The Battle of the Electronic Guitar Tuner Vs. Tuning Fork

At what cost has the electronic guitar tuner laden the amateur and/or budding professional guitarist? Is such a question even valid? Without the electronic tuner, every beginning guitarist would play out of tune. Or, maybe, the skill of learning to tune the guitar from a single reference note from a tuning fork should be part of the process of learning the instrument in the first place.

Before Electronic Guitar Tuners

Before the proliferation of the electronic guitar tuner, the tuning fork created the standard of tuning. Over 300 years ago, a fellow plucked string player, John Shore, invented the tuning fork. Shore played the lute and trumpet. Not a meager musician, Shore had parts written for him by George Frederic Handel and Henry Percell.

Since its invention, the tuning fork design has changed very little. The materials have been refined, but the basic design and use remain. Hold the stem, tap the prongs, and listen to the pitch. You may tune one instrument or a hundred instruments. Beyond this simplicity, what other positive benefits does the tuning fork offer the guitarist?

Pitch Reasoning And Note Awareness

Pitch reasoning is by far the most compelling reason to use a tuning fork over an electronic tuner. The definition for pitch reasoning here is the ability to determine the relationship of the pitch of one string to another by our auditory functions. The most obvious starting point is the unison relationship between notes on different strings. This not only improves our aural skills of note awareness but applies directly to tuning in the middle of performances where stopping to tune is not an option.

The idea of note awareness extends much further into the ear’s role in playing music with other instruments. By learning to relate notes to one another (relative tuning), staying in tune with a group of musicians becomes second nature. All instruments will slide out of tune during a performance. Having a reference note played in the middle of two pieces of the same suite is not available. Players must tune relative to one another until it is possible to “reset” the tuning for the group. This is true for those using electronic tuners as well.

The idea of being “in tune” with others has obvious ramifications for a performer. But what about the guitar’s tuning from string 1 to string 6 and from fret 1 to fret 19? Guitarists often tune the open strings and never bother to double-check the relative tuning up the neck and across strings at varying points on the instrument. This reliance on an electronic tuner’s open string use does not take these relationships up the neck into account. The result is a note or notes that sound out of tune when played beyond the first position.*

Practical Reasons Against Electronic Guitar Tuners

There are at least two practical reasons for using a tuning fork over an electronic tuner: power and repair/maintenance. Electronic tuners require power. Thus, the initial cost to purchase the device and a battery. Eventually, the battery will run out of power. Therefore, your cost is going to continue after purchase. Electronic tuners are also made cheaply. This leads to the inevitable breaking by the user or by faulty construction. Either way, it cannot be repaired and must be thrown away and replaced. Both negatively impact the world around us.

Exceptions To Using Tuning Fork

There is a definite musical and practical cost to using an electronic tuner to tune your instrument. Are there situations where the electronic tuner trumps the tuning fork? For acoustic guitarists, my opinion is no. For those playing electric guitars with a noisy audience, then my opinion is yes. I do hold that an electric guitarist should use a tuning fork during independent practice sessions. As for the majority of amateur and professional guitarists, using a tuning fork has many more upsides than down when weighing the options.

*Due to the precise argument presented here, the methodology of tuning and tuning up the neck will not be discussed.

It’s easy to find decent tuning forks. I think these (click here) are a good deal and have good ratings from customers on Amazon. Of course, D’addario makes one that has a nice rubber/plastic piece surrounding the stem(click here).

Check out some of our other articles:

• 3 Things I Am Learning From Beginner Guitar Scales in Open Position
• Mastering the Art: Better Judging of Yourself While Practicing Guitar
• Electronic Guitar Tuner And The Cost
• La fin de l’été by Frédéric Costantino
• Petit Poney By Yvon Demillac

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Chadwick Becks

I have two degrees in guitar performance and was privileged to study under Aaron Shearer, Tom Kikta, David Skantar, Ken Karsh, Tim Bedner, and currently Christopher Berg. Outside my editorial work on this blog, I teach full-time across many genres including classical, jazz, blues, rock, funk, and metal.