How to Tune a Guitar

If you want to impress the ladies with your musical prowess then at the very least you need to know how to tune a guitar. Me, I’m lazy and use a clip on tuner, but if you’re stuck without this privilege and need to botch the job by ear, here’s how to.

Photo Credit: Designlazy.com

Steps

1- Get to know your instrument. The strings from thickest to thinnest: E,A,D,G,B,E. How does it work? How do you make sound? How do you change the notes? Placing your finger on the first fret of the A string and striking the string will play the A# note. This progresses as follows: A A# B C C# D D# E F F# G G#. Knowing this progression can help you find what note should be being played on each fret for each string. 

2- Go slow, go steady. Turning the keys on the head of your guitar will tighten or loosen the strings, raising or lowering the pitch (respectively), but whatever you do, do it slowly and carefully to avoid breaking.

3- Use another instrument to find the right notes. As you now know the open notes of each string of a 6 string guitar, you could match them by ear to the notes played by a keyboard or piano.

4- Download a tuning app. These will ‘hear’ your notes and let you know when you’ve got it right. I use ‘Guitar Tuner’.

5- Use a song. Do you know what key a particular song is in? If so, play it song and match the corresponding note and then tune your guitar from there (see 6).

6- Match the notes. You can tune your guitar relative to itself, or to the proper note. If you’re tuning it to itself (i.e. it won’t be in-tune to other instruments) then you do not need a reference note as from step 4. Both approaches will require note matching however. This is as follows: The 5th fret of the deeper E string should be the same note as the open second (A) string. The 5th fret of the second (A) string should be the same note as the third (D) string. The 5th fret of the third (D) string should be the same note as the fourth (G) string. The 4th fret of the fourth (G) string should be the same note as the fifth (B) string. The 5th fret of the fifth (B) string should be the same note as the sixth (E) string.

7- Check your work. Note that both the top and bottom string are E notes. Should you have worked down or up using the instructions in 5, you can check how accurate your ‘ear’ was by seeing if both strings match (bear in mind that one will be an octave higher than the other). If they aren’t the same note, revisit the other strings and try to work out where you went wrong. 

Tips

Use the correct strings for your guitar and change them every couple of months. The fresh, new, vibrant sounds will encourage you to play more often. Get advice from your local music shop on what strings will be best for you.

Always tune your guitar before you use it. It can be quite embarrassing to be half way through a song before realising that it’s out of tune.