Tune a guitar

One of the most important aspects of guitar is to be able to tune it properly, but get it wrong and it won’t matter how good you are it will sound terrible. I stress that you really must invest in a good guitar tuner, if not for your own ears and sanity, then for your housemates or family.

This guide is split up into three sections: the first is for those of you who already own a guitar tuner, the second is for those of you relying on either a piano or our online reference tuner, and the third is for those of you wanting to learn how to tune your guitar by ear, also known as tuning your guitar “to itself”. I have included an online reference tuner below for you to use with each of the tuning methods below along with an example of unison and dissonance to give you an idea of what your listening for. We also have a Flash guitar tuner in the maintenance section.

Contents

Online guitar reference tuner

Tuning your guitar using a guitar tuner

Start by plugging your guitar into your tuner and turn the tuner on, if your guitar does not have an output jack/pickup then just turn the tuner on and sit it in front of you, close to the guitar (about 1 foot) so that the inbuilt microphone can pickup your guitar. Your tuner may have several different option buttons but the most common are Guitar and Chromatic so switch the tuner to Chromatic.

Making sure your volume is turned all the way up to ten on your guitar (I could make a joke but I won’t), pluck the low E string (sixth string, thickest, see figure 1.b left) and look at your tuner, hopefully it should have a light on for the letter E, if it does then take a look at the VU meter/Hz meter and tune your string until it is at the very center of the meter (as shown in figure 1.a left). If your tuner shows another letter like D or F then you will have to tune up or tune down (respectively) until the E letter is highlighted.

Once you have tuned the E string, move onto the next thickest string which is the A string (fifth string, see figure 1.b left) and follow the same process as you did for the E string but replacing all instances of E for A. Continue this process up to the high E string. Now go back to the low E string and pluck it, make sure it is accurately tuned to the center of the VU/Hz meter. If your low E string is still in tune then your guitar is fully tuned, if when you go back and find the low E string is out of tune, you will have to go through each string again right up to the high E string (this is caused by flexing of the neck).

Tuning your guitar using an online reference tuner or piano

If you do not have a guitar tuner, you can still tune your guitar using our reference tuner above or another instrument like a piano.

Using Our Online Tuner: Look for the button that says E (low) and click it. Now pluck the low E string (sixth string, thickest see figure 1.b below) on your guitar. If your low E is in tune with the guitar tuners E it will sound in unison or perfect, if it is out of tune it will sound dissonant or imperfect and you will need to tune up or down until you hear unison. Now continue this process for the fifth string which is A, then onto the D string etc etc right up to the high E string. Now go back to the low E string and pluck it, make sure it is accurately tuned to the online tuner. If your low E string is still in tune then your guitar is fully tuned, if when you go back and find the low E string is out of tune, you will have to go through each string again right up to the high E string (this is caused by flexing of the neck).

Using A Piano: If you have a piano and can find middle C (the C note located at the center of the piano keyboard, see figure 2.a below), move up three white keys and play this note, which is E, and the note we want to use as our reference. Sitting in front of the piano with your guitar, play the E on the piano and then play the low E string (sixth string, thickest, see figure 1.b below) on your guitar. If your low E is in tune with the pianos E it will sound in unison or perfect, if it is out of tune it will sound dissonant or imperfect and you will need to tune up or down until you hear unison. Now continue this process for the fifth string which is A and the piano’s A, then onto the D string etc etc right up to the high E string. Now go back to the low E string and pluck it, make sure it is accurately tuned to the piano’s E. If your low E string is still in tune then your guitar is fully tuned, if when you go back and find the low E string is out of tune, you will have to go through each string again right up to the high E string (this is caused by flexing of the neck).

Tuning Your Guitar By Ear

Learning to tune your guitar by ear is a very important skill to have and here I will show you how it’s done. The first thing we need to do is tune your low E string (sixth string, thickest see figure 1.b below) which can be done via another instrument or our online tuner at the top of this page. Play the E on the online tuner/instrument and then play the low E string on your guitar. If your low E is in tune with the tuners/instruments E it will sound in unison or perfect, if it is out of tune it will sound dissonant or imperfect and you will need to tune up or down until you hear unison. Visit the guitar tuner at the top of this page for an example of unison and dissonance.

Once you have your low E string in tune it’s time to tune the guitar to itself. Take a look at diagram 3.a below which shows which notes are where giving a visualization of the following process. Start by fretting the sixth string on the fifth fret (A note) and pluck it, at the same time play the open A string just underneath the sixth which is also A. If your A string is in tune it will sound in unison or perfect, if it is out of tune it will sound dissonant or imperfect and you will need to tune the A string until your hear unison. Once the A string is in tune you can move onto the D string, start by fretting the fifth string on the fifth fret and pluck it, at the same time play the open D string (fourth string) just underneath the fifth and follow the same process of tuning until you hear unison with the fretted fifth string. Now we move onto the third string so start by fretting the fourth string on the fifth fret which is the note G, at the same time play the open third string just underneath the fourth which is open D and follow the same process of tuning until you hear unison with the fretted fourth string. Tuning the second string which is the note B is a little different, start by fretting the third string on the fourth fret, at the same time play the open second string (B note) and follow the same process of tuning until you hear unison with the fretted third string. Now onto the last string which is open E so start by fretting the second string on the fifth fret, at the same time play the open E string just underneath the second and once again, follow the same process of tuning until you hear unison with the fretted second string

Now play an open chord like E major and listen for consonance, if you hear any dissonance then you may need to repeat the above process however, if you consistently find “out of tune” chords after repeated tuning, then your guitar will likely be in need of a intonation setup, so grab the phone and call your local luthier. If you hear consonance then your all done!