How to Tune a Guitar

What you need

• Your guitar.
• A phone, tablet or computer with a microphone.
• A fairly quiet room and about two minutes.

Know your strings

Guitar strings are numbered from 1 (the thinnest, highest-sounding) to 6 (the thickest, lowest-sounding). In standard tuning they are:

Tuning with the online tuner

1. Open the tuner, press Start tuning and allow microphone access.
2. Choose your tuning. Pick Standard under Tunings and the tuner will name the string you are playing; Chromatic mode works for any tuning.
3. Pluck the 6th (thickest) string once and let it ring.
4. Watch the needle. Left / “Tune up” means the string is flat — tighten it. Right / “Tune down” means it is sharp — loosen it.
5. Turn the peg in small steps and pluck again. When the display turns green and says In tune, move on to the next string.
6. After all six, go around once more — adjusting one string slightly changes the tension on the others.

Which way do I turn the peg?

It depends on how the tuning pegs are mounted, so the easiest way is to watch the tuner: turn slowly while the string rings and see which way the needle moves. If the note goes the wrong way, turn the other way.

Always finish by tuning up to the note. If a string is sharp, loosen it a little below the note and then tighten back up to it — this takes up the slack in the gears, so the string stays in tune longer.

Tuning by ear: the 5th-fret method

No tuner? You can tune the strings to each other. It won’t guarantee the guitar is at concert pitch, but it will sound right on its own.

1. Get the 6th string as close to E as you can (for example from a piano or a recording).
2. Press the 6th string at the 5th fret — that note is A. Tune the open 5th string to match it.
3. Press the 5th string at the 5th fret (D) and tune the open 4th string to it.
4. Press the 4th string at the 5th fret (G) and tune the open 3rd string to it.
5. Press the 3rd string at the 4th fret (B) and tune the open 2nd string to it — this is the one exception.
6. Press the 2nd string at the 5th fret (E) and tune the open 1st string to it.

Common problems

The needle jumps around

Mute the other strings with your fretting hand so only one string rings, and pluck firmly but not too hard. The first moment of a pluck is noisy — the reading settles after a fraction of a second.

The tuner shows the wrong string

If a string is very far off, it can be closer to a neighbouring string’s note. Switch to Chromatic mode, bring it near the right note first, then switch back to your tuning.

Nothing happens

Check that the browser has permission to use the microphone and that no other app (a video call, for example) is using it.

It won’t stay in tune

New strings stretch for the first few days, so they need frequent retuning. Otherwise, make sure you finish by tuning up to the note, and check that the strings are wound neatly around the pegs.