How to tune a guitar

A crying baby on a transatlantic flight. Nails on a chalkboard. A loud motorcycle at four in the morning. There’s not much more annoying than an out-of-tune guitar – both for the listener and the player. Knowing how to tune a guitar is a fundamental skill for any guitarist. 

Unfortunately, some people place little importance on tuning their guitars before they play. Over time their ears accept that ‘out-of-tuneness’ as normal. We think these people should be imprisoned and never allowed to interact with modern society. 

Training your hearing early on so you understand how to know if your guitar is in tune is vital to the development of a good ‘musical ear’. 

So, how do you tune a guitar? There are numerous methods including the use of harmonics, apps, pedals, and clip-on devices. Read on, and we’ll break down everything you need to about how to properly tune up a guitar.

How to tune a guitar for beginners

The guitar is not a perfect instrument. They’re mostly made out of wood, which makes them almost like living breathing creatures that will frequently go out of tune depending on room temperature, humidity, and a variety of other factors. 

• It’s a good idea to get in the habit of tuning your instrument before every practice session.
• You may have a perfect sounding E major chord, only to find that your G major chord sounds miles out. 
• Starting to learn guitar is hard enough, but tuning your instrument can be extremely frustrating until you get the hang of it. Fortunately technological help is at hand.

The easiest way to tune your guitar is by using our free online guitar tuner. Check it out – we have simple instructions on exactly how to use it, and it’s super accurate.

If you’re looking to learn how to tune a six-string guitar with your ears (like a true guitarist!), keep on reading.

How to tune a guitar using your ears

Learning how to tune your guitar without the help of an electric tuner or free online guitar tuner will make you a better musician by “training” your ears.

There are two basic methods to tune up a guitar with your ears: 1) unison notes and 2) harmonics.

• The unison-note method is pretty straight forward: You play a note on one string that matches the exact pitch of the string you’re tuning to see if they’re in tune with each other.
• The harmonic method might sound like witchcraft at first – it involves barely touching two strings at the right place to create two identical high-pitched notes. The higher pitch makes it easier for you to know if your guitar is in tune.
• A combination of both techniques usually works best when tuning.

Method 1 – Tuning a guitar with unison notes

This is a quick and reliable method of bringing your guitar to a reasonable state of tuning. Read through the steps below, and use this diagram to help you remember which notes should sound the same while tuning.

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Step 1. Make sure your low E string is in tune:

If you want to be perfectly in tune, you’ll need to start by making sure that your low E string is in tune. 

• You can use our free online guitar tuner to check this.
• Alternatively you can just tune your guitar to whatever pitch your low E string currently is.
• If you’re playing along, it’s okay to do this, but if you’re playing with others or playing along to a track, you’ll quickly find that this doesn't work.

Other methods of making sure your E string is in tune are using an E tuning fork, a pitch pipe, or a note on a keyboard (if that is also correctly in tune! Acoustic pianos are often notoriously just under the note).

Step 2. Tune the A string

• Play the 5th fret of the low E String, while also playing the open A string. 
• Your goal is for these notes to have the exact same pitch. 
• Alter the pitch of the A string only by twisting the tuning peg.
• If the A string note sounds LOWER than the E string note, it’s FLAT. Twist the tuning peg counterclockwise.
• If the A string note sounds HIGHER than the E string note, it’s SHARP. Twist the tuning peg clockwise.

Step 3. Tune the D string

• With the A string now in tune we repeat the process, but this time we play the 5th fret of the A string and the open D string at the same time. 
• Tune the D string (not the A string), using the same instructions as in Step 2.

Steps 4-6. Repeat the process with the remaining strings

Repeat the process for the G, B, and e strings

• There’s one small change you’ll need to account for when tuning the B string. 
• The interval between two adjacent strings is usually a 4th. However, between the G and the B Strings, the interval is a Major 3rd. 
• To adjust for this, play the 4th fret of the G String, and the open B string at the same time.
• Note: If the tuning pegs are on both sides of your guitar’s headstock (three on one side, and three on the other,) it will appear as if you’re turning the tuning peg in the reverse clockwise direction to make the pitch sharper or flatter.

Step 7. Check your tuning

• Play a six-string chord, like an E major or a G major. 
• This will give you an idea of how your accurate your tuning is.