Bass Lessons - Tuning By Harmonics bass tab

Tuning by Harmonics

I’ve seen people tuning by matching the 5th fret with the next

string down, and that’s all good and dandy, but it’s not too accurate.

Harmonics can get it so the notes are perfectly in tune with one

another. A harmonic is weaker overtone or undertone of a musical

note that is responsible for the character or texture of the

note. Basically, that means it’s the Pure notes.

Now, you’ve probably noticed that

G|-------

D|-------

A|---0---

E|-5----- are the same note, and they are.

Simply tuning so that the 5 matches the open note doesn’t quite

cut it if you want to sound good. Now, harmonics exist on the 5th,

7th, 12th, 17th, 19th and 24th frets (some basses only go up to

22, but don’t worry about that).

Getting a harmonic to ring is a bit challenging at first, but

after you do it a few times, it becomes very easy. Simply place

your finger over the 5th fret itself, not the space between the

frets. Don’t press all the way down, simply lay your finger over

it. Strike the sting and make sure that when you feel the string

vibrate on finger that’s laying over the fret to apply just enough

pressure so that the string doesn’t actually move like a regular

pluck, rather that its subtly vibrating. This will create a

ringing sound and that’s the harmonic. Remove the finger over

the fret, and allow to ring.

Here is a chart what of notes are achieved on what fret of each

string.

17, 19 and 24 are not included in the chart, as they are the same,

only an octave higher.

G string- 5=G 7=D 12=G

D string- 5=D 7=A 12=D

A string- 5=A 7=E 12=A

E string- 5=E 7=B 12=E

Notice the 5th harmonic and 7th harmonic of the string below

it are the same note. By playing both (example) E5 harmonic and

A7 harmonic, you can tune the string accordingly till they match

in frequencies. Should the string be out of tune, you’ll hear

a really cool wavering sound that is really fun to play around

with…but I digress. Should the frequencies not match, you’ll

hear the wavering sound. To tune it to the right note, tune up

or down until the wave sound becomes a flat ring. The wavering

should get slower and slower as you get closer to matching the notes.

Now that we can tune to EADG, lets tune out to other notes. Suppose

you want to play a song, but it’s in a drop D tuning. All you do is

tune the E down to a D. Simply match the 12th fret harmonic on the

E string to a strike on the D string. Tune the E down until the wavering

sound becomes a solid ring. Your E string now plays a D on the open

note.

This can be achieved for pretty much every note. Should you wish

to tune your entire bass down half a step, D minor, G minor, C,

F minor…well, that’s quite a bit more difficult. Play around

with it, you should figure it out.