Tuning Your Guitar
- You have to be able to tune your guitar if you want to play it. I'll briefly cover some of the anatomy (you can get the full breakdown at my lesson: Know Your Guitar. I've also posted a picture explaining one method of tuning, and finally, I've included some tablature showing how to tune your guitar using two methods. -
First, let's explain about the guitar NECK (figure 1).
The HEAD is separated from the NECK by the NUT. The FRET
BOARD is the part of the NECK where the frets are located. Your
fingers press the strings down to the FRET BOARD making contact with the FRETS.
The NECK is split up into sections. These sections are numbered on
the picture at the left. Your guitar may have 22 frets, or 24 frets for
example.
Now, before you we get started on learning chords, your
guitar must be in tune. I suggest that you buy a PITCH PIPE.
If your ear isn't that good, look into a CHROMATIC TUNER.
You will still need to learn how to tune your guitar without a tuner,
assuming that at least one of your strings is properly tuned. Please refer
Figure 2. We will discuss open tuning, sometimes called classical tuning
or regular tuning. The 5th FRET of the E STRING is the same
pitch as the OPEN A (or 0 FRET of theA STRING). The 5th
FRET of the A STRING is the same pitch as the OPEN D STRING.
The 5th FRET of the D STRING is the same as the OPEN G STRING.
The 4th FRET of the G STRING is the same as the OPEN B STRING.
The 5th FRET of the B STRING is the same as the OPEN e STRING.
Easy, huh? Well, you'll get the idea after a bit.
In tablature form, it looks like this:
A
A
D
D G
D
E||------------------|------------------|-----------------|
B||------------------|------------------|-----------------|
G||------------------|------------------|-----------0-----|
D||------------------|-----------0------|--5--------------|
A||-----------0------|--5---------------|-----------------|
E||--5---------------|------------------|-----------------|
B
B
e
e
---------------------|-----------0------||
-----------0---------|--5---------------||
--4------------------|------------------||
---------------------|------------------||
---------------------|------------------||
---------------------|------------------||
You can also tune it by using the same note an octave
higher/lower:
A
A
D
D G
D
E||------------------|------------------|-----------------|
B||------------------|------------------|-----------------|
G||------------------|------------------|-----------0-----|
D||------------------|-----------0------|--5--------------|
A||-----------0------|--5---------------|-----------------|
E||--5---------------|------------------|-----------------|
B
B
e
e
---------------------|-----------0------||
-----------0---------|--5---------------||
--4------------------|------------------||
---------------------|------------------||
---------------------|------------------||
---------------------|------------------||
You
can also tune it by using the same note an octave higher/lower:
E
E
A A D
D
E||------------------|------------------|-----------------|
B||------------------|------------------|--3--------------|
G||------------------|--2---------------|-----------------|
D||--2---------------|------------------|---------0-------|
A||------------------|---------0--------|-----------------|
E||---------0--------|------------------|-----------------|
G
G
B
B e
e
--3------------------|------------------|--0-------------||
---------------------|--0---------------|----------------||
-----------0---------|------------------|----------------||
---------------------|------------------|-----------2----||
---------------------|-----------2------|----------------||
---------------------|------------------|----------------||
Make sure you tune your guitar with my tuning page that includes sound files! If you have anything you'd like to share, send them to me. Send this lesson to friend.