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<span class="text">[[Guitar Parts and Functions|Parts]]</span>
<span class="text">[[Holding the Guitar and Pick|Playing]]</span>
== Tuners ==
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<span class="text current">[[#Tuners|Tuners]]</span>
<span class="text">[[#Common Tunings|Common Tunings]]</span>
<span class="text">[[#How to Tune the Guitar|How to Tune]]</span>
<span class="text">[[#Harmonics|Harmonics]]</span>
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Even the most advanced players use some kind of tuning tool to help them. '''If you don't own a tuner, buy one or download a free smartphone tuner app.''' There are 3 kinds of tuners. The best kind for electric guitar is one you can plug the electical output of your guitar directly into the deveice. The other two either use a microphone or a vibration sensor to get an electrical signal to analyze, which can introduce noise. The vibrational ones can also get broken from a hard shock. A tuner app on a phone will use a microphone - with electric guitar it can be difficult to play loud enough so that the microphone can pick up a clean signal.
== Common Tunings ==
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<span class="text">[[#Tuners|Tuners]]</span>
<span class="text current">[[#Common Tunings|Common Tunings]]</span>
<span class="text">[[#How to Tune the Guitar|How to Tune]]</span>
<span class="text">[[#Harmonics|Harmonics]]</span>
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Standard Tuning on a guitar is
* 1 - E (E4)
There are also '''''open tunings''''', named because all the open strings' notes belong to particular chord. For example, ''Open E'' is (E B E G{{s}} B E) - all notes are from the (E G{{s}} B) triad or E major chord. All of the 12 notes can potentially have an open tuning. Again, people may call this lazy, but it really has far more inventive uses.
== How to tune Tune the guitar ==<div class="item-wrap"><div class="trail dblue"> <span class="text">[[#Tuners|Tuners]]</span> <span class="text">[[#Common Tunings|Common Tunings]]</span> <span class="text">[[#How to Tune the Guitar|How to Tune]]</span> <span class="text">[[#Harmonics|Harmonics]]</span> </div> </div>
=== Using a tuner ===
Make sure you are only playing the open string you want to tune. Mute the other strings with your right and left hands as described above in the [[Basic Technique]] lesson. If you are using an electric tuner, use your neck pickup - it has less overtones relative to the fundamental frequency, allowing your tuner to more easily detect the pitch of the note being played. Use your left hand to rotate the tuner for that string. You should see the tuner adjust accordingly.
== Harmonics ==
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<span class="text">[[#Tuners|Tuners]]</span>
<span class="text">[[#Common Tunings|Common Tunings]]</span>
<span class="text">[[#How to Tune the Guitar|How to Tune]]</span>
<span class="text current">[[#Harmonics|Harmonics]]</span>
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I prefer to use harmonics. Harmonics use a pivot point on the string to cause it to resonate at pitch that is a multiple of its resonant frequency. To sound a harmonic, you lightly place a finger from your left hand on the pivot point, but don't push down (don't fret the string) and pluck the string. Almost immediately after plucking, remove your finger from the string - it will continue to resonate at the harmonic frequency. Harmonics are identified by a number (the multiple of the base frequency), but more often are labeled by the location of a pivot point in relation to fret numbers. For example, the second harmonic is also called the "12th fret harmonic". Note that beyond the 2nd harmonic, there are multiple pivot points on the string that can be used to achieve the same harmonic. The number of the harmonic indicates the frequency multiple from the first harmonic. Here are a list of the first 8 harmonics:
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<span class="text">[[Guitar Parts and Functions|Parts]]</span>
<span class="text">[[Holding the Guitar and Pick|Playing]]</span>