How to Tune an Acoustic Guitar

Expert guitarists take about 30 seconds to tune their guitars. It takes a lot of practice to be proficient with this art. It is not a very complicated thing to do, but what's important is that you need to recognize and differentiate the notes between the strings.

Here, I assume that you have some basic knowledge about acoustic guitars; nothing more than the fact, that you are aware that it has six strings and they produce the notes, low E, A, D, G, B, E, and each string is connected to a tuning key. The first and the most important step in tuning the acoustic guitar is tuning the sixth string. It is very important because, we can tune the other strings with reference to the sixth string, but we do not have any reference for the sixth string in a guitar that is not tuned.

For tuning the sixth string we take the help of some external music source. There are various audio files available on the internet, which provide us this note. If you have got a proper tuned piano at your disposal, then perhaps you could use the same to find out the tune for the sixth string. Look carefully at your pianos keyboard, you will notice that there is a set of two black keys followed by a set of three black keys. The white key just after the second black key of the first set, gives the low E note. Listen carefully to the note and turn the tuning key connected to the sixth string, increase or decrease the tension on the string very carefully to get this note on your sixth string. Once you get this note, the other five strings can be tuned with reference to it.

Now, let's try to tune the fifth string. The open fifth string, when in tune, produces the same note, A as the note at the sixth string, fifth fret. So try tuning the fifth string, matching the note it produces with the note produced by the tuned sixth string at its fifth fret. When both the notes are the same, then we know that the sixth and fifth strings have been tuned correctly. The process is similar for the fourth string too. The fifth string, fifth fret produces the note D, which a tune the fourth string should produce. Tune the fourth string to the note produced by the fifth string at its fifth fret.

Once you are done with this string, you have three of your strings tuned properly. Tuning the third string is again similar to tuning the fifth and fourth string. The third string, when played open, produces the D note. The fourth string, fifth fret also produces the D note. Hence, we again need to repeat the same process of tuning the third string to the note produced by the fourth string at its fifth fret. The second string, when played open produces the note B. The second string can be tuned to the third string, fourth fret which produces the same note B. Please notice the fact that the third string produces the note B at its fourth and not the fifth fret. The first string can again be tuned to the note produced by the second string at its fifth fret. The first string of a tuned guitar produces the note E, which is the note produced by the second string, at is fifth fret.

Following this simple process lets you tune your guitar. Beginners normally take five minutes or a little more than that to get the tuning done, while with regular practice the tuning time can be reduced to a matter of seconds. The main difficulty that lies with beginners is in differentiating between a high and low note. A simple solution can be provided for this. When playing the note simply hum the tune along with it, as the string continues to vibrate. Do it repeatedly. Now play the other note and hum along with it as the string continues to vibrate. Now keep swapping between the two notes and hum to each tune. You will realize whether you are humming high or low. This simple method will help you in differentiating between high and low notes.