We've been tuning our guitars wrong...according to James Taylor

I've seen a couple of videos an blog posts discussing James Taylor's slight tweaks to standard tuning so I was interested to see what he had to say.

In the video below posted from his YouTube channel he recommends tuning each of the strings slightly out of tune to compensate for the use of a capo and the fact that the bass strings ring out of tune when they are struck.

See the rest of the Official James Taylor Guitar Lessons here: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL4C7B31793C012820&feature=plcp Finally, the intricate secrets to one of the most iconic guitar styles of the last 40 years, directly from the source. To be notified via email when the next guitar lesson is released, sign up for the James Taylor mailing list at http://bit.ly/JC0dV5.

To do this you will need a metronome that shows how many 'cents' you are from 440 tuning.  A cent is 1/100th of a semitone (or half step).  In summary, Taylor recommends you tune the strings a certain number of cents below standard tuning (i.e. when the tuner is telling you the string is perfectly in tune):

Low E = -12 cents

A = -10 cents

D = -8 cents

G = -4 cents

B = -6 cents

High E = -3 cents

Have a try and see if you can notice the difference.