulsing, turn up the distortion a little to amplify the effect.

Andy Webber.

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