Do you hear in tune??

[Rabs]

So I was wondering on this one a bit as you do.... and thought id ask you guys...

 

Ive been playing most of my life so tuning a guitar is pretty natural to me.. I have tried tuning by ear many many times to standard tuning pitch (perfect pitch?) but EVERY single time I am half a step flat.. Even though I know that and youd think I could compensate by now, I cant and when say im recording always need to use a tuner..

 

What it leads me to believe is that my hearing itself could be half a step lower than what the sound really is? Thus everything I hear is slightly lower than someone who hears in perfect pitch..

 

So like the way they say that everyone views the world slightly differently as our brains all interpret the information differently, do you think the same is for sound? So you get some people that are totally tone deaf cos they never quite developed that sense or their brains just dont work in that way?

 

And how about you? Can you tune to standard pitch without a tuner or some tuning device like a pitch fork or pipe? (lol I used to have a pitch pipe when I started learning (in the mid 80s).

[grampa]

Most of us need at least a starting point that is on pitch like a tuning fork or piano. "Perfect Pitch" is rare, I understand Ella Fitzgerald was so blessed but the rest of us need some help.

[charlie brown]

"Perfect Pitch?" No, but I can tune from either the low E, or the high E, without a tuner!

As to it being in perfect concert tuning...that will depend on how far off, either of those

strings are, to begin with, in my case. I can't, and won't speak for anyone else. But, my

sense of tuning is good enough (so far), to tell with something is even a little bit "off,"

and adjust accordingly. So, I do (often) use a tuner, or some other device, for the "correct,"

first or last string pitch, than adjust the other's as needed. It gets really "interesting,"

on my Ric 12-string. LOL

 

 

CB

[Rabs]

"Perfect Pitch?" No, but I can tune from either the low E, or the high E, without a tuner!

As to it being in perfect concert tuning...that will depend on how far off, either of those

strings are, to begin with, in my case. I can't, and won't speak for anyone else. But, my

sense of tuning is good enough (so far), to tell with something is even a little bit "off,"

and adjust accordingly. So, I do (often) use a tuner, or some other device, for the "correct,"

first or last string pitch, than adjust the other's as needed. It gets really "interesting,"

on my Ric 12-string. LOL

 

 

CB

Lol.. yeah 12 strings are a proper pain..

 

And I can tune a guitar as you say from either E string.. BUT its olny when your recording or playing with others that it really matters if your in perfect pitch or not.. And yeah like you say I can hear when a string is out with the others.. Thats a basic thing I think you need to be able to do to be able to play anything, lol, if you cant tell that a string is out give up :P :)...

 

What I find though is that when I just make sure the guitar is in tune with itself and just playing alone it gets lower and lower then one day I go and use the tuner or play along with something im listening too and it can be a whole step out of tune lol...

[Kennis]

an octave? half an octave is pretty damn flat...

 

I think this is something you can train like most everything else. Sometimes I think of a note, like C, sing it, and walk over to a guitar or piano and plunk the appropriate note. Usually I'm right

[Ryan H]

If I know that at least One of the strings is in-tune, I can tune based off of that. Doesn't have to be an E. If I know for sure that they're All out of tune, I have a reference pitch engraved in my brain from constant repetition of that note in my formative years of guitar playing; the G on the 3rd fret of the Low E string. I can always get that note within a few cents by ear. Then I tune off the low E.

 

-Ryan

[Izzy]

I try to tune without a tuner and I have once or twice gotten them bang on. Most times I need the E and then I do the rest by ear, like others here.

 

I thought everyone could just hear an E in their head and match it if they learned to read music....wait a minute. How do singers look at a page and know how to sing the songs? Like..without a piano there to give them the key...omgomg, how do they do it!?

[quapman]

I'm pretty sure that the majority of people need some type of reference.

Even trained vocalists will use a piano key to get them started.

 

I would think perfect pitch is very rare.

 

Izzy, singers who can read music still need a reference. They can hear and recognize intervals and is how they are able to read it and sing it, but they still usually will play the first note they are going to sing for reference. And there is that whole solfege training thing as well. Not for me though.

I suck at vocals.

[Bender 4 Life]

I can tune from any single string w/o problem, but when starting from scratch (no strings in tune) I usually go 1/2 step sharp.

I hum as I tune because it's all about the vibrations.

[krock]

now i have a polytune i dont ever bother tuning by ear, i really should probably start doing it again but its generally just fine tuning that I use it for. As long as I had one of the E's in tune I could do the rest.I used to always play beat it by MJ when trying to tune guitars because I know that song really well and I could tell if my tuning was marginally out

[saturn]

Rabs, I think maybe you meant to say "half step flat" instead of "half an octave"?

 

Yeah most of us have relative pitch. We need a starting reference and can compare other tones against that. I sometimes play with a really good musician who does have perfect pitch. He can just hear a note or chord and know exactly what it is.

[Rabs]

Rabs, I think maybe you meant to say "half step flat" instead of "half an octave"?

 

Yeah most of us have relative pitch. We need a starting reference and can compare other tones against that. I sometimes play with a really good musician who does have perfect pitch. He can just hear a note or chord and know exactly what it is.

I thought it was the same thing.. like D to D#?

[Rabs]

Maybe I listen to Jimi Hendrix too much. ;)

Haha.. same here.. you may be on to something there :)

[Tman]

Most times yes, I can typically tune to an E. Not sure what it means or what advantage it may give.

