Easy Guitar Tuning For Beginners

Have you ever found your guitar doesn’t sound quite right? Perhaps it’s slightly off the note and out of tune with others.

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Did you know that strings change pitch through hitting and bending? Don’t rely on others to remedy this for you. Learn easy guitar tuning for beginners and you’ll always be pitch-perfect for your gigs, recordings and practice time.

In this article, we’ll cover the basics, as well as some more advanced factors, and let you know which digital and mechanical tuner options may be best for you. Click here if you are looking to book a Guitar Lesson in Southampton near you.

Easy guitar tuning for beginners

You should tune your guitar every time you pick it up to play. And check it while you are practising, especially before a show.

Reasons that your guitar’s tuning could go out of tune include:

Tuning Stability – Higher quality guitars are built with high attention to detail and hold their tuning better.

Humidity – Changes in air moisture can flex the neck of the guitar, affecting tuning, remember to set up your guitar if it travels a long distance.

Strings – Old strings detune easily and don’t intonate as well, new strings need stretching to hold their tuning properly.

Tuning ‘Pegs’, ‘Keys’ or ‘Machine Heads’ – Low-quality tuning pegs will allow strings to slip slightly, affecting your tuning.

Bridge Type – Floating bridges such as a Floyd rose need specific care, tuning one string will cause the others to detune.

How do I tune my guitar?

Tuners are by far the easiest way to do it. Chromatic tuners are the most common type – they tell you the note you’re playing and how far away you are from your desired pitch. Examples of these include most clip-on, pedal and polyphonic tuners.

Non-chromatic tuners are still effective but they don’t measure all notes, only the ones related to the standard guitar tuning pitches. These tend to be cheaper, often coming with starter guitar bundles, and are fine for standard tuning but aren’t as flexible as chromatic tuners. You can also use a chromatic tuner to tune all kinds of other stringed instruments such as a bass guitar!

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These are the options…

Clip-on guitar tuner

These are a popular option amongst many guitarists because they are small, portable and clip right onto the head of your guitar. The price can vary depending on the brand and some can be very accurate. Although they are very useful, they are also very visible. However, there are more discrete options that can be just as effective. The best tuners for acoustic and classical guitars are usually clip-on tuners. You clip them to the headstock of the guitar. The resonance of the string through the headstock is measured by the tuner.

Some acoustic guitars have pickups in them so that they can be plugged in. This can lead to a small box built into the body of the guitar that contains its own tuner. This box takes the signal and sends it to a speaker or amplifier, to project the sound of the acoustic guitar. It may also incorporate an equalizer to shape the tone.

Guitar tuner pedal

If you don’t want a clip-on tuner hanging on your guitar while you perform, a pedalboard tuner could be for you. These are bigger and can fit alongside your other pedals in your setup.

They usually need an external power supply and could be harder to see how in-tune you are because they are on the floor, especially if it doesn’t have a clearly lit display. You may want to opt for a tuner that can be powered by batteries as well as from the mains in case you don’t have access to a plug socket.

Tuning fork

People traditionally used tuning forks to tune instruments before electronic tuners. These are small pieces of metal that will resonate at a specific frequency when struck. Using tuning forks to tune can be fine in quiet environments but are impractical on stage and old fashioned.

Guitar tuning apps

You can tune your guitar on iPhone and Android with apps. Many apps are free. You can download them on your phone or tablet and use the internal microphone to tune. However, you are relying on the quality of your phonemic, which may not be able to pick up your guitar in loud environments. So they are often less accurate than other tuners.

The Chromatic Guitar Tuner app may be the most accurate but have a look at all of them and see which you prefer.

BOSS Tuner
Chromatic Guitar Tuner
Cifra Club Tuner
gStrings
DaTuner
Fender Guitar Tuner
GuitarTuna

Standard guitar tuning

Standard guitar tuning, EADGBE, is the most common tuning for the tuned notes of your guitar strings. Standard tuning frequencies can also be measured in Hz. It’s good to learn how to tune with and without a tuner and how to look after your guitar and its tuning pegs.

E2 – 82.41 Hz

A2 – 110 Hz

D3 – 146.8 Hz

G3 – 196 Hz

If you want to tune a guitar then you need to make sure that the string frequencies are spot on. Sound waves are made up of different frequencies, measured in Hertz (Hz).

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What is the standard tuning on a guitar?

The standard tuning of a guitar consists of:

E2, A2, D3, G3, B3 & E4 (from the lowest string to the top).

Across music, the A above middle C, A4 (440 HZ), is used as a standard reference pitch for tuning instruments. This means that the pitch of all other notes is determined around this frequency to create a widely accepted standard pitch.

The A string is two octaves below standard pitch so this makes its frequency on a guitar 110 Hz. Notice how the frequency has halved twice. An octave simply means that the difference between two sound wave frequencies is x2, so two octaves is x4.

