Is it a bad practice to not tune your guitar as long as it sounds decent?
Is it a bad practice to not tune your guitar as long as it sounds decent?
Hi, I'm a beginner learning guitar. I noticed that after a month or so my guitar doesn't sound the same but it's not too bad. And I am hesitant to tune my guitar frequently because I'm afraid that some strings might snap.
Is it fine to not tune guitar until it sounds garbage (unrecognizable)?
They won't snap from tuning. They will snap because of wear. Playing it will make far more wear and tear than tuning them to the correct pitch will ever do. If you are also a beginner of music in general, keeping it in tune will help you to train your ears. You may think it sounds decent, but that doesn't mean it sounds decent for other people. As a musician, you want to control the sensory experience of others. And for that your ears must be accustomed to detecting when you are not producing the sound you hands think they should be making. You are the bridge within action and sound. If your instrument is out of tune, you're just throwing it all away.
13Tune it! Strings lose their elasticity with age - if they sound like shit, then it's time to replace them, but they're rarely going to break before then.. And you need to train your ears!
11Hello how long can i use the strings until it sounds bad. I use them almost a year but they started sound bad after a few months. I always tude befor practicing
1A few months sounds suspiciously short, but that's a really open question. Depends what you play, depends how often you play. Depends whether you're using ultra-traditional catgut strings, or some synthetic ones which will be longer-lasting. I understand that some people have more acidic hands than others, which will work through strings more quickly. Tension and tuning matters as well; I'd normally replace my violin strings every year, acoustic guitar every other year, and my electric guitar like every five or something, and that's probably more often than needed for the electric.
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You should tune your guitar. Not only is it good to train your ears but your guitar is designed to have strings on it that are in tune. Leaving the strings too loose might cause the neck to bend in undesirable ways. Especially if you’re in an area where the temperature changes each season.
Also, you’re not going to break strings from getting it in tune unless you go several steps above the intended note. Learning what an in tune string sounds like will help you avoid that.
10^^this. The truss rod in the neck is (supposed to be, at least) adjusted to provide a slight relief in the neck that allows the strings to ring out properly. If the strings are not kept properly tensioned (tuned), you will either get a bow (less common, would be strings increasing in tension somehow on their own) or a back bow where the lower string tension causes the truss rod to bend the neck the other way. In the short term, this might not cause permanent damage to the neck, but left this way, when it does require adjustment it is possible to stress the neck itself and crack it, or possibly delaminate the fretboard At that point, unless it's a valuable or sentimental guitar, the cost to fix by a good luthier just isn't worth it.
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Keep it tuned. If you're trying to play along with songs or backing tracks (recommended), an out of tune guitar is really annoying.
It's also fun to play with alternate tunings. Drop D and an open D for slide are my favorite alternates.
9keep it tuned! good practice to get into and part of knowing your instrument. little clip on digital tuners are cheap.
8Don't worry about the strings - they're meant to be played, tuned, bent, wailed upon. If they break (eventually), replace them. They are a consumable.
It is a good practice, however, to try to check/keep in tune before and as you play (if it sounds off) because you gradually get to lock in mentally wrt what is in tune vs not. It trains your ears/brain over time and you may as well train accurately as it'll really accelerate your learning.
You do you, though - playing is meant to be fun. Don't sweat it too much! A slightly out of tune moment of inspiration (when it comes) beats a well-tuned boring exercise. (A moment of inspiration that is tuned as intended is even better though.). Lots of famous performances are out of tune (though the band is almost certainly in tune with each other).
TLDR - have fun! It's ok.
8Tune it. It should take a few minutes at most, and it's good practice.
8Tune it.
8To me, training our ears is part of the learning process. I'm no talking about recognising which note is being played, that's another story, but to perceive when something is off. It's very important when learning to bend the strings. If your guitar is not in tune, your ears don't learn. I tune it every time I start playing, usually once per day, unless notice that something is off. And more frequently when recording.
6You won't break a string by tuning it properly, most people break strings when they are picking a different string than they are tuning and don't realize it.
Always tune up to maintain the string's taught stance on the fretboard, plus it makes good practice!
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I usually tune every few days or when it sounds off.
Your strings won't break from tuning then into standard tuning.
5Brand new strings will go out of tune quickly at first before they settle in, you'll need to tune frequently for the first few hours of playing. You won't break them by tuning. After a few months of daily playing the strings will start to sound dull and notes won't ring out for as long after you pick them. I recommend Elixir brand strings, they seem to keep their tone much longer than any of the others I've tried.
3It depends, is your guitar plugged in to an amp loud enough that your neighbors can hear? If not, you do you lol. But you shouldn't have to worry about your strings snapping as long as you don't tune them higher than they're intended to go, I would go ahead and tune them
3I'd suggest tuning your guitar before you practice. Your training your ear as well as your fingers. Getting tuned up is a skill that you need to practice just as much as anything else
2You really don't have to worry about tuning your guitar too much. It won't break the strings--they're stretchier than they look. Plus, they need to be changed every so often, anyway. You gotta play a guitar pretty hard to bust a string unless they're super old or you tune them way too high or something. I tune every time I play and I don't change my strings as often as I should, and yet I think I've broken maybe one or two strings in the last 15 years or so. lol
But is it bad practice? That depends. If you're playing with a band, yes. You gotta have your instrument in tune. If you're playing by yourself for fun? No, just do whatever sounds good to you; but, if you're just learning guitar, I would very much recommend keeping it in tune when you play so that you can train your ears effectively.
1It depends on whether you play with and/or for others. If you don't, knock yourself out. It's your axe, right?
If you do play with/for others, mf'ing please tune that thing. It will make the experience easier and better for all concerned, and the guitar/strings are designed to do it.
On the other end of the pendulum swing, there's a session bass player, Anthony Jackson, who used to, and perhaps still does, change his strings every time he played. (I assume he tuned them, as well.) I find that to be expensive overkill, but I'm not him.
Regardless on what you decide, play that thing.
1If it sounds good to you, you’re good. As long as you’re not trying to play along with a band or a recorded song, enjoy yourself. Once in a while it’s a good idea to see how far away from a standard tuning you are though
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