Finishing Tuning the Guitar - The Last four Strings

Ok so now we should have the 'A' String tuned as well, but what about the D, G, B, and little e string. Well you will be happy to know that just as you tuned the A string using the E string you can tune the other strings from notes on the next string to them.

For example:

• To tune the 'D' String you would tune to the note 'D' that is on the fifth fret of the 'A' String.

• To tune the 'G' String you would use the 'G' note on the fifth fret on the 'D' String.

So the above tablature shows the notes to play to tune the open strings that are beside them.

Now the only string that does not follow this rule is the 'B' string - this gets tuned from the fourth fret on the 'G' string, We tune to 'B' on this string as it is one of the best compromises to make chord and scale shapes easy to play. So to tune the 'B' String - use the B note at the Fourth Fret on the 'G' String. The little 'e' string follows the normal rule and is tuned off the 'e' note on the fifth fret of the 'B' string.

Remember to get the sounds of the open strings and the note that you are tuning with to sound almost identical. By the time you tune the top strings the bottom ones may have been pulled out of tune, it may be necessary to retune all the strings many times before they will sit in tune.

A suggestion for beginners who are having trouble tuning their guitars:

• Firstly, you could find someone to tune your guitar for you, then grab a tape deck and record the sounds of each string. Begin with the low E string and strike it several times when recording. Let the note ring for a while. Strike them in a slow rhythm, say once every two seconds. Do this for the same string 10 or so times, then move to the next string. This will give you a steady recording of what each string should sound like so you can play the tape back and tune in on it.

• Secondly, you could invest in a Tuning fork. Most tuning forks sound an A note when struck. You can use this to tune the open A string.

When tuning, always tune up. This means, loosen the string so it is of a lower note and then tune up to the correct note. Don't tune down to the note. (The reason for this as I understand it is that the tuning heads do not grip the string well enough when you undo them, and they can slip out of tune easier. By always insuring that your last turn of the tuning heads is to tighten the string then the tuners will grab the string quite nicely).

Summary of This Lesson

I hope that you will have learned the following:

• What Tablature is?

• How to tune your guitar

Introduction to Notes and The Chromatic Scale

The Basics can never be overlooked, and even when you think that you are a good player, you will still find yourself resorting to the basics repeatedly. The purpose of this and upcoming lessons in this series is to form a solid base of knowledge from which you can evolve.

Music is made up from so-called "Fixed sounds" - that is when we play a single note on a piano-like instrument the sounds slowly fades away but does not go up or down. The guitar is actually capable of playing an infinite number of notes in between any two notes with only a minute difference between the notes but in practice, all instruments generally only use the notes that are on the keyboard of the piano. We tune our guitars so that we are in tune with the 'fixed' notes of the piano (i.e. our 'E' note is in fact an 'E' note).

What is the Chromatic Scale?

Most of the western music we hear only contains 12 notes; these are the 12 notes of the Chromatic scale and indeed the 12 notes that are present on a piano keyboard. The Notes of the Chromatic Scale are (starting from C in this case) :

C, C#, D, D#, E, F, F#, G, G#, A, A#, B

The '#' character indicates a 'sharp' note, this indicates that the note is one semitone (see below) higher than the note that it is written with for example the A# indicates that it is one semitone higher than the A note.

You will notice that there is no E# or a B# this is because of how the music has been divided up. If you have a look, at a keyboard the sharp (or flat) notes are the black keys and you will notice that there are some missing!!!!...Well these are the E# and B#.

The chromatic scale can also be written using flats: C, Db, D, Eb, E, F, Gb, G, Ab, A, Bb, B, C

The 'b' character indicates a flattened note - that is a note that lays one semitone below the note written with it. Therefore "B Flat" (Bb) is one semitone below B. Right now here is the tricky bit ... Db and C# are essentially the same note, Db is one semitone below D and C# is one semitone above C. These notes are called 'enharmonic equivalents', so you notice also that there is no Fb just as there was no E#.

Tones and Semitones

The notes of the chromatic scale are one semitone apart, this equates to one fret on the guitar. To move up a full tone then you will need to move up the string two semitones, which is two frets.

1 tone = 2 semitones

1 tone = 2 frets on the guitar

1 semitone = 1 fret on the guitar

This is the end of this lesson - next we will look at tuning our guitar, and learning to read a little guitar tablature.

Summary of This Lesson

Hopefully you will have learned the following :

• What the notes are called that we play in music.

• That the chromatic scale contains all these notes.

• What 'enharmonic equivalents' are.

• The difference between tones and semitones.

• Playing The Chromatic Scale on Guitar

Ok so we have covered some concepts that you may be finding quite intimidating at this stage, well sorry but its not quite finished. Here is a little primer on playing the chromatic scale on the guitar, a very vital bit of information that once you understand you will always use.

Hello again, welcome to another fun-filled instalment of the beginner guitar lessons. Please write to me and let me know how you are finding these lessons and any problems that you are having so far. So, in the last couple of lessons we have been looking at the chromatic scale and today I am going to show you a couple of ways to play the scale on the guitar.

So how do I play the chromatic scale on the Guitar?

Just to refresh your memory, this is what the chromatic scale is :