In standard tuning, the guitar is not set to a musical ‘key’. The key or ‘tonic’ comes from the note that forms the key centre of the musical piece, for example, an ‘A’ or ‘G’ fretted on the 5th and 3rd frets of the ‘E’ string respectively.

Guitar tuning notes

Once you have this first note, we can begin to tune the rest. A clever hack to know is that the note on the fifth fret of a string is the equivalent of the open string below it.

For example, when you play the fifth fret on the bottom E string, that will be your next reference point for the open fifth string or A note. This works for every string apart from the fourth (G3) and fifth (B3) strings, where you play the 4th fret on the G string to get a B.

After you tune each individual string, you need to make them stay pitch-perfect. You can do this by gently stretching them away from the fretboard and re-tuning each time they go out of tune.

A safe way to stretch your strings is to place your middle finger on the 12th fret, hook your index finger under the string and lift up to the first crease on your middle finger. Keep tuning the string until it stops going out of tune. You should also look at the different kinds of guitar tuners available to find the easiest and fastest way to tune up.

How to tune a guitar by hand

Tuning keys are also sometimes referred to as tuning pegs. These are located on the head of your guitar and are turned to adjust the tuning. You need to make sure that these are properly looked after because otherwise, your guitar won’t tune.

Ensure that they are tightened on tightly to the head of your guitar. Be aware that there is a lot of tension on them from the strings. An old guitar will have put up with this for years so there is a good chance that they may need replacing to help it stay in tune.

Standard guitar tuning key pegs need the strings to be wrapped around them at least once. If you’re replacing your tuning pegs, consider locking tuners. They won’t require nearly as much string winding and can help your guitar stay in tune better.

Locking tuners can lock with a mechanism on the peg, or at the nut of the guitar. If you have a Floyd Rose Bridge, locking nuts are recommended. If you do not, then locking tuning pegs are recommended.

How to tune a guitar for beginners – without a tuner

A guitar is tuned by measuring and adjusting the pitch of the strings against a reference note, usually starting with the bottom E. You can get this reference point from a piano, or a singer with perfect pitch, instead of using a tuner. This can help you develop a good ear, but there is a higher chance of inaccuracy. If you plan to sing and play the guitar at the same time, it’s a good idea to tune your vocals and guitar separately, so the one doesn’t throw the other off.

4 string guitar tuning

The standard bass guitar tuning on 4 string bass is E1, A1, D2, G2. The bass guitar is tuned in 4ths just like the guitar. Most bass guitars have 4 strings but you will find some extended range variations with 5 strings or even 6. Always check which guitar you have when tuning it! It may have four, five or six strings.

Other stringed instruments such as the Violin are tuned in 5ths, so you might ask why the guitar is tuned in 4ths? Tuning the guitar this way makes it easy to play chords across no more than 4 frets and gives us easy access to the 3rd and 7th intervals which add the most meaning to a chord.

All strings are a perfect 4th above the lower string, except the B. This is a major 3rd above the G string so that the final E string can be a perfect 4th above the B. Variations in chords that you are familiar with, use the 3rd and 7th intervals of the scale.

It’s also due to the scale length of the guitar. We could comfortably reach our notes in 5ths on a violin. However, guitar necks are far too big for the average hand to reach across that kind of distance. The double bass and electric bass guitar are also tuned in 4ths due to their long scale length. It’s all about the size of the human hand and what makes it easier to play.

Guitar intonation

Your guitar’s intonation then will have a direct effect on its tuning. If your guitar is in tune with the open strings played but is out of tune when you hold the frets down, then your intonation is out.

The way you can check it is to start by tuning one of your guitar strings. Then you need to check the tuning of the 12th fret of that string. If the tuning of that note is off then you need to adjust the intonation.

This can be done by adjusting the string length on the bridge or saddle. If the string is tuned but the 12th fret is flat, then this means that the string is too long and you need to bring the saddle on that string forward toward the neck. If it is sharp then you need to move it back.

This can be a really long process and some guitarists like to go to a guitar store so they can get it done professionally. If you want to do it yourself then try to learn a bit more about it first and set aside a few hours so you can get it done carefully and properly. Just make sure you get into a habit of checking the tuning of the frets as well as the open strings if you’re performing or recording.

Here are some final tips:

Find yourself a quiet spot to start your guitar tuning. It’s easier away from background noise and improves accuracy.
Go slowly when guitar tuning, if you tighten a string too much and too fast, it will break!
Buy yourself some high-quality strings that suit your style of playing. Older strings are also more likely to go out of tune quickly so keep them fresh!
Try different string weights, thicker strings last longer and are naturally more resonant than thinner strings.
If you have a lower-end guitar that struggles to hold tuning after bending or using the whammy bar, scribble some graphite into the guitar ‘nut’ (the grooves near the headstock) to lubricate the string contact point. This helps with tuning stability.

If you’re a beginner, it’s a good idea to invest in some local guitar lessons. This will help you to recognise when your tuning is off. Always remember to tune 5-10 minutes before you perform. But be mindful of other musicians in the vicinity and try to do it in a way that won’t disturb them.