Whether you are a total novice or an experienced guitarist, having a properly tuned instrument is essential to both developing your skills and delivering a great sound for the pleasure of both yourself and any audience.

How Long and When?

When you’re first getting started with guitar, it might take you a few minutes to carry out the tuning process.  Whether you use a tuning device, an app, or do it by ear, you’ll soon get used to it, to the point where it takes a matter of seconds rather than minutes.

The Reference Pitch

If you are playing with a group of friends or are in a band, then this part is important.  If you’re playing solo, then the reference pitch isn’t too important, as you can still produce a great sound without it.

The purpose of the reference pitch is to ensure that, in a group, you’re E sounds the same as everyone else’s.

You need a source for the reference pitch; this might be a friend’s guitar, a piano, or something else such as a tuning fork.  The objective is to find the same low E.  If you’re playing alone and have none of the above, get online and find a low E sound so that you can tune your sixth string accordingly.

Moving On

Once you have the sixth string right, moving onto the rest is actually rather straightforward.  If you are familiar with how to find different notes on different strings, then you might already be aware of this.  If not, then consider it a great step in your musical education.

Tuning the Other Five Strings

When you are happy with your low E, you can start to tune your guitar.  Close the sixth string on the fifth fret, and tune the fifth string until it sounds the same when played fully open.  You simply repeat this process for each string.  Play the fifth fret of one string, and play the string above until it gives the same sound.  The exception is when you tune the second string.  Instead of closing the fifth fret, close the fourth.

At this stage you are, in theory, ready to start playing.  However, you might now want to use a guitar-tuning device or another product.  This is a useful way to check how good your musical listening skills are, as you will see just how close you were able to tune the guitar manually to perfection.  Remember not to get too downbeat if you’re not on point with everything straight away, just like playing your instrument, practice makes perfect when it comes to tuning it.

Summing Up

You want to become the best guitar player you can be.  Boring as it might sound, that process begins with having a perfectly tuned instrument each time you play.  Get to grips with manually tuning your guitar, and discover the tools that work best for you when it comes to perfecting tone and pitch.

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