2 Easy Methods To Tune Your Guitar

Be it Electric, Acoustic or Classical; tuning your guitar precisely is the key to a well-balanced perfect sound and producing some great music out of it. Some people struggle to get it right initially. But reading the below tips will immensely help you to master the task of tuning your guitar precisely in no time.

Most common guitar types have 6 strings. They are different in thickness or gauge and considering from the thinnest or first (or the bottom most) to the thickest or the sixth (or the top most), they are tuned to the notes as below.

TUNING METHOD 1

This particular tuning method is the easiest and you require a pitch pipe, a piano or a keyboard instrument to assist you. Let us have a look at this method with the help of a keyboard.

1) Locate the Middle C note of your keyboard. For example, if you have a 7 Octave Keyboard, the C note on the 4^th Octave will be your Middle C (Shaded in light red in the bottom picture)

2) Play the E note (the white key 2 places higher after your Middle C) and tune your guitar’s 1^st string to match this note (Refer the picture above)

3) Play the B note (the white key immediately to the left of your Middle C) and tune your guitar’s 2^nd string to match this note (Refer the picture above)

4) Play the G note (the white key 3 places behind your Middle C) and tune your guitar’s 3^rd string to match this note (Refer the picture above)

5) Play the D note (the white key 6 places behind your Middle C) and tune your guitar’s 4^th string to match this note (Refer the picture above)

6) Play the A note (the white key 9 places behind your Middle C) and tune your guitar’s 5^th string to match this note (Refer the picture above)

7) Play the E note (the white key 12 places behind your Middle C) and tune your guitar’s 6^th string to match this note (Refer the picture above)

8) Recheck all the string tuning again from step 1.

9) You’re done!

TUNING METHOD 2

The second method involves some steps from the above 1^st method, but then moves on with tuning the guitar by referring to itself. This method also requires you to have a pitch pipe, a piano or a keyboard instrument to assist you. Let us have a look at this method with the help of a keyboard.

1) Locate the Middle C note of your keyboard. For example, if you have a 7 Octave Keyboard, the C note on the 4th Octave will be your Middle C (Shaded in light red on the below picture).

2) Play the E note (the white key 2 places higher after your Middle C) and tune your guitar’s 1st string to match this note (Refer the picture below).

3) Now, place your finger at the 5^th Fret on the 2^nd string. Tune this note to match the open 1^st String. Once they sound perfectly matched, your 2^nd string is tuned (Refer the picture below).

4) Place your finger at the 4th Fret on the 3rd string. Tune this note to match the open 2^nd String. Once they sound perfectly matched, your 3^rd string is tuned (Refer the picture below).

5) Place your finger at the 5th Fret on the 4^th string. Tune this note to match the open 3^rd String. Once they sound perfectly matched, your 4^th string is tuned (Refer the picture below).

6) Place your finger at the 5th Fret on the 5th string. Tune this note to match the open 4^th String. Once they sound perfectly matched, your 5th string is tuned (Refer the picture below).

7) Place your finger at the 5th Fret on the 6^th string. Tune this note to match the open 5^th String. Once they sound perfectly matched, your 6^th string is tuned (Refer the picture below).

8) Recheck all the string tuning again from step 1.

9) You’re done!

Apart from the 2 easy methods mentioned above, there are more sophisticated advanced methods to tune your guitar like the ‘Harmonics Method’. But that requires the player to acquire some finesse over the instrument. We shall cover that in a different blog.

If you still find the methods above are not working perfectly for you in the beginning, there are plenty of easy to use tuners available in the market at very affordable prices.

Also our guitar teachers at The Young Musician Music Institute will be more than glad to teach you various tuning methods appropriate for your level of proficiency.