Electric Guitar Tuning: The Easy Way

Electric guitar tuning is a painless process since the invention of digital tuners. However some guitar instructors still prefer to teach their students how to tune a guitar using traditional methods, or rather by ear. It is important to be able to perform electric guitar tuning without the use of a tuner. For example, what if you were at a friends house and were asked to jam along on an old electric guitar that looked like it hadn't been played, let alone tuned, in a year or more and to make matters worse nobody has a tuner. This article will teach you a quick way to achieve electric guitar tuning so you can be confident that you are in tune.

Unlike digital tuners that usually only allow you to tune your guitar in standard tuning, performing electric guitar tuning by ear will let you effortlessly match lower tunings which sometimes are desired for a fuller, deeper sound. To begin you will need to first tune the sixth string to a note played by another guitar, a key on the piano, or the fourth string on a bass guitar. Once the first note is established the rest is a piece of cake.

As you may have guessed your second step is to tune the fifth and adjacent string. You can do so by playing the fifth fret on the sixth string and tuning the fifth string until both pitches sound the same. Do the same for the fourth, third, and first strings.

But wait a minute! You forgot... The second string I know. The reason I omitted it above is because in order to tune the second string you will need to play the forth fret on the third string and tune to that pitch.

Let's review how to easily perform electric guitar tuning. Get your starting pitch from another player, instrument, or favorite recording. Tune all other adjacent strings by matching the pitch at the fifth fret on the previously "in tune" string, except for the second string. Remember to use the fourth fret on the third string to get your second string pitch. That's it! Now you know how to execute electric guitar tuning the easy way. Let's jam!


About the Author
John Hughes has been playing guitar for longer than he can remember and teaching for the last three years. His innovative teaching techniques have helped many aspiring guitarists maximize their playing potential. You can learn to play electric guitar using the same hidden secrets he teaches by visiting Jamorama.com