How to tune a guitar

Learning to tune a guitar is an essential skill to master. Your playing will never sound as good as you hope if your instrument is not in tune. You can of course use an electronic tuner but the ability to tune by ear will greatly improve your musicianship.

Note: Normal tuning is as below














Pitch
A guitar can be tuned so that all strings are tuned to one another, however if you want to play along with a recording or maybe even in a band, you'll need to tune to the correct pitch. Tuning forks have traditionally been used to tune the E or A string to the correct pitch. A piano or keyboard or another in-tune guitar could be used instead.
The open strings from the lowest (thickest) string to the highest (thinnest) should be tuned as detailed below:

Tuning at the 5th fret
Once you have tuned the lowest (6th) string to E, this can then be used as the starting point to tune all other strings.

1. Play the note on the 5th fret of the lowest (6th) string you've already tuned. This produces an A note.
Next, whilst plucking the 5th string, turn its machine head (tuning peg) until the pitch of this string matches that of the 6th string you're fretting.
If the open 5th string sounds a little higher than the fretted 6th string, turn the machine head to slacken the string. If, however, it sounds too low, tighten it. You've now tuned the 5th string to A.

2. You can now play a D note by picking the A string at the 5th fret. The open 4th string (the next thickest string) can now be tuned to the fretted A string in the same way. This method can also be used to tune the G string.

3. The system changes when you get to the B string (2nd string). This string needs tuning to the pitch of the note on the 4th fret of the G string.
Once this B string is in tune, fretting it at the 5th fret will produce the E note which can be used to tune the open 1st string.