How to tune your guitar

How to tune your guitar

Playing an out of tune guitar sounds awful, alot of begginers are put off by thinking it’s them making the bad sound, it’s actually the guitar. Tuning a guitar isn’t that hard, there are a few ways of doing it. The standard tuning for guitar is EADGBe
Method 1 – Manually

At first this technique might seem really hard but it’s worth learning incase you don’t have an electric tuner with you.

First you need to get your E string in tune. You can do this by getting a friend with an in tune instrument or and keyboard/piano to play an E. Try to match the exact sound by twisting the 1st peg on the head of your guitar. Once you have your first string in tune play the 5th fret on the E string. That should match the tone on the open A string. Turn the A tuning key until they match. Repeat this process for the following 2 strings. When you get to the 4th string you must play the 4th fret instead of the 5th. After that it goes back to the 5th fret.

Method 2 – Electric tuners

At almost all guitar stores you can get an electric guitar tuner for around £10. For electric guitar you plug you lead into the tuner like you would with an amp. Play the string you want to tune open (not pressing any frets) and the tuner will tell you if it should be higher or lower.  For acoustic guitar there may be a recording button where you play the string, it will then be the same as electric.

Method 3 – Via PC 

If you have a microphone on your computer you can download programs simular you the electric tuner above. You can get microphones at ‘Game‘ stores for 98p. My favourate program is called In-Tune, it’s really easy to use and is free for 30 days. You can download it here: http://www.musicmasterworks.com

Method 4 – Online

You can tune your guitar using this site: http://www.710.com/reload/fun/tune.htm You match the sound from the pc with your guitar. Personally i think this is hard and uneffective but you may like it.

Hopfully one of the above methods suits you, it’s alway worth learning more than one method just incase.