Tuning The Low E String

The first step in tuning your guitar is to at least get one string in tune with the correct pitch, and then you can tune the rest of your guitar in reference to that string. To keep things simple, lets first tune the Low E String.

The first thing needed is a reference pitch. This could be a guitar tuner, piano, tuning fork, a recorded note, another guitar, or any other instrument. In this case, we are going to use the following audio file. Listen to the video and try and match your low E string to that pitch.

If your guitar string sounds to low or flat then tighten the string. If it sounds to high or sharp then loosen the string (If your having a hard time identifying if your guitar is flat or sharp, its in your best interest to tune with an electric tuner which has a graphic display).



Once you have one string properly tuned, you can now tune the rest of the strings with just the guitar. Lets tune the next string, in this case the A string.

We can tune that string by finding the same note of A on the E string that we already tuned. We can find the note A on the 5th fret of the E string. The following should help illustrate this method.

Part III - Tuning The Rest Of Your Guitar