THE WORLD OF GUITARS

In these days of electronic guitar tuners and other modern ways of tuning, knowing how to tune an acoustic guitar has never been more essential-imagine how redfaced you will be showing up to your first gig and not being able to play because the battery in your tuner gave out? Follow my simple guide to learn exactly how to tune an acoustic guitar.

How To Tune An Acoustic Guitar- Step 1-

You ll need a tuning fork or some pitch pipes-in order to tune the guitar properly you need at least one string to be perfectly in tune. A tuning fork or pitch pipes with a perfect E will be perfect for this.

How To Tune An Acoustic Guitar Step 2-

Play the tuning fork or the pitch pipe so you can hear the perfect E. Then you want to begin tightening the thickest string on the guitar (the low e) until it matches the pitch of the pipes or fork. Once you have this string as a perfect E, you can then use it to tune all the others.

How To Tune An Acoustic Guitar Step 3-

With the low e string tuned to E, hold the 5th fret and pluck the string. This note should be an A with the exact same pitch that we need from the next thickest string. Tune the fifth string until you can play it along with the 5th fret of the low E string and not hear any difference.

How To Tune An Acoustic Guitar Step 4-

Now that the 5th and 6th strings of the guitar are in tune, you want to repeat the process, only this time holding the 5th fret on the 5th string, which should produce a perfect D note. This is the note that you want to tune the 3rd string to.

How To Tune An Acoustic Guitar Step 5-

You should now have the three thickest strings in perfect standard tuning. All we need to do from there is continue the process. Hold the 5th fret on the d string and play it, and you should hear a perfect G. This is the note that you should tune the third string to.

How To Tune An Acoustic Guitar Step 6-

When you are tuning an acoustic guitar, or an electric one for that matter you will need to keep in the mind that the interval between the second and third strings is different from the others. When tuning the 2nd string, instead of holding the 5th fret on the 3rd string, you need to hold the 4th fret to get the perfect note, which is a B. Tune the 2nd string to this pitch.

How To Tune An Acoustic Guitar Step 7-

Back to normal for the thinnest string-we want to tune this one to another E and if you hold the 5th fret on the 2nd string and play it, you will hear the E we need. All you need to do is tune the 1st string so that it matches the pitch of the 5th fret on the 2nd string. All done!

And that s how to tune an acoustic guitar. The above method will work with acoustics and electrics, and has been used by thousands of guitar players for many years.