Tuning Pegs

Your guitar will need tuning on a regular basis. To do this, you need to know the names of the strings and how they should sound. When you are playing the guitar, the upper most string (6th), plays the lowest note. This can lead to confusion when instructions refer to the 'top' string. Generally 'top' and 'bottom' refer to the pitch (high and low) of the string rather than its position.

Starting with the 6th (bottom) string, the tuning is:

E     A     D     G     B     E

6th   5th  4th  3rd    2nd   1st

BASS             TREBLE

There are various ways to tune:-

1. Using a pitch pipe. A six note pitch pipe will give you the notes you need for tuning, although this is not as easy as it sounds since the timbre of the two instruments can make the matching of pitch difficult for the beginner.

2. Using a piano.

3. Online Guitar Tuner

4. Tuning Fork

5. Electronic tuner.

6. Relative tuning also referred to as open E tuning. This involves tuning the 6th string to E from a known source such as a pitch pipe, a piano or a tuning fork, and then using this as a basis for tuning the other strings by:-

a) Fretting or stopping the 6th string at the 5th fret. (A fret is the space between fret bars on the finger board of the guitar so the first space is the first fret). Play the note. This should give you an A, which is the note to which you should tune the 5th string using the tuning pegs, until the two notes seem to be of he same pitch.

b) Stop the 5th string at the 5th fret. This gives you a D, which is the note you need to tune the 4th string to.

c) Play the 4th string, fretting it at the 5th fret. This gives you a G, which is the note to which you should tune the 3rd string.

d) Careful! Play the 3rd string at the 4th fret. This gives you a B, which is the note you need for the 2nd string.

e) Play the 2nd string at the 5th fret. This gives you an E, which is the note you need to tune the 1st string to.

This sort of thing does get easier with practice. If you now play the 1st and 6th strings, they should sound good together as they are both tuned to E, two octaves apart.

If you are happy with the tuning, it is a good idea to record the pitch of each string for future reference.

Tuning Electric and Acoustic Guitar

Photograph by ind{yeah}

6 Methods of Tuning a Guitar is a post from: Fat Finger Music Electric Guitar Blog, click to read more.