How to Tune a Guitar - 3.5 Different Methods to Get in Tune

By Matthew Coffman

Ready to learn how to tune a guitar? Great! Let's dive right in!

Method One: Using a Tuner

You're probably going to rely on a tuner for most of your tuning. There's nothing wrong with that, but if you want to be a complete guitarist, you are going to need to know how to tune without a tuner.

Tuners come in all shapes and sizes, and each one tunes differently. I won't go into the details of how to use a tuner to tune your guitar, but if I had to recommend a single type of tuner to new guitarists, it would be a vibrational tuner.

These tuners clamp onto the head of your guitar and detect the pitch of your strings through the vibration of the guitar. This makes these tuners extremely useful in loud situations like parties, concerts and campfires.

Tuning with a tuner is the half-method from the title.

Method Two: The Fifth-Fret Method

This is probably the tuning method you know best.

It works like this: you hold down the 5th fret of the 6th string and play that note. Then, you play the open 5th string and compare the two. If the note sounds flat to you, then you need to tighten the 5th string to bring it into tune with the fretted note you're holding down on the 6th string.

If, on the other hand, the open 5th string note sounds sharp in relation to the note you're holding down on the 6th string, then you need to loosen the 5th string.

You use the same method for each string EXCEPT the 3rd string to the 2nd string. This is the one trick to this method: you have to hold down the 4th fret of the 3rd string to get the correct note to use to tune the open 2nd string.

Method Three: Using Harmonics to Tune a Guitar

This method presents quite a bit more difficulty than the previous Fifth-Fret method.

A harmonic is a bell-like sound that you can create with your guitar by lightly touching a string and then pulling your finger off of the string as you pluck the string with your strumming hand. This only works at certain frets on the guitar, but if you do it right, the string will ring almost like a bell.

It's a great tool to have in your guitar arsenal.

Not only that, but harmonics create a very beautiful way of tuning the guitar.

To use harmonics to tune the guitar, you need to be able to play two different harmonics simultaneously on two different strings.

If you can do that, then here's how to tune with harmonics: Play a harmonic on the 5th string at the 7th fret. Then, while that harmonic rings, play another harmonic on the 6th string at the 5th fret.

Since both harmonics ring at the same while none of your fingers are on any of the strings, you can tune one string to another very precisely by listening to the pitches as you tune.

You can then use the harmonic at the 7th fret of the higher pitched string against the harmonic at the 5th fret of the next lower pitched string for all the other string pairs except, once again, the B string and the G string.

That's okay, though, because to work around that, you can play a harmonic once again on the 5th string at the 7th fret, but this time you can tune the open 1st string against that harmonic.

Once you have the 1st string you can then tune using the 7th fret of the 1st string against the 5th fret of the 2nd string.

This method of using harmonics to tune the guitar sounds extremely beautiful and works well during performances for an extra effect.

Method Four: Tuning Using the A String

My favorite method for tuning the guitar involves using fretted notes on the 5th String (aka the A string) to tune all the other strings.

I love this method for several reasons. First, using this method forces you to learn the notes on the 5th string, which helps you in all sorts of ways as you extend your mastery of the guitar across the entire fingerboard.

Second, I love this method because it allows you to tune all the other strings against a single string. This minimizes the discrepancies in your tuning and ultimately creates a much tighter and more precise result to your tuning.

Here's how to do it:

• Fret the 5th String at the 5th fret, and play the open 4th String against it. Tune the 4th string.
• Fret the 5th string at the 10th fret, and then play the open 3rd string. Tune the 3rd string.
• Fret the 5th string at the 2nd fret and compare that note against the open 2nd string.
• Fret the 5th string at the 7th fret. Tune the 1st string. Then, using the same 7th fret note, tune the 6th string.

That's it! Easy and effective!

Here's a quick little tip: You can figure out if your open string is flat or sharp by pulling your fretted note either up toward the head of the guitar (to make your fretted note flat) or down toward the soundhole of the guitar (to make your fretted note sharp). Notice when your open string sounds in tune with the fretted note-are you pulling it flat, just holding it normally so as to be in tune, or pulling it sharp? That will help you know which way to tune your string.

There you have it! While that may seem like a lot of trouble to go to, learning to tune a guitar by ear will help you improve in tons of different ways. It will help you train your ear to hear precise pitches. It will teach you where to find different notes on the guitar. And it may even help you get a tighter and better tuning than you could ever get with a machine tuner.