I have just recently discovered some guitar videos by Brandon Acker who is not only a fine player on a number of different instruments, he also has some educational videos. Here is one on tuning:
He is absolutely correct about learning to tune by ear. When I used to teach guitar I noticed that all my students that used electronic tuners tended to be just a tad sharp. This was that earlier model that used a little needle on a dial, as the Korg still does. I speculated that they tuned a bit high because there was a delay somewhere. In any case, using either a tuning fork or a Korg tuner/metronome to get your initial pitch and tuning by ear from there is the preferred method. You could follow Brandon's method of tuning every string to the first string, but I prefer tuning every string to the 4th string: 5th via harmonic, 3rd via harmonic, B on 4 for the 2nd string, mix of A harmonic against A on 1st and E harmonic on 5th against 1st open and finally E harmonic on 6th against 2nd fret E on 4th.
He also has a nice introduction to the Baroque guitar and now I want to buy one!
There are not enough Brandon Ackers in the guitar and lute world. We have so many very fine professional performers now, but very few who produce this sort of online material -- slick, concise, educational, youthful videos. They are the kind of thing you can send to people who aren't (yet) interested in classical music. Our mad national shutdown may have been devastating for professional concert life, but perhaps there is some small hope for a revival of amateur interest as more online content is being produced by necessity, and more people are forced to amuse themselves at home and in small gatherings.
ReplyDeleteTalking to classical guitar teachers around here it seems that year on year fewer schoolchildren are taking up the instrument. Indeed I remember we had two CG teachers when I started school; a decade later CG is (or was before the shutdown) only taught a few hours a week there. It's lost its place in the culture. In fact I had a rather disheartening experience last week where I was talking to some distant relatives, well-educated and successful people. The subject of music and the lockdown came up, and I mentioned I played the classical guitar. They looked perplexed and one asked, 'is that the guitar with 12 strings?' Argh! And I can't tell you how infuriating it was, when I played around with the lute for a few months, that people kept thinking I was talking about the flute... So I thoroughly welcome Mr Acker's efforts.
I've never actually owned a tuner, just a tuning fork.
I'm sure I wrote a reply, Steven, but it seems to have disappeared into the ether!
ReplyDeleteAh, that happens not infrequently to me in blog sections -- there's often some confirm button or 'captcha' I missed...
ReplyDeleteI don't recall exactly what I wrote, but I can assure you of one thing: in Canada, as far as I know, we never had any decent classical guitar instruction in the schools and not much for strings either.
ReplyDeleteI used a tuning fork for many, many years. But a few years ago I decided to replace my metronome, vanished ever since I retired as a concert artist, and I bought a combination tuner/metronome from Korg, which is excellent.
I don't think the decline is limited to classical guitar, it is also happening for electric guitars. Hip hop and rap don't use them and even the mainstream synth pop stars are guitar light. I think guitar, even electrics, require too much practice/technique to sound well when nearly everyone can use synth sounds if not via a keyboard then through sampling. Oddly enough regular acoustic guitar seems to be holding its own but of course is used as a chord strummer. It may be used more to provide the beloved "authenticity" to wasteland synths and autotuned vocals.
ReplyDeleteVery true, Maury. In the Era of Garageband, anything requiring actual instrumental competence is depreciated. Except for the symbolism of "authenticity," as you say.
ReplyDelete