Lesson 3: Tuning Your Guitar

Lesson 3: Tuning Your Guitar


One of the most important things you will need to do in order to keep your guitar sounding good (and make practicing worthwhile) is to tune it on a regular basis. The process of tuning your guitar involves adjusting the pitch of each of your strings so that they play the correct note. This is done by tightening or loosening each of the tuning pegs (on the headstock).

In general, tightening the tuning peg raises the pitch of a string, while loosening the peg lowers the pitch. There are a few different methods that guitar players use in order to tune their guitars:

For beginning guitar players, it is often a good idea to purchase an electronic tuner. Electronic tuners are small devices that are able to pick up the sound of a string and let you know (usually through some sort of L.E.D. display) whether the note you are playing is sharp (too high) or flat (too low). Since beginners usually have a hard time telling whether or not a string is in tune just by ear, having an electronic tuner can help make tuning much quicker and more accurate.

For those that don't want (or can't afford) to purchase an electronic tuner, there are other ways to tune your guitar manually and without the aid of an electronic device. The simplest way is to use a method called Relative Tuning:

Relative Tuning

Place a finger on the 5th fret of the 6th string and play the note.

Play the 5th string "Open." When in tune, these two notes should sound exactly the same.
Adjust the tuning peg for the 5th string so that, when played open, it makes the same sound as the 5th fretted 6th string.

Place your finger on the 5th fret of the 5th string and repeat this process with the 4th string "Open."
Repeat this process for the 4th and 3rd strings.

When you reach the 2nd string, things change slightly. Instead of placing your finger on the 5th fret of the 3rd string when adjusting the 2nd string, place it on the 4th fret.

To tune the 1st and final string, go back to the previous method by playing the 5th fret of the 2nd string.

If you happen to have a piano handy, and know which notes are which, you can also tune your guitar by matching each of the strings to the corresponding note on the piano.

Tuning with a Piano

Start by finding and playing an E note on the piano.
Play the 6th string (also an E) on your guitar and adjust the tuning peg so that the E on your guitar sounds like the E on the piano.

Repeat this process for each of the following strings: A (5), D (4), G (3), B (2) and the high E (1).

TIP: Whichever way you decide, make sure that you tune your guitar regularly and frequently. Since strings can go out of tune at any time (often more so when playing a lot) you may even need to re-tune your guitar in the middle of practicing.