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Learning Acoustic Guitar Tuning - Done the Right Way

You should be sure to do your acoustic guitar tuning each time you sit down to play, whether you are practicing or performing. It’s pretty unpleasant to try to make beautiful music on an untuned guitar. Lots of guitar students think their inexperience is ruining the sound, not understanding the importance of doing their tuning regularly. You will be much more successful in your music making if you set aside that small amount of time it takes to tune your instrument properly.

The best way for acoustic guitar tuning is to use an electronic tuner. The electronic tuner has a built in microphone and as you strum on each string, the indicator will show you how close you are to the correct pitch, showing you whether you are flat or sharp. Then by turning the tuning key for each string and doing a bit of tweaking until the tuner shows that you are are now in tune.

Keep in mind that one always tunes up, which means going from looser to tighter till it’s in tune. If it becomes too tight, don’t just unwind it a little bit to try to improve it (called “tuning down”). It works far better to give the string some play and then start tightening it again till it’s right. When you tune up, not only are your results more accurate, but you also help the string hold its tuning longer.

You’ll need a way of getting the reference pitch even if you prefer to train yourself to do acoustic guitar tuning by ear. An already tuned second guitar, a piano, a tuning fork, and an in-tune MP3 will all work, but an electronic tuner is consistently more reliable. However, an excellent method for developing your ear is to attempt to tune the instrument by ear first and then check it out using the tuner.

To begin tuning your guitar, use the refence pitch to tune the sixth string (the thickest string) to low E. Once this string sounds right, the other strings can be tuned to their correct pitch based on that note. There is a reason why this technique works, but the explanation is long. Acoustic guitar tuning is a bit like driving. You don't have to understand the internal combustion engine to drive a car, and you don't have to understand music theory to tune your guitar.

Then proceed with your acoustic guitar tuning as follows:

1. After verifying the guitar is in tune, play it on the fifth fret. Use that as a basis to tune the open fifth string. 2. Using the fifth string as a guideline, play the fifth fret on that to tune your fourth string. 3. Use the fifth fret on the fourth string to tune the third. 4. Pay close attention here, because there's a bit of a change. The third string should be played using the fourth fret to tune the open second string. 5. Changing it up again- return to playing the fifth fret, only using the second string this time, to tune the first string.

If you're just starting out with acoustic guitar tuning, you may want to ask someone at the music store when you purchased your guitar to show you how to do acoustic guitar tuning the proper way. Then just keep practicing until you're comfortable with the process. It takes time and practice to learn to do acoustic guitar tuning, especially by ear. For the novice, the simplest way to perform acoustic guitar tuning is with the use of an electronic tuner. You can find one for around $20 and you will definitely get your money’s worth. An electronic tuner that is made specifically for tuning guitars has the ability to recognize which string is being played.