Snarks and Chords? Is it me?

armchair_spaceman · Apr 30, 2013

Hi all, my second possibly stupid newb question for the day. I've been working through a chord chart and there are a handful of chords on my Uke for which my Snark tuner gives weird readings:

Amin -> C (Snark)
Amin7 -> C
Bmin -> D
Bmin7 -> D
Dmin -> F
Emin -> G

I tried my son's chromatic tuner with much the same results

So my questions are:
Am I expecting too much from the Snark?
Could my chord shapes be so gumby as to cause this consistently?(pretty sure I'm getting fingering pretty right and I'm not muting any strings)
Could there be a problem with the uke?

or should I just trust my fingers rather than the gadget?

My Uke is a Kala Spruce/Mahogany tenor, strung re-entrant with Acquilas, intonation is a little sharp high on the A string. The Snark has a fresh battery and shows correct tuning on just the open strings.

Thanks, Stu.

BIGDB · Apr 30, 2013

Ive never owned a snark but I have a planet waves tuner and it does the same thing I don't think they're made to do that pretty sure just to do single strings. Id trust a chord chart more then a tuner to check if youre doing it right

Tootler · Apr 30, 2013

You have a basic misunderstanding here, I'm afraid.

Your tuner (Snark or any other brand) is meant for tuning individual strings to ensure each is at the correct pitch. They are not meant for checking chords.

If you strum a chord, your tuner will most likely pickup whichever string is dominant. In your case it looks like the snark is picking up the note on the C string for the Amin & Bmin chords (incl. the 7ths) and the note on the E string for Dmin & Emin. Probably reflects how you strummed the chords.

armchair_spaceman · Apr 30, 2013

That's great guys, thanks for clearing that up. With the major chords the gadget was displaying according to the chord so I'd just assumed that it was supposed to do that, then it wasn't with the minor ones. No wonder the little guy has been chewing batteries, I've been overworking it

.

I'm pretty much muddling through the early days by myself, have found this forum rich with learning goodness and a refreshingly friendly and mature vibe...I'm on a few other boards where I would have been flamed mercilessly for a question like that (but hey...if you don't ask the question, you don't know the answer...)

wadleysf · Apr 30, 2013

Tootler said:
Your tuner (Snark or any other brand) is meant for tuning individual strings to ensure each is at the correct pitch. They are not meant for checking chords.

If you strum a chord, your tuner will most likely pickup whichever string is dominant. In your case it looks like the snark is picking up the note on the C string for the Amin & Bmin chords (incl. the 7ths) and the note on the E string for Dmin & Emin. Probably reflects how you strummed the chords.

Agreed. But if you do want something to identify chords try Pitchlab (on Android, not sure if on iOS yet). It's not perfect (neither's my strumming

!) - but I have been amazed at how well it can identify all four notes in strummed chords (and so tell you what chord it thinks it is). It's also got some other cool features and displays including a neat tuner which I have found can be a tad more accurate than my Snark.

Shastastan · Apr 30, 2013

Tootler said:
You have a basic misunderstanding here, I'm afraid.

Your tuner (Snark or any other brand) is meant for tuning individual strings to ensure each is at the correct pitch. They are not meant for checking chords.

If you strum a chord, your tuner will most likely pickup whichever string is dominant. In your case it looks like the snark is picking up the note on the C string for the Amin & Bmin chords (incl. the 7ths) and the note on the E string for Dmin & Emin. Probably reflects how you strummed the chords.

Ditto. We have minor chords and minor scales, but no minor notes--only naturals, flats, and sharps.

Tootler · May 1, 2013

armchair_spaceman said:
but hey...if you don't ask the question, you don't know the answer.

Exactly; which, of course, is why there is a beginners forum. Don't be afraid to ask the apparently stupid question. If you don't know the answer, the question isn't stupid.

A maths teacher of my daughter once said that no question is ever trivial if you genuinely don't understand. He restored her confidence after it had been undermined by the teacher the previous year belittling her problems. She eventually went on to do a chemistry degree.

Tootler · May 1, 2013

wadleysf said:
Agreed. But if you do want something to identify chords try Pitchlab (on Android, not sure if on iOS yet). It's not perfect (neither's my strumming !) - but I have been amazed at how well it can identify all four notes in strummed chords (and so tell you what chord it thinks it is). It's also got some other cool features and displays including a neat tuner which I have found can be a tad more accurate than my Snark.

Did a search on my iPad and pitchlab came up but it turned out to be baseball app so if it is on iOS, it will have another name.

armchair_spaceman · May 2, 2013

Tootler said:
Did a search on my iPad and pitchlab came up but it turned out to be baseball app so if it is on iOS, it will have another name.

Hehehehe I got the same result

wadleysf · May 2, 2013

Tootler said:
Did a search on my iPad and pitchlab came up but it turned out to be baseball app so if it is on iOS, it will have another name.

I checked the iTunes store for whether the same developer (PitchLabApp) has done anything for iPhone - and I can't see that he or she has. You could email (pitchlabapp@gmail.com) and ask? Let us know if you find anything. Would be nice if it were on both platforms!

carolani · May 2, 2013

It's funny that the Snark is picking up each minor chords relative major. Interesting.

Telperion · May 2, 2013

armchair_spaceman said:
Hi all, my second possibly stupid newb question for the day.

Newb question - Yes. Stupid question - No. There are no stupid questions here. Keep asking and people keep learning.

-Steve

ddawson2012 · May 3, 2013

Gents - Theres an app called Guitar Toolkit that has a Ukulele setting that's pretty killer - it has all sorts of other instruments as well but you can touch the fretboard of the virtual Ukulele and see the chords you are creating/playing. As well as find chords to fit your playing needs. Great stuff.

Snarks and Chords? Is it me?

armchair_spaceman

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