Guitar Tuning Help From the Strangest Place!

Guitar Tuning will have to be done daily. Why? Wood expands and contracts. Sit in a quiet house and listen to the cracking noises. When heating up or cooling down wood moves. Most guitars are made of wood and the tuning should change with the weather.

FACT: Humidity and direct sunlight are guitars worst enemies. Too much of either and they’ll be destroyed. I saw one that was left in the back seat of a car on a hot summer day. Three hours later, it had come apart. No way to fix it without expensive professional help. It would cost more to fix than to replace. Wood moves and glue can melt.

RULE:Tune before you play. Then tune 15 to 20 minutes later. The guitar will warm up as you play it.

Some of us didn’t get a tuner or pitch pipe with our guitars. Maybe we are gratefully learning on a “hand me down”. So how do you go about guitar tuning if you don’t have a fancy, high pollutin' guitar tuner? Want to know my secret?

LITTLE KNOWN FACT: The dial tone on a phone is usually an ‘A’ note. Actually, it is just a little higher or sharp. Tune your ‘A’ string (fifth from the bottom) to match, then, lower it a hair. Follow the instructions below to tune the rest of the strings.

The strings are numbered from the smallest to the largest in thickness. 1,2,3,4,5,6.

Remember this saying, ”Every Alligator Does Good By Everyone.” Take the first letter of each word; E A D G B E. These are the string notes backwards from number 6, the lowest sounding (or thickest) to 1 the highest sounding. (or thinnest) 6=E, 5=A, 4=D, 3=G, 2=B, 1=E.

You can remember forwards by making up a saying like, “Every Body Goes Down An Elevator.” Use whatever works to help you remember faster.

Guitar tuning instructions:

Put your finger on the 5th fret of the 6th string and play the note. It is an ‘A’. Play the 5th string open. (no fingered fret) that is your ‘A’ you tuned earlier from the dial tone. If the 6th string sounds higher, lower it till it matches. (unwind slowly a little at a time) If it is lower, raise (wind up a little at a time) until it matches the open ‘A”.

Repeat; finger 5th fret on 5th string and match to 4th string open.

Finger 4th fret and match to 3rd string open.

This one is different!! Finger 3rd string 4th fret match to 2nd string open.

Finger 2nd string, again at 5th fret match to 1st string open.

Your guitar should be in tune. Play some chords to check and fix anything that could be a little off.

I seem to always have to retune the G string. That’s just my ear.

Do this everyday and you may find you have developed a good ear. You can tune pretty close.

That’s great, but realistically, you’ll truly appreciate the luxury of having an accurate electronic tuner. I may have spent too much on mine, but it’s been worth every penny. I use a Boss TU-15. I like seeing the needle line me up instead of going by lights only.

Recap:

String: 6 5 4 3 2 1

Open note at nut: E A D G B E ( called Standard Tuning)

Notes at 5th fret: A D G ,4th fret B, 5th fret E, 5th fret A.

See the pattern? A D G B E at the nut and the 5th fret? Guitars are tuned this way so you could play almost every chord and scale somewhere in the 1st 5 frets. I don't know who came up with it, but they were a genius. If you enjoy Math, you'll like guitar. There are all kinds of patterns and puzzles to explore.

By the way, there are many free online tuner programs to give you tones to tune to. There are also ways to tune differently than standard tuning. Let's save that for another day.

Return To Guitar For Real Home from Guitar Tuning