Step 1: Obtaining your note

Before you can begin tuning the strings you must aquire the note from which you will be tuning. You can start by playing the E note on a tuned piano, aquiring the note from a song which you already know has an E note in it, using a pitch pipe, tuning fork or other pre-tuned instrument.

Tip: For enhanced accuracy, tune the D string of your guitar first and then tune the other strings to that string. That way are tuning less strings to the original note and there is less of a margin for error.

Step 2: Matching your notes

Once you have aquired your note you can begin to match the other strings by that note. The conventional way is by playing the fifth fret of the string above the one you are attempting to tune and adjusting the tension of the string until the two notes are the same.

An alternate and somewhat more advanced way is the harmonic tuning method. A harmonic is produced by lightly touching (not pressing down) your finger to a harmonic zone on the fretboard and plucking the string that your finger is resting on. Harmonic tuning consists of playing the 5th fret harmonic of a string and then matching the seventh fret harmonic of the string underneith it to the note of the previous string. The benefit to using the harmonic tuning method is that you can remove your hands from the fretboard and the notes will continue to sustain.

Step 3: Double checking with chords

If you have correctly tuned your guitar you should be able to strum a clean chord using all six strings. Try strumming a G chord. If it doesn’t sound right to you try plucking each string in the chord from last to first and see if you can identify which string is out of tune.

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