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How to Tune a Guitar by Ear
a step by step guide
Tuning a guitar can be easy if you have a digital tuner, but what would you do if you had a guitar without electronics or you were without a digital tuner? This guide is provided to answer those questions.
The first thing to realize is that when you tune a guitar by ear, you won't have it in perfect tuning as you would with a digital tuner. If you want to do this, you'll need to work on your ability to recognize perfect pitch.
Lets begin with the easiest way to tune a guitar by ear.
The 5th fretted note on the low E string is an A which matches the A string. This pattern of the 5th fretted note matching the adjacent string, holds true with all strings except for the G string in standard EADGBE tuning. On the G string you'll need to use the 4th fretted note. See the diagram below for a better description:
E --------------------------------------0--
B -----------------------------0-----5-----
G ---------------------0----4--------------
D -------------0----5----------------------
A -----0----5------------------------------
E --5--------------------------------------
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Each 2 notes above should be tuned to the same pitch. Start with the low E string and tune the A string to match the E string's 5th fretted note. Then move on to the A string and tune the D string to match the A string's 5th fretted note. Keep going down the strings until they all match up.
After this, make sure that the low E string and the high E string are the same note, just on different octaves. If they don't match, re-adjust the strings and try to match the notes with more precision.
You've now learned how to tune a guitar by ear the easy way!
A more advanced way to tune a guitar by ear is to use harmonics. To play a harmonic place your finger on the string above the appropriate fret without pushing it down to the fretboard. Pick the note and lift your finger off of the string to produce a high pitch ringing sound. Using the same approach as before, but just using harmonics instead of fretted notes, we can tune the guitar. See the following diagram:
Harmonics
E --------------------------------------7--
B -----------------------------5-----5-----
G ---------------------7----4--------------
D -------------7----5----------------------
A -----7----5------------------------------
E --5--------------------------------------
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Using these harmonics we can once again tune the guitar by ear. Please note that all the notes listed are harmonics and not actual fretted notes.
You can now tune your guitar by ear in 2 different ways!
Have fun!
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