Interesting that it only resolves on 'google tuner' rather than 'guitar tuner' searches.
Google adds a guitar tuner to Search
71–80 of 166 posts
Re: Google adds a guitar tuner to Search
#72About 20 years ago I bought my first digital guitar tuner, a Korg, that is about the size of a deck of cards. It had a monochrome LCD screen that mimicked an analog dial with a needle that moved to indicate flat or sharp. Years passed. Guitar tuning apps became a thing. I downloaded a few over the years. Then the one (free) one I had started showing ads. Little by little, update by update, the ads became more annoyin…
As a non-guitarist but one-time musician, why are guitar tuners needed? Other stringed instruments seem to not need them, and I never thought to ask. (Obviously you might need an absolute reference if you don't have absolute pitch)
With guitar you are much more likely to have to re-tune during a performance. I can think of a couple of reasons.
Steel core strings (on guitar) have a much higher coefficient of thermal expansion than gut-core strings (on orchestra instruments). If you start a concert at dusk your guitar will go quite a bit sharp if you have a cool breeze blowing across the stage after the sun sets.
Some of the playing styles require large bends or use of a tremelo which is much more likely to throw some of your strings out during a performance. Having a pedal means you can quickly re-tune between songs without having to blast it over the PA.
Also at an orchestra it is expected that the crowd will be relatively quiet so that the musicians can hear their instruments while they are tuning. At a rock concert you will have a tough time hearing your instrument while tuning, and you don't necessarily want to subject the crowd to your tuning noise over the PA.
EDIT: Oh yeah, and I should add - most other string instruments aren't fretted so the musician has the opportunity to correctly intonate a slightly off-pitch string. The frets on guitar means the strings have to be perfectly tuned unless you can bend them in (which isn't really a standard skill)
Re: Google adds a guitar tuner to Search
#73Earlier quoted context omitted.
Perhaps because it's a necessary orchestral skill. They play an A and everybody tunes their instruments to it, producing that awesome wash of sound you get before a concert. For the violin you tune the A string and tune the others by hearing the open fifths between them. For a guitar it's easier because you have frets, so you can play the fretted note on one string that should have the same pitch as the next (open) s…
It's usually not a good idea to tune a guitar as you described. Basically a guitar has to use "temperate tuning" because it has frets, so you can't be absolutely in tune everywhere, but you can minimize the error on each position. So if you tune string by string relying on fretting the last string, you will "carry" the error, and the resulting tuning will be wrong. It is good for a first pass, but you then want to ch…
That's very interesting. The tuning for a violin is always (afaik) to make the open strings a perfect 3/2 fifth apart, but then of course you can play to whatever tuning you want. (If you have the skill to do that - I certainly don't!)
That makes tuning a guitar a much more complex thing in principle, with choices and trade-offs to be made, so maybe that's a better explanation for the prevalence of tuners.
Re: Google adds a guitar tuner to Search
#74About 20 years ago I bought my first digital guitar tuner, a Korg, that is about the size of a deck of cards. It had a monochrome LCD screen that mimicked an analog dial with a needle that moved to indicate flat or sharp. Years passed. Guitar tuning apps became a thing. I downloaded a few over the years. Then the one (free) one I had started showing ads. Little by little, update by update, the ads became more annoyin…
You are dissing a product that you didn't pay money for, and comparing it unfavorably to one that you did. How is that fair.
There are metronome and tuner apps that are way more pleasant and functional than any hardware product, if you could shell out just a few bucks (< $10). You also have fewer batteries to manage.
Re: Google adds a guitar tuner to Search
#75Re: Google adds a guitar tuner to Search
#76Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's usually not a good idea to tune a guitar as you described. Basically a guitar has to use "temperate tuning" because it has frets, so you can't be absolutely in tune everywhere, but you can minimize the error on each position. So if you tune string by string relying on fretting the last string, you will "carry" the error, and the resulting tuning will be wrong. It is good for a first pass, but you then want to ch…
That's very interesting. The tuning for a violin is always (afaik) to make the open strings a perfect 3/2 fifth apart, but then of course you can play to whatever tuning you want. (If you have the skill to do that - I certainly don't!) That makes tuning a guitar a much more complex thing in principle, with choices and trade-offs to be made, so maybe that's a better explanation for the prevalence of tuners.
I say "always" (for the violin), but that has problems itself. Eg. If you're playing with an equal temperament (eg piano) accompaniment your open G will not match it and there's no other way to play that note. Presumably advanced violinists have to choose their own tradeoffs, but I was always taught to hear the fifth and would always be aiming for a just fifth (tuning an equal tempered fifth by ear would be a neat trick!).
Edit: Hmmm, thinking about it the guitar should be easier to tune to equal temperament (if that's what you want) as presumably the frets are equal-temperament semitones apart. For that tuning, it's the violinist who's "carrying the error".
Re: Google adds a guitar tuner to Search
#77Re: Google adds a guitar tuner to Search
#78Earlier quoted context omitted.
As a non-guitarist but one-time musician, why are guitar tuners needed? Other stringed instruments seem to not need them, and I never thought to ask. (Obviously you might need an absolute reference if you don't have absolute pitch)
Because tuning by ear is difficult and playing the guitar can be fun even if you're not musically talented enough to tune the instrument. Another issue is that guitars are often played in a amplified live setting. You want to be able to adjust your tuning while the rest of the band is playing or other noise is present, and you don't want the audience or others to hear you tuning (so you can't hear it yourself either)…
Yeah on stage, the 'playing in a very loud setting with all the band preparing' thing, or between tunes or (useful) to just cut my sound, avoid feedback or other stage shit. https://www.boss.info/us/products/tu-3/ is a Workhorse.
Re: Google adds a guitar tuner to Search
#79I know this is a bit of a tangent, but I'm getting tired of having everything good replaced by a mediocre version that offers debatable convenience. A meh guitar tuner, a phone tree that usually understands my spoken choices, the opportunity to enter my claim information online and be questioned by an impersonal overseas operator later instead of just talking with my agent — none of these are developments that improv…
A tuner built by people who are not you for people who are not you is not on your lawn.
Re: Google adds a guitar tuner to Search
#80Earlier quoted context omitted.
The policy still exists. The practice is dying out, however.
I don't understand. People would rather spend a day per week working on google's stuff than their own project?
Projects aren't typically scheduled to account for it in my experience. If I took that much time to work on something that's not an OKR then I'd just be falling behind.