How Do You Tune A Guitar
It is very important to know how to tune a guitar, and the various techniques that you can use. Having your guitar in tune will help your musical development, by training your ear to recognise the notes of the strings, to sound like the song you are trying to play, and to play with other guitarists and musicians.
When you begin guitar practice, make sure you check that all the strings produce the correct pitch so the music you’re playing will sound the way it’s supposed too.
Your guitar can become of tune due to the temperature of the environment you’re playing in or because of the amount of time you spend playing it. However, the strings don’t all fall out of tune at the same time so it’s important to check each string individually, so you know they’re all in tune. It’s very easy to identify an out of tune string as the chords and notes you’re playing will not sound exactly the way they should.
The Basics
A guitar is made up of 6 individual strings which all produce a different pitch, these are tune to what is called “Standard Tuning”, and it is essential that you learn the notes of each string. These can be learnt using this simple mnemonic:
Elephants And Donkeys Grow Big Ears
| Elephants |
E |
6 | This is Bass E the lowest pitched string, and bottom string |
| And |
A |
5 | |
| Donkeys |
D |
4 | |
| Grow |
G |
3 | |
| Big |
B |
2 | |
| Ears |
E |
1 | This is Treble E the highest pitched string, and is your top string |
There are basically two ways that you can use to tune a guitar. Tuning by ear or by using a guitar tuner.
Tuning By Ear
There are a few methods that you can use to tune a guitar by ear.
Professional guitarists will use a combination of these methods to make sure that the strings are exactly in tune. But as a beginner you will only need one method and over time you can develop the others. These methods are:
- Tune a guitar to it self
- Tuning a guitar by pitch
- Tuning by Octaves
- Harmonic Tuning
We will be looking at methods 1 and 2, as these are the most popular way and easiest to master as a beginner guitarist.
Tuning a guitar to itself.
This is by far the most common technique used to quickly tune your guitar. All the strings are tuned to the 6th string. Begin with 6th (Bass E) string with your finger on the fifth fret. You’re now playing an A This is your target note for the 5th string. Using the machine heads on the headstock of your guitar, fine-tune the 5th string by plucking it until the pitch matches the 5th fret of your 6th string. If you hum the target note that will help you get an accurate tuning. Next you follow a similar pattern for each string carefully tuning the corresponding strings in ascending order. As long as each string is tuned to the correctly as shown in the diagram below, your guitar will still sound in tune by itself.
Tuning a guitar by pitch
Tuning a guitar by pitch is a great way to accurately tune your guitar. This is achieved by tuning to a reference note. Often a piano or keyboard is used, tuning forks, or another instrument. Using your listening skills match the guitar string to the reference note. To help you do this try tuning to the samples below. Warning these samples are quite loud, so adjust the volume before playing.
Tuning With A Tuner
There are two types of guitar tuner; chromatic tuners and pitch tuners. For most beginners, using a tuner is the most straightforward way to tune a guitar.
Chromatic Tuners
Chromatic tuners measure the wavelength of the string when played and display the pitch the string is currently tuned to. Most tuners will display a needle at the top of the screen. If the needle is to the left of the screen, this means the note is flat. If the Needle is to the right of the screen, the note is too sharp. You’ll know when the string is in tune when the needle is directly in the middle of the screen and it lights up green. It will take practice to get the strings to the correct pitch, and learning how your machine heads work.
My reccomended chromatic tuner:
https://www.gear4music.com/Guitar-and-Bass/Planet-Waves-NS-Micro-Headstock-Tuner/KJJ?utm_source=musicradar.com
Pitch Tuners
Pitch tuners are more or less the same as using a reference note to tune a guitar, only using an app or an online tuner. The tune plays the target note and you tune the guitar to the same pitch
My reccomended pitch tuners are:
http://www.get-tuned.com/online_guitar_tuner.php