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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>
Most tuners only tell you how close you are to a target note (A, B, C, etc), not what octave that note is (A2, C3, etc). You should be able to tell if you are a whole octave off, however. If you are an octave below, the string should have very little tension and may not resonate at all. If it does resonate, it will likely flap against the frets. If you are an octave above, the string will be extremely tense, to the point where it will be near breaking. It's always safer to go lower than higher. So if your target note is E but the note on your tuner is A, and you are unsure if you need to raise or lower the frequency, try lowering it down to E first. If the string is now way too loose, you went the wrong way. no harm done, just tune it up to the next highest E.
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== Common Tunings ==
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<span class="text">[[#Tuners|Tuners]]</span>
<span class="text current">[[#Common Tunings|Common Tunings]]</span>
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.
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== How to Tune the Guitar ==
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<span class="text">[[#Tuners|Tuners]]</span>
<span class="text">[[#Common Tunings|Common Tunings]]</span>
Again, you should be using a tuner to help you tune, but you also don't want to constantly stop playing and going back to the tuner. Also, sometimes your tuner will work very well on your 6th or 5th strings but not others (particularly if you are using an unplugged electric with a microphone-based tuner). This is where tuning by ear comes in handy.
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=== Tuning Using the 5th Fret ===
Unfortunately, this requires fretting a note with the left hand while picking with the right hand. After picking, you have to quickly move your right hand onto the correct tuning peg and start rotating. Fretted notes don't sustain as long as open strings, so you may have to use your right hand to pick the note again. Your right will keep going back and forth between picking position and adjusting the tuning pegs, which can be quite frustrating and cumbersome and at some point counter-productive.
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== Harmonics ==
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<span class="text">[[#Tuners|Tuners]]</span>
<span class="text">[[#Common Tunings|Common Tunings]]</span>
''An excellent visualization of all the harmonics across the fretboard can be found [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guitar_harmonics#Nodes here].''
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== Homework ==
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<span class="text">[[Guitar Parts and Functions|Parts]]</span>
<span class="text">[[Holding the Guitar and Pick|Playing]]</span>
[[Category:Harmonics]]
[[Category:Technique]]
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