Without getting into too many scientific details about sound and pitch, there are a few basic things to understand. How high or how low a pitch is depends on its frequency. Frequency is how frequently something (like a bass string) vibrates. It is the number of cycles something vibrates within a certain amount of time. The faster, or more frequently, something vibrates, the higher its pitch.
Tuning Your Electric Bass
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Even if you have access to an electronic tuner, tuning a bass guitar by ear is a very important skill for a bassist to learn.
In Tune and Out-of-Tune
When you are tuning your bass strings, you are trying to match the frequency, or vibration pattern, of one note to another. If two notes are out-of-tune with one another, the vibration patterns clash. You should hear a wah-wah-wah sound from the two notes clashing.
When two notes are in tune, the vibration patterns match. This is what you’re trying to acheive when you tune your bass strings.
It’s best to de-tune/loosen your string a bit and practice by tuning up to the correct pitch. If you pass up the correct tuning note, you could over-tighten the string and break it. Start with your string loose and flabby until you get the hang of tuning your bass.
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