Guitar · Chapter 3 of 23

Tuning Up

A guitar slips out of tune all the time, so every practice starts with tuning. Three ways to do it, from easiest to most useful when you have nothing else.

Standard tuning, low to high, is E A D G B E. Each tuning peg tightens its string (the note goes up) or loosens it (the note goes down). Turn slowly, a little at a time, and pluck as you turn.

1. With the tuner

The site’s tuner listens through your microphone (only after you press its button and allow it; nothing is recorded or sent anywhere). Pluck one string, and the needle shows whether it is flat (too low: tighten) or sharp (too high: loosen). Clip-on tuners that sit on the headstock work the same way.

Tip: tune up to the note. If a string is sharp, loosen it a bit below the note, then bring it up. The string holds its pitch better that way.

2. By ear, with reference notes

Press a button to hear the note each open string should play, then turn the peg until your string matches. Listen for the “wobble” (a slow wah-wah) when two notes are close but not equal: it slows down and disappears as they meet.

3. String against string: the 5th-fret method

When you have no tuner, tune the strings to each other. Tune string 6 as well as you can, then:

Press	It sounds	Tune this open string to it
string 6 (E), 5th fret	A	string 5 (A)
string 5 (A), 5th fret	D	string 4 (D)
string 4 (D), 5th fret	G	string 3 (G)
string 3 (G), 4th fret	B	string 2 (B)
string 2 (B), 5th fret	E	string 1 (E)

The one exception is the G string: it’s tuned four frets, not five, below the B string. Here are the five pairs on the neck (the dots are the frets you press); press a dot, then the open string beside it, and compare.

Other tunings

Some music uses other tunings: drop D (string 6 lowered to D, for a deep bass) or open G and open D (the open strings make a chord, popular in old blues and slide guitar). This course stays in standard tuning, but the tuner and the chord finder know these too.

Try it. Tune your guitar with the tuner. Then put string 1 a little out of tune on purpose and bring it back using only the 5th-fret method. Check with the tuner how close you got.

Remember

Standard tuning: E A D G B E.
Flat = too low (tighten); sharp = too high (loosen). Tune up to the note.
5th-fret method: every string matches the 5th fret of the string above it, except B, which matches the 4th fret of G.