Before we take a look at some effective guitar tuning tips, make sure
you've been through the main
guitar tuning page as there are lessons covering many
different methods of tuning up.
This lesson will offer you
some useful tips to help you fine-tune and make sure you're tuned
up accurately. Sometimes you can be very slightly
out of tune on just 1 string, but
as soon as you play a particular chord that emphasises that string it
also emphasises any inaccuracy.
There are some quick and
simple "checks" you can do...
Once you think you've
(using whichever method you've chosen), try playing chords right across
the neck to make sure the tuning is accurate. Some chord voicings can
highlight inaccuracies better than others.
You can also compare the
note on two or more strings to check that the guitar is at least tuned
itself and all the strings are working together in
You can use harmonics
to pick up on the vibrating effect that occurs when two strings aren't
tuned perfectly to their interval.
Let's expand on these tuning tips and put
them into practice...
Tuning Tip 1: Using chords to identify tuning
The truth is, some guitarists simply don't have an ear for tuning. Some
guitarists will be satisfied with a guitar that's "there and there
abouts" in tune. Don't let that be you, because although not everyone
who hears you play won't pick up on these minor inaccuracies, some will
(even if they don't know what's causing it to sound "off"), and it will
compromise your music. You can train
your ear to instantly pick up on any inaccuracies in your tuning.
Let's look at an example of
how you can use the notes in a chord to tune up accurately.
One variation of the open G
major chord includes a note twice.
Look at the diagram below (click
diagrams to hear). Once you've fretted the G major chord,
play the red strings - they should be the same note, and in tune with
The open A major chord also includes doubled up tones which you can
play to check they are tuned together...
So you can look for two occurrences of the same note within chord
shapes you're familiar with and listen closely to check they're both
tuned together (all barre chords contain two "root notes",
one an octave of the other (higher, but still the same note).
Tuning Tip 2: Use string relationships for fine tuning
Most guitarists are familiar with the 5th
fret method of tuning, but many
also find it can yield inaccurate results, depending on the setup of
This is because with the 5th
fret tuning method, while fine for just casual playing on your own,
involves tuning an open string to
a fretted string which can
cause natural inaccuracies (especially with cheaper guitars).
However, you can overcome this
by tuning fretted strings to other fretted strings all over the
For example - fretting the A
string and G string in the following positions...
Those two strings should be exactly the same note (with the G string
being the higher octave), and tuned together accurately.
Guitarists commonly tune up
and find that if you do the test above, the G string sounds too high or
low and it needs adjusting.
Tuning using harmonics is a more advanced method, but a very accurate
way to fine tune the guitar, more accurate than the 5th fret method.
It involves using your ear to pick out
imperfections in the intervals between the strings. To hear these
imperfections more clearly, we use harmonics to create a high pitched
frequency that oscillates when an imperfect interval between two notes
As you tune the string more perfectly to
its interval, this oscillation effect straightens out.
Very difficult to explain in plain
English, so see the lesson on tuning
harmonics for more on this method.
Hopefully now you have some
good guitar tuning tips to work with and make sure your music isn't
destroyed before it begins!