How to tune a guitar

Tune to standard tuning with a tuner or by ear, and try drop D, DADGAD and open tunings.

By Oleg Chibikov, the author of Guitar Upscale

Standard tuning

Most songs use standard tuning. From the thick string to the thin one the notes are E, A, D, G, B and E. The two E strings are two octaves apart.

String	Note	Pitch
6th, thickest	E	E2, 82.4 Hz
5th	A	A2, 110 Hz
4th	D	D3, 146.8 Hz
3rd	G	G3, 196 Hz
2nd	B	B3, 246.9 Hz
1st, thinnest	E	E4, 329.6 Hz

A phrase helps you remember the order: Eddie Ate Dynamite, Good Bye Eddie.

Tune with a tuner

Pluck one open string and let it ring.
Read the note on the tuner. If the needle sits left of the centre, the string is flat. Tighten it. If it sits right, the string is sharp. Loosen it.
Turn the peg a little at a time and pluck again.
Move to the next string once the needle stays in the centre.
Check all six strings again. Tuning one string pulls a little on the others.

Tune up to the note, not down. If a string is sharp, go below the note first, then bring it up. The string then holds its pitch better.

Guitar Upscale has a tuner that listens through the microphone. Open the app, press the tuning fork button next to the key button and allow the microphone. After each pluck the tuner plays the note the string should have, so you can also compare by ear. The string turns green once it is within 5 cents, a twentieth of a fret. The tuner also guesses which tuning you are in, so it works for drop and open tunings.

Open the Guitar Upscale tuner

Tune by ear with the 5th fret

No tuner? Tune the strings to each other. Start with the low E string in tune, or at least close.

Press the low E string at the 5th fret. That note is A. Tune the open A string to match it.
Press the A string at the 5th fret. Tune the open D string to it.
Press the D string at the 5th fret. Tune the open G string to it.
Press the G string at the 4th fret, not the 5th. Tune the open B string to it.
Press the B string at the 5th fret. Tune the open high E string to it.

When two notes are close but not equal, you hear a slow wobble. Turn the peg until the wobble stops.

Other tunings

Tuning	Notes, low to high	Good for
Drop D	D A D G B E	Heavy riffs: a power chord is one finger across the low 3 strings.
DADGAD	D A D G A D	Celtic and folk music with open, ringing strings.
Open E	E B E G# B E	Slide guitar: the open strings form an E major chord.
Open E minor	E B E G B E	Blues and folk: the open strings form an E minor chord.
Half step down	Eb Ab Db Gb Bb Eb	Easier bends and a darker sound, common in rock.

Guitar Upscale has standard, drop, Celtic, folk, cross and open tunings on any root note, for 6, 7 and 8 string guitars. Pick a tuning in the key menu and the fretboard, the scales and the chord shapes follow it.

Why a guitar goes out of tune

New strings stretch for a few days. Tune often until they settle.
Heat and cold change the length of the strings and the wood. Tune after you move the guitar to another room.
Hard playing and bends pull strings out of pitch. Check the tuning between songs.