How to Start From Scratch and Quickly and Dramatically Ignite Your Bass Playing Skills...
In this lesson we are going to take a look at something that
many bass players forget to do, TUNE! After going through this
lessons, I would suggest looking at these lessons, Tuning
With Harmonics, and Drop
D Tuning.
There are several different methods that can be used to tune
the bass. The following is the most basic, and should be the first
one that you try. With this method, you will be tuning the bass
so that it will sound in tune with itself. This is called relative
tuning. That just means that your bass will sound good when you
play, even though you might not be tuned exactly to pitch.
Tune
the 4th string
Even though you could use the following tuning method without
first tuning your 4th string, we are going to tune the bass to
standard pitch in this lesson. The 4th string is the thickest
string, and sounds the lowest. Try to hear if the 4th string on
your bass sounds higher or lower than the note you are hearing
below. Then try match your bass to the note you are hearing. As
you are listening to the 2 notes, try and hear the "crashing"
sound that comes from the notes being out of tune. The closer
you are to being in tune, the further away the notes will crash.
To raise the pitch of a string, turn the tuning pegs that
face up counter clockwise. If the tuning pegs face down then
turn clockwise. Reverse the direction to lower the pitch. Never
turn the tuning pegs unless the note is ringing. Otherwise,
you will have no idea how far to turn the tuning peg.
Click this button for the tuning notes on all 4 strings. This
includes both standard tuning, all strings lowered a 1/2 step,
and all strings lowered a whole step.
