Video Question: Tuning guitar

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Date: December 14th, 2007 | Length: 1.38 | Instructor: Matt Hammond

ghanshyam asks "Hello, I am a complete beginner at this so go easy on me. I have an electric guitar, and electronic tunning tool (where you plug the 120mm jack from the guitar into the tuner). When I am tunning what frequency should I use? Do I use the default 440 frequency for all strings? Thank You" Another benefit of being a member of JamPlay is the video response section. Our expert staff fields questions from our members and provides video responses each week.

Other Video Responses:

Strumming with a Flat Pick - September 10th, 2007 (4 minutes, 14 seconds)

JeFrank asks "I'm finding strumming with a flat pick more difficult than meets the eye. I can strum down fine, but I find that when I strum up, I catch the strings in a very jagged way. Any tips about that? Also, how much of the pick should emerge from your fingers? Does your hand angle at all as it goes up and down? Thanks!" View Response

Guitar Scales Help - April 25th, 2007 (0 minutes, 45 seconds)

Wes49 asks: "Should I know the scales? It seems as though I don"t understand the theory part enough and it limits me from understanding how everything fits together." View Response

Tablature Numbers - May 19th, 2007 (1 minutes, 20 seconds)

Jason Z asks "When reading tablature i know the numbers on the line represent the fret to be played but what does is mean when there is a 3b on a line?" View Response

position of left pinky - October 31st, 2007 (1 minutes, 10 seconds)

MillaTK asks: "Hi, first of all, thank you for the great lessons. I'm practicing scales, and I have a problem with my left pinky: I have large hands (if I stretch my left hand, from thumb to pinky, tip to tip, I span a little more than 24cm, that is 9inches and a half), so I can stretch it quite easily to the right fret, even with the other fingers still on the frets. The problem is that the pinky will not stay parallel to the others, so if I fret let's say the 1st string on frets 1-4, the knuckles my first three fingers will be perpendicular to the fretboard or will be slightly bent towards the head, while the knuckle of the pinky will point the other way... there will be a large "V" between fingers 3 and 4. If I use my right hand I can position the pinky correctly, but if I lift it and fret the string again, I'll have the same problem. This makes it difficult to hammer on correctly, as the pinky will not go down from the tip but slightly from the side (though the finger is curled correctly). Is there any particular excercise I can do to correct this? [sorry for the length of the question, but I wanted to be as clear as possible!]" View Response

Bends - October 31st, 2007 (2 minutes, 28 seconds)

Jzcode asks "Brad, Could you give me a better idea of the best finger position to have when doing a bend. When I have practiced doing these, my fingers tips are at a bit of an angle as I push the string up and sometimes the strings seems to ride up under finger nails. That usually results in a un pleasant sound. Should your fingers be straight down on the string? Thanks, JZcode" View Response