How To Tune Guitar: Some Tips For Success

By paulbright

how to tune guitar If you are already an “armed-and-ready” person who always has a guitar tuner or a pitch pipe handy, then you won’t probably won’t be all that interested with what I’m about to share to you. It sucks big time if your guitar is out of tune and you don’t have any idea on how to fix it, especially if you’ve got an impromptu performance in front of your friends. You really don’t want to embarrass yourself in front of your friends with an out of tune guitar, right? So, I’m going to show you an easy fix for situations like these.

Let me set your expectations ahead of time: tuning your guitar is quite tricky, especially if you aren’t all that use to it yet. But with practice and repetition, you’ll effortlessly tune your guitar in no time at all.

Familiarize.

Knowing what a perfectly tuned guitar sounds like, is the very first crucial step. You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to discern whether your guitar is out of tune or not – your ears will be the one to help you. Just follow the simple rule: if it sounds awful, then it probably is out of tune, granting that you are doing your chords correctly of course.

Tune by ear.

Tuning your guitar without any tuning paraphernalia is indeed possible. Let me share this video below:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tS6musPnlZ8

To put it in context,

i) Pluck the 6^th(E) string on the 5^th fret, and then play the open 5^th string. Tune the 5^th string until it sounds like the 6^th string

ii) Play the 5^th(A) string on the 5^th fret and then play the open 4^th string. Tune the 4^th string until sounds like the 5^th string

iii) Play the 4^th (D) on the 5^th fret, and then play the open 3^rd string. Tune the 3^rd string until it sounds like the 4^th string.

iv) Play the 3^rd (G) string on the 4^th fret, and then play the open 2^nd string. Tune until the 2^nd string sounds like the 3^rd string.

v) Play the 2^nd (B) string on the 5^th fret, and then play the open 1^st string. Tune until the 1^st string sounds like the 2^nd string

If all the strings of your guitar are out of tune, then it’s pretty much going to be impossible to get it in tune using the method above. However, what happens most of the time is that there are only one or two strings that need fixing. This is when you can do the above steps to determine which string or strings are out of tune, then fix and tune as necessary.

Remember, it doesn’t necessarily have to be perfectly standard. Your main goal here is to make sure that the strings are in tune with each other. You’ll end up frustrated if you strive to have your guitar always “perfectly” tuned. Just make sure they are in tune, and focus on practicing your guitar chords.

Tuning your guitar the first time can really take a long time, but just be patient and in time, you can easily tune a guitar in no time. You become better when you learn how to tune your guitar. You can even purposely make your guitar out of tune, and then try to fix it again. Word of caution: don’t overdo it though.

Happy Tuning!

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