Understanding the music theory associated with guitar tuning will help you to develop your overall music-learning skills. For example, you can figure out how other musical instruments work to play a song’s specific tone, rhythm & melody.
In this article, we will explore how the guitar tuning mechanism works and where you can apply this guitar tuning knowledge with the help of music theory to become a better musician.
Contents
How you can tune your guitar
Tuning a guitar is one of the first things every beginner guitarist should learn. There are two basic ways to tune a guitar. They are –
- Tuning a guitar by using a digital tuner or a mobile app
- & tuning a guitar by ear.
The 1st way is quite simpler than the other one. As a beginner musician, you can focus on it to tune your guitar.
However, after spending some time learning the guitar, you can actually realize how the 2nd way can come in handy to your overall music understanding.
So, in this article, we are hereby introducing the guitar tuning theory with the help of music theory for starter musicians.
Basic music theory associated with guitar tuning
In music, the octave is defined as an interval. For example, if you ring a music note that vibrates at 440 Hz, the higher octave of that note will vibrate at 880 Hz. And the lower octave of that note will vibrate at 220 Hz.
Each octave range has 12 notes. We use English letters to point out these notes. The letters we use are A, B, C, D, E, F, and G. Here, each letter points out a specific note of music. The other five notes are A# (# is read as sharp), C#, D#, F#, and G#.
If we serially arrange all these twelve notes from higher frequency to lower frequency we have-
A – A# – B – C – C# – D – D# – E – F – F# – G – G#
These notes can also be identified using another term called flat (♭). For example, B♭ points out the note before B note, which is A#. Similarly, E♭ is the note before E, which is D#. In that sense, we can rewrite the twelve notes of an octave like this-
A – B♭ – B – C – D♭ – D – E♭ – E – F – G♭ – G – A♭
After these twelve notes of a single set of an octave, the next note will return to the same first note of the octave. But the difference between these two same notes is, that the first note is in the lower octave and the 2nd note is in the higher octave.
How the following music theory work in guitar
Guitar frets are designed in such a way that if a guitar string rings a note say A at the open fret position, the 1st fret of that string will ring out with the note A#. Similarly, the fifth fret will ring the D note and the 12th fret will ring the higher octave A note.
In the same way, if a guitar string is tuned in G note, the 1st fret of that string will ring the G# note (A♭). Similarly, the 5th fret of that string will ring the C note and the 12th fret will ring the higher G note.
Now, let’s see the standard guitar tuning mechanism for a detailed understanding of this theory.
Standard guitar tuning (EADGBe)
Standard guitar tuning is the most popular and widely used guitar tuning. In standard guitar tuning, the thickest string is tuned in E note. And the next strings are tuned in the order A D G B & e notes.
So, if you tune the thickest string (6th string) to the E note, the 5th fret of that string will ring the A note. To tune the next string (5th string), you have to match this A note with its open fret note. As a result, the open fifth string will ring out the same note as the 5th fret of the thickest string.
Now, try to find out the E note in that 5th string that you have just tuned to the A note.
No wonder, if you ring the 7th fret of the 5th string, you will find the E note. But, the difference between this 7th fret E note of the A string (5th string) and the open fret 6th string E note is in octave. The open 6th string E note is in the lower octave and the 7th fret E note of the 5th string is in the higher octave.
Applying these intervals, you can tune the rest of the strings to your desired tuning formation.
Alternative guitar tuning
Besides the standard guitar tuning formation, there are some other guitar tuning formations. These are usually known as alternative guitar tunings. Some examples of alternative guitar tunings are –
- DADGBE (Drop D tuning)
- DADGBD (Double drop D)
- DADGAD
- DADF#AD (Open D tuning)
- EBEG#BE (Open E tuning)
- DGDGBD (Open G tuning)
- EAEAC#E (Open A tuning)
Alternative guitar tunings are very useful for exploring different tone applications on guitar. Plus, it can simplify some hard to grab guitar chords in the standard tuning formation. So, you can apply any of the alternative tuning formations according to your preference to play the instrument more effectively.
Final words
In this article, we have tried to explain the guitar tuning mechanism to help you understand how the instrument works to produce any specific tone. We hope this will help you to learn to play music more efficiently.
This is one of the first articles based on the application of music theory. Thanks for reading this far and stay with us for further updates on music theory, guitar lessons, and more.