Just How Important Are Guitar Tuners

Guitars, just like any other stringed instruments, need to be tuned in order to give you the range of notes required to play anything meaningful. With that said, just how important are guitar tuners? Can't you play guitar without one? The answer to this question largely depends on your skill and talent, but in most cases – it's a solid no. With that said, let's approach this topic from a different angle.

In order to understand why tuners are so important, and why not having one can completely null your efforts to learn how to play guitar, we need to understand the nature of guitar as an instrument. This information is probably going to make a few people roll their eyes, but this article is not meant for them. It's meant for those just starting out. So if you're new to guitar and don't fully understand what tuning a guitar means, keep on reading.

On a side note, we invite you to check out our list of Best Guitar Tuners on the market today.

How Do Guitars Work?

As we all know, there are 12 basic notes on every modern instrument. These 12 notes are what forms a chromatic scale, which keeps repeating over and over. One chromatic scale forms an octave. If you look at the guitar's fretboard, you will see that there are different inlays on the 12th fret compared to 3rd, 5th or 7th.

Double inlays on 12th fret indicate the end of an octave and a beginning of another one. The standard tuning for a six string guitar is E A D G B E. That means that each string corresponds to a certain pitch.

If you tune your lowest string to E, the first fret will give you an F every time. Next one will be F#, next one a G and so on. Following the same pattern, when you tune your 5th string to A, the first fret will be A#. Having your guitar tuned to a certain tuning introduces order and logic, which allows you to build chords and scales that sound good. If you have just one string out of tune, the whole thing falls apart.

This is one of the main issues new players have, especially those who are learning on their own. They will get a guitar, learn some chords and start playing only to find out that nothing sounds like the song they're trying to cover.

Another thing that also happens often is that new players will think a guitar is tuned, and still get the result we just described. Hitting the precise pitch leaves no room for guesswork. When you're new, you might think you got an E or an A, but in reality, you might be off as much as an entire step. This is why tuners are so essential.

Guitar Tuners

A tuner is a device that is capable of visually representing different pitches. It allows you to precisely tune a guitar rather quickly, which eliminates any guesswork. You just plug your guitar into one, play one string at a time and correct the pitch as necessary until you achieve the tuning you want. Okay, so you have tuned your guitar. Does that mean that your tuner is now unnecessary? Unfortunately, no. Every guitar player in the world would love to have a guitar that needs to be tuned only once, but the reality is completely different, as guitars drop out of tune for various reasons.

Sometimes it's bad hardware that completely ruins a tuning, while other times it's just aggressive playing. Every guitar needs to be tuned from time to time, no matter what kind of bridge you have, or devices that lock the strings down.

As you develop your skill, build experience, and sharpen your ability to differentiate notes, you will gain more respect for a guitar tuner. If you have ever been to a concert where at least one member of the band was playing guitar, you will understand exactly why the previous statement is true. Even the best guitar players out there will often times have some kind of a guitar tuner with them on stage during a performance.

Sure, most of them are capable of tuning a guitar by ear, but the stage is a very loud place and you definitely don't want your audience to sit there as you tune your guitar one string at a time by ear. No, you have a tuner on stage which allows you to quickly check and adjust your tuning without anyone noticing. For a performing guitar player, dropping out of tune even less than a half note is something that can throw a wrench into the whole performance.

With that said, just think about it this way. If your favorite guitar player uses a tuner every time they grab a guitar, don't you think you will need one as well? If you completely disregard guitar tunings and start practicing with an instrument that is completely out of pitch, you will either stagnate or lose all interest in playing guitar at all.

There are some who just can't afford a guitar tuner, and that is nothing to be ashamed of. You can tune the whole guitar by having only one of the strings in tune. This is done using natural harmonics, but that's a topic for another time.

Conclusion

If there's anything you will take away from this article it should be this: find the cheapest reliable tuner and get it as soon as possible. Buy that tuner before you go buying any other guitar accessories.

That fancy strap can wait, those heavy gauge strings can wait as well. A tuner is a must have if you are in any way serious about playing guitar. There are many kinds of tuners out there, which you can learn more about in our article here. It doesn't matter what kind you get as long as you have one that works.