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Tuning Your Guitar
It is important for any musician to keep their instrument in tune, especially when playing with other musicians. Since guitar strings are made out of metal or nylon, they will go out of tune eventually. How often they go out of tune depends on factors such as temperature changes, humidity, playing style, and the quality of your guitar’s tuners. There are basically two ways to tune a guitar: mechanically or by ear.
Tuning Mechanically
Using an electronic tuner is a great way to make sure you are always in tune. These tuners are small, inexpensive, run on batteries, and fit in your guitar case. Every player should own one since they assure you of being tuned to concert pitch. Most electronic tuners have built-in microphones for tuning acoustic instruments and a jack so you can plug in an electric or acoustic/electric. In noisy situations, these can be lifesavers.
Tuning by Ear
Tuning a guitar by ear is not difficult, but like any skill, it takes some practice. You have to train your ears to hear when the pitches of two guitar strings are the same.
Unless you have perfect pitch, you will need to use a reference pitch to begin tuning. A tuning fork is one option. Tuning forks play one note (E for example) when they are struck and placed against the guitar body. You can then tune your low E string to this note and begin tuning the rest of the strings relative to the low E. This is called “relative tuning” — for obvious reasons. Another option is a keyboard or piano (if the piano is in tune!) Once you have your low E in tune, you are ready to begin tuning the other strings.
Look at the diagram below. The notes on the left of the nut are the open string notes. The notes on the fretboard are where you will play notes to use as references for the open strings above them.
Let’s start with the 5th string (A.) Since you already tuned the low E string using a tuning fork, you can now play an “in tune” A note by fingering the sixth string at the 5th fret. Pick this note. While this note rings, pick the open 5th string and turn the tuning peg of the 5th string until it matches the pitch (sounds the same) of the fretted A note (sixth string.)
Now tune the 4th string (D.) Play a D note at the 5th fret of the 5th string and tune the open 4th string to this D note.
Now tune the 3rd string (G.) Play a G note at the 5th fret of the 4th string and tune the open 3rd string to this G note.
Now tune the 2nd string (B.) Play a B note at the 4th fret of the 3rd string and tune the open 2nd string to this B note.
Finally, tune the 1st string (E.) Play a E note at the 5th fret of the 2nd string and tune the open 1st string to this E note. Now check the high E note (open 1st string) against the low E note (open 6th string), do they sound “right” or good together, if so you should be in tune.
With practice, you will be able to do this quickly and will be able to make adjustments when individual strings go out of tune.
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- This lesson was adapted from my book: Better Guitar Method Book 1, which is available at the Better Guitar Shop.
Always Tune Up
Always tune up to the correct pitch (C sharp to D, for example) instead of down (E flat to D). This keeps tension on the string and holds the pitch longer. Tuning down to a pitch can leave your string loose and it will probably go out of tune quickly. No one wants to hear an out of tune instrument, so tune up before you play. If you come to lessons already in tune, your teacher will really like you!
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