Most times I don't "ping" my blade as after its inserted into a hole you can't ping it the wood dampens the ping, so once I got use to ping the blade I felt how tight it was, put side pressure on the blade and looked how far it moves. I can set my tension this way better, but when I can will "ping" the blade to test it. I also try to set mine as tight as I can with out breaking a blade and haven't yet. If its not tight enough you will be able to tell the blade will walk away from your line and will be hard to control.
You might get some scrap, put some straight lines, and start with a good tension try to follow that line, and keep getting tighter on your tension you will see the difference.