 

I put on a snark to tune as a rule. Mucho easier.

[Ryan H]

I thought it was the same thing.. like D to D#?

 

Half an octave above D would be G#. Half a step above D would be D#.

 

An octave is the space of 12 musical "half steps" while a half step is the space between two adjacent notes in the Western chromatic scale.

 

-Ryan

[Rabs]

Half an octave above D would be G#. Half a step above D would be D#.

 

An octave is the space of 12 musical "half steps" while a half step is the space between two adjacent notes in the Western chromatic scale.

 

-Ryan

Ahh ok.. cheers.. half a step it is then :)

[RaysEpiphone]

I've been playing and singing long enough that I can tune with just one string thats been tuned in but I like to use a tuner, I'll be getting a TC Polytune soon so I can be more accurate & get it done quicker. I have a Peterson Strobe tuner but it's almost 20 years old and needs servicing bad, I doubt if I'll ever get it done as these analog model's are obsolete and I can get a new digital Peterson unit for about the same cost of getting the old one serviced. I also have an "E" pitch-fork but I've been using a Snark clip-on tuner most/all the time, it's not accurate 100% of the time and it's also battery powered so when the battery gets weak it starts to act even more spasticly in-accurate.

 

As far as singing goes I don't have trouble singing acapella, I may lose pitch from time to time but not to often, I never really tried to tune a guitar by humming a note as I use the guitar to help me stay in pitch. There have been time's when I was watching a Youtube video of some one playing a cover-song and I started playing with them and singing and I knew that it was not the right guitar cords as my voice didn't sound right and it was hard to sing with it.

[Guest Farnsbarns]

I just play back roadhouse blues in my head. That's in E and I turn e to it. Simples.

[bonzoboy]

I can tune a guitar right on in pitch by ear-quite a few people have challenged me against a tuner and I haven't failed yet.Years ago when I was doing a lot of Hendrix covers,I'd tune to either Eb or E but now I can tune to E natural spot on."Perfect" pitch is simply attributed to memory.After tuning guitars for almost 50 years,the notes of the tuning sequence are deeply imprinted in my brain's memory banks so the notes are there just as vivid my memory of song lyrics.

[retrosurfer1959]

I use a E baseline like most everyone else as a reference, I can get close real close by ear but as Ive got older and deafer I have trouble especially with higher pitches. With that said I still use a tuner religiously if I'm recording or just playing with others just to make sure I'm not the one tat's slightly off. Most talented singers Ive know they know there own key and can change as needed even without a note from a piano or anything else. For a lousy singer like me I only have one range and everybody else needs to work towards that

[badbluesplayer]

I'm in the "pretty close" category. Once I get the low E I'm all set.

 

Plus, my shop heater hums at A.

[Izzy]

I can tune a guitar right on in pitch by ear-quite a few people have challenged me against a tuner and I haven't failed yet.Years ago when I was doing a lot of Hendrix covers,I'd tune to either Eb or E but now I can tune to E natural spot on."Perfect" pitch is simply attributed to memory.After tuning guitars for almost 50 years,the notes of the tuning sequence are deeply imprinted in my brain's memory banks so the notes are there just as vivid my memory of song lyrics.

 

Okay, question...is it sort of like hearing my favorite song in the world start and knowing the exact note it begins with?

 

Could the rest of us maybe use the first note of a really famous song to tune? Would we still be off?

[Guest EastEnder]

I can tune a guitar right on in pitch by ear-quite a few people have challenged me against a tuner and I haven't failed yet.Years ago when I was doing a lot of Hendrix covers,I'd tune to either Eb or E but now I can tune to E natural spot on."Perfect" pitch is simply attributed to memory.After tuning guitars for almost 50 years,the notes of the tuning sequence are deeply imprinted in my brain's memory banks so the notes are there just as vivid my memory of song lyrics.

 

There's much evidence that perfect (absolute) pitch is genetic. The fact that you previously went to Eb puts you in the "learned pitch" category, and this is consistent with your admission that E-A-D-G-B-E are now imprinted in memory, as they are in many of us.

 

I can get to A=440 by imagining the opening to Golden Slumbers, which I've heard a million times. McCartney's voice opens with the natural 7th of A-minor. My piano tuner (who tunes completely by ear) has heard A=440 so many times that he needs no tuning device (although, fortunately for me, he does check afterwards). This is learned pitch.

 

Some that I've known with absolute pitch often regard it as a curse. Any instrument that requires some form of temperament adjustment, such as the piano, the guitar, etc., will always sound slightly out of tune to anyone possessing absolute pitch when chords are played, simply because certain intervals are compressed or stretched to make the instrument sound as pleasing as possible throughout its range.

 

EE

[Guest Farnsbarns]

Okay, question...is it sort of like hearing my favorite song in the world start and knowing the exact note it begins with?

 

Could the rest of us maybe use the first note of a really famous song to tune? Would we still be off?

 

Yeah, you can, take a song you know very well, probably one you listened to a lot in your teens, check the key if you don't know it and use it as your reference. I was amazed to find I could do this. It made me realise that every one (IMHO) has perfect pitch if they try.

 

I found road house blues worked for me because of that riff... E EE EE E/ABbB. Lots of E's!

[Markini]

Many guitar players tune to Eb because the half step down results in less string tension and is physically easier to play. They also use Eb because that is the key best suited to their voices.

 

In regard to tuning by ear, with no reference point I am usually a few cents flat, but close.