How to Tune a Guitar to CG Tuning
Although you can play most songs with your guitar in standard tuning, many musicians use alternate tunings to make fingerings easier in a certain key or to give the song a unique flavor or texture that it would not have using standard tuning. Alternate tunings are accomplished by changing the note that is sounded on one or more open strings. CG tuning, for example, changes the bottom two strings. CG tuning is common in Hawaiian music, and has been used by artists such as Fleetwood Mac and Richard Thompson.
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Instructions
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Before you begin the alternate tuning, be sure your guitar is in tune. Use the tuner to make any necessary adjustments so that your guitar is set to standard EADGBe tuning.
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For CG tuning, the fifth and sixth strings, or the A and E strings in standard tuning, will be tuned down to the G and C respectively. Start by retuning the lowest string, or the E string. Turn the tuning key so that the tone produced by the open string is lower. On the tuner, the note will move down to a D, then down to a C. When the tuner indicates you have reached an in-tune C, you have finished retuning this string.
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Repeat this process for the A string. You will tune it down a full step to a G. Turn the tuning key until the tone produced is a G according to the tuner.
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This completes retuning the guitar to CG tuning. If you would like to retune further, to an open C, for instance, you can continue until the strings are tuned to C G c g c e (the lowercase letters indicate the same tone, but in a higher octave).
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Tips & Warnings
If you do not own a guitar tuner, many online websites offer online tuners that will sound the tones so that you can match the tones produced by your guitar to those produced by the tuner. Several smart phones also have apps available that will provide the same type of tuning help.
If you are having a hard time getting your guitar in tune, your guitar might need repairs to the tuning pegs or might simply need new strings.
If you tune your guitar using "relative" tuning, the final tones produced will not be in the right key even if the guitar is in tune with itself. "Relative" tuning means that you have tuned all the strings to each other or to another instrument that may or may not be in tune rather than tuning them with a tuner.
If you are used to certain chord fingerings, those fingerings will no longer produce the same chords after you retune your guitar. You will have to use alternate fingerings to produce the same chords.
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Resources
- Photo Credit playing the guitar image by egirldesign from Fotolia.com
