The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #54650 Message #847730
Posted By: McGrath of Harlow
15-Dec-02 - 09:13 AM
Thread Name: guitar tuners:good for beginners?
Subject: RE: guitar tuners:good for beginners?
Most people who play pianos couldn't begin to tune them. Of course guitars and suchlike are a whole lot easier to tune, which is as well, since they go out of tune a bit more. Obviously you have to be able to put it in tune, but fore most purposes electronic is best since it's easiest and most consistent.
Tuning by ear is important also though, for those times when the batteries gone flat, or the tuner can't be found, as Greg says - but also for when you want to play with some instrument that isn't in concert pitch and can't be tuned.
The idea that people should have to learn tuning as a penitential rite before they can play is rubbish (though it's not uncommon) - making your fingers contort themseleves into impossible shapes, and toughening up the fingertips by playing with them even when painful, is quite enough suffering to endure on the road to learning.