Learning to Tune Without a Tuner
A great skill to have when learning a new instrument is the ability to tune your instrument without a tuner.
Just about every time you pick up your instrument to begin playing, chances are, that something has gone out of tune since the last time you played. Although in most cases, this will only be a slight change which can barely be noticed, many slight changes can lead to big changes. There are many different reasons why instruments go out of tune and today we will go over the most common reasons.
A440 Hz and Standard Pitch
Chances are if you play an instrument, you’ve heard of this thing called A440 Hz, but what exactly does this mean? The 440 Hz means that the note is vibrating at a rate of 440 cycles per second. We call this vibration of 440 cycles per second “A”, but what if a note was only vibrating at a rate of 439 Hz, does this turn the note into “G#”? Well actually no, the note is actually still considered “A”, in fact, we would actually still consider the note “A” all the way down to about 415 Hz at which point the note would become “G#”. For a complete chart of all the notes and their frequencies, click here. With this being said A440 and A415 are not at all the same notes, use this link to see how different A440 begins to sound once you start lowering its pitch. But why is standard tuning “A” set at 440 Hz and not some other number within the “A” range? Well, historically there were actually many different standards depending on which part of the world you were in at any given time and it turns out that there is no really good reason why a large chunk of the world agrees on 440 Hz as the standard pitch over some other number, it just happened to be the way it is. If you would like to read more into the history of A440 Hz, click here.
Knowing Your Instrument
Depending on what instrument you play, your instrument will be tuned differently than others. If you don’t know what your instrument’s standard tuning is, a quick google search will give you everything you need to get started. It is also important to note that moving your instrument to areas of different temperatures can actually put your instrument out of tune. If you are new to your instrument, I would recommend that you stick with standard tuning just to get a good feel for your instrument. If you wish to change tunings later on once you are comfortable with standard, go right ahead. One last note for guitarists or bassists who would like to learn your instrument in-depth, I have written a different article on how to do so which you can read here.
Training Your Ears
The most important part of this article and probably the thing you came to read about in the first place is how to actually train yourself to tune your instrument without a tuner. We can actually accomplish this goal fairly easily but it will, however, take some time to master. Start off by being able to identify which notes are which on your instrument, I’m going to assume that most of you already know this but if not you can learn this in just a few minutes. To start learning how to properly train your ears, start off with a tuner that will play the notes out loud for you to hear instead of one that listens to your instrument. Make sure that your tuner plays each note in standard pitch unless you would like to use a different tuning such as A432 Hz. Make sure that you listen to each note for a few seconds before trying to tune your instrument, this is important because you want to build a good memory of exactly what each note sounds like. Practice tuning your instrument this way for 2–4 weeks before attempting to tune without a tuner. Once you begin tuning without a tuner and just based on your memory of each note, check each note after you are done tuning to make sure that you have your instrument tuned properly. Practice this for an additional 2–4 weeks and before you know it, you will be able to tune your instrument without any problems.
Additional Information
It’s still a good idea to use your tuner from time to time even after you have mastered tuning by ear because you may, without realizing it, slightly lose your ability to tune your instrument accurately which can lead to great changes later on. You want to make sure that you aren’t untraining yourself to hear each note, so using a tuner occasionally will keep you on track. Additionally, there are a few tips that can help you tune your instrument easier. Believe it or not, tuning one string on your instrument can actually untune some or all of the other strings so it’s a good idea to double-check each string after you are done tuning. One final tip to make tuning easier is to listen to two strings that are next to each other (such as B and high e for guitar) when played at the same time. If both strings are in tune with one another they should sound good together when played at the same time but if one of the strings is slightly out of tune you will be able to hear that something isn’t quite right. Using the two strings at once method is good because unlike one string at a time you can have a reference of at least one note that’s in tune to working off of. If you don’t know what I'm talking about with playing two strings at once, tune your instrument perfectly with a tuner and play two notes that are next to each other at the same time, then untune one of the notes ever so slightly and play the same two notes again, you will more than likely be able to hear that something is wrong. Be sure to practice tuning consistently and you will be able to tune without a tuner with great accuracy within 1–2 months.