Tuning a Guitar

The easiest way to tune your guitar is to buy a small electronic tuner. These are quite affordable and can usually be purchased for $15 or $20. If you need to tune an acoustic guitar without electronics, there are very good tuners that attach to the headstock of the guitar and tune the guitar by its vibrations.

If you wish to use the old-fashioned method and tune by ear, you’ll need to get the pitch for the low E string at least. If you restring your guitar one string at a time, you can use the high E-string to get the pitch for the low e-string. Once you have the E-string in tune, you can proceed.

1. Fret the Low E string at the 5th fret and pluck the string to get the tone for the second string, which is A. Match the second string (A) to the tone of the E string at fret 5 (A)
2. Fret the second low A string at the 5th fret and pluck the string to get the tone for the third string, which is D. Match the third string (D) to the tone of the A string at fret 5 (D)
3. Fret the third low D string at the 5th fret and pluck the string to get the tone for the fourth string, which is G. Match the fourth string (G) to the tone of the D string at fret 5 (G)
4. Fret the fourth low G string at the 4th fret and pluck the string to get the tone for the fifth string, which is B. Match the fifth string (B) to the tone of the G string at fret 5 (B)
5. Fret the fifth low B string at the 5th fret and pluck the string to get the tone for the sixth string, which is E. Match the sixth string (E) to the tone of the B string at fret 5 (E)