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Guitar Tuning - The Quick and Easy Guide

Guitar tuning is the act of adjusting the strings’ pitches. This is one of the
most important concepts for a beginning guitarist to learn. If your guitar is
not in tune you will never sound good. There are two TOOLS you can use
when tuning your guitar - One is an electronic TUNER; the other is your EAR

Guitar Tuning with a Tuner

These small and inexpensive devices can save you a lot of trouble
Almost any guitarist owns an electronic tuner, for various reasons:
• They help with your ear improvement. Using a tuner will train
your ear to hear the correct sound of the guitar, in perfect tune
• They are the best way to make guitar tuning really easy
• They are a real necessity for performers
in live situations and noisy environments
• Very useful during the restringing process
and when changing from one tuning to another

To see more about guitar tuners go to Guitar Tuners Gallery

Is the use of an electronic tuner really training your ear? YES.
But it is very easy to become dependent on the visual aspect
of tuners and not pay very much attention to the actual sound
DO NOT neglect learning the skill of tuning by ear because you must be
able to recognize different pitches. This is essential to become a musician

Tuning by Ear Methods

BASIC 5th FRET GUITAR TUNING
The most standard guitar tuning method; it entails matching notes on adjacent strings
The first thing you need to do is to get a REFERENCE PITCH. Get it from another guitar that is in tune, a piano, a tuning fork, an electronic tuner or a MIDI file on your computer

Procedure for 5th FRET tuning
1) Play a Lo-E REFERENCE PITCH. Match the open Lo-E string (sixth string)to it
2) Play an A on the low E (6th) string at the 5th fret. Match your open A (5th) string to it
3) Play a D on the A (5th) string at the 5th fret. Match your open D (4th) string to it
4) Play a G on the D (4th) string at the 5th fret. Match your open G (3rd) string to it
5) Play a B on the G (3rd) string at the 4th fret. Match your open B (2nd) string to it
6) Play an E on the B (2nd) string at the 5th fret. Match your open high E (1st) string to it

GUITAR TUNING WITH HARMONICS
Harmonics are bell-like tones created by lightly depressing a string
directly over the fret wire and then picking it with the right hand
Procedure for HARMONIC tuning
1) Play a Lo-E REFERENCE PITCH
Match the open Lo-E string (sixth string) to it
2) Play an E harmonic on the E (6th) string at the 5th fret
Match the E harmonic on the A (5th) string at the 7th fret to it
3) Play an A harmonic on the A (5th) string at the 5th fret
Match the A harmonic on the D (4th) string at the 7th fret to it
4) Play a D harmonic on the D (4th) string at the 5th fret
Match the D harmonic on the G (3rd) string at the 7th fret to it
5) Play a B harmonic on the E (6th) string at the 7th fret
Match the B harmonic (one octave higher) on the B (2nd) string at the 12th fret to it
6) Play an E harmonic on the A (5th) string at the 7th fret
Match the E harmonic (one octave higher) on the E (1st) string at the 12th fret to it

Tuning using harmonics and open strings facilitates listening since the strings will sustain without left hand involvement. It also makes adjusting strings easier because the left hand is free to turn the tuning knobs

GUITAR TUNING USING OCTAVES
An octave is the interval between two notes with the same name

Procedure for OCTAVES tuning
1) Play a Hi-E REFERENCE PITCH.
Match the open Hi-E string (first string) to it. You can
use an E fork, it matches the open first string exactly
2) Play your open Hi-E (1st) string
Match an E on the D (4th) string at the 2nd fret to it
3) Play your open D (4th) string
Match a D on the B (2nd) string at the 3rd fret to it
4) Play your open B (2nd) string
Match a B on the A (5th) string at the 2nd fret to it
5) Play your open A (5th) string
Match an A on the G (3rd) string at the 2nd fret to it
6) Play your open G (3rd) string
Match a G on the Lo-E (6th) string at the 3rd fret to it

Another Way To Tune In Octaves
1) Play a Lo-E tuning REFERENCE PITCH and match
the open Lo-E string (sixth string) to it
2) Play the 6th string open and 5th string, 7th fret
3) Play the 5th string open and 4th string, 7th fret
4) Play the 4th string open and 3rd string, 7th fret
5) Play the 3rd string open and 2nd string, 8th fret
6) Play the 2nd string open and 1st string, 7th fret

Tip: Tune your guitar every time you pick it up

Testing

TEST WITH DIFFERENT METHODS
Tuning and testing assures optimum accuracy

TEST IN DIFFERENT FRETS
Even if you use an electronic tuner, if you only tune the OPEN strings that does not mean that the FRETTED notes will be in tune. Also, test the notes on the 3rd and 5th frets

TEST YOUR GUITAR
The effectiveness of guitar tuning also depends on the guitar itself. If your
guitar is not properly set up, it will be impossible to tune with any method

For more information see Guitar Tuning Tips

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