April 7, 2011
We receive a lot of emails form many different musicians around the world and this is probably the most requested question we receive so today I thought let's cover the basics of tuning the guitar.
Having a guitar that is properly tuned is an absolute thing. This will prevent any distortion in the strings as well as the overall quality of the sound. In order to tune successfully you need to know the instrument which is the guitar. The basics for tuning an open string guitar is listed below:
1. E : this is the sixth string on the board.
2. A : this is the fifth string
3. D : this is the fourth string
4. G : this is the third string
5. B : this is the second string
6. E : this is the first string and it is
also the thinnest
** The first E is the lowest sounding string and the sixth string on the board.
See picture down below:
Tuning a guitar ensures that the strings provide the right note and pitch each and every time. Most musician friends like to use their ears to tune a guitar or an electronic tuner.
Well, the way that you tune the guitar is by the tuning pegs.
Here are the most effective ways of tuning a guitar:
a) Source Tuning (using an external source to tune by ear for example notes on a piano or keyboard)
b) Pitch Tuning (using the notes of one string to tune the rest by ear)
c) Electronic Tuning (using a pitch tuner, a mobile phone app)
Source tuning is the most common form of tuning in a musicians bag of tricks. This comes in handy when your at a show playing and you need to tune on the go. When ever you transport an instrument the sound becomes distorted due to the movement as enclosed space. You want something that has perfect pitch and the best tool is to have a piano or keyboard.
**Note: Make sure the keyboard is not in transpose and the piano is tuned before using
Pitch tuning is great for an experienced musician. Due to the fact that they have played the instrument for so long. It becomes apparent that they don't need technology but just a skilled ear to tune their instrument. This is done without any help. I wouldn't recommend this for a new guitar player.
Finally, the simple solution is to use an electronic tuner or a mobile app. We find that is one of the tools that musician's carry with them. It's the most popular.
With the many different tuning techniques out there we have no doubt that you will become successful in the guitar
All the Best