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How to Tune a Guitar Without a Tuner (With Images and Audio) | SharpenMyAxe

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Skip to contentOne of the most helpful skills any guitarist can have is the ability to tune their instruments quickly and easily on the go. While using a tuner is one way of getting your guitar in tune, learning to tune your guitar by ear is much quicker and easier once you know what you’re doing.To tune a guitar without a tuner, begin by memorizing what the low E string sounds like. Starting from the low E string, play on the 5th fret (4th fret when on the g string) to get the note for the next string. Repeat this all the up to the top e string. Always tune your guitar twice to account for changes in neck tension.While learning to tune a guitar without a tuner might seem difficult, it can actually be very easy once you know what you’re doing. To help you learn how to tune your guitar by ear, let’s talk about a method that I have used for years which always helps.While others may have other methods as to how you can learn to tune a guitar by ear, I just wanted to share what has worked for me and what my method looks like.To make things as easy as possible, you only need to memorize what one note sounds like, and that’s about 90% of what tuning a guitar by ear takes! If you can memorize what this one note sounds like, you’ll be able to tune a guitar without a tuner with ease.While you can memorize any open string note that you’d like, I would highly recommend that you memorize the low E string for a couple of reasons.The low E string and the high e string are the same note so you are essentially learning how to tune two strings right off the bat.Tuning the low E string first will make tuning all of the other strings easier.To get started, go ahead and listen to this audio clip of what the low E strings should sound like:It’s important to note that even if you are a little bit off-pitch when tuning your E string, it will become a much bigger deal once you start tuning to other strings so make sure that your low E string sounds exactly like in the clip.For beginners, hearing slight differences in pitch can be difficult so if you aren’t sure if your E sounds like the E in the audio clip, go ahead and use a tuning app on your phone for now, just until you really know what the E string should sound like.For mobile users, here’s a link to a free tuning app you can download if you don’t already have one:IOSANDRIODWhile this isn’t something that you’ll be able to learn in 5 minutes, you can learn what the E string should sound like over the course of a couple of days.The next step is super straight forward, all you have to do now is simply go ahead and tune your low E string.Remember that even if your E string is slightly off-tune, it will make a big difference later on so if you need to use a tuner for now it’s okay.You can also take another listen to the same audio clip from earlier if you’d like to hear what the E string should sound like again.Once your low E string is in tune, you can tune the rest of the instrument!Once your E string is in tune, you can essentially use it to tune all of the other strings!To start tuning the rest of the strings, we are going to tune the next string up which is the A string.Since we already tuned the Low E string, we can press down on the 5th fret of the E string and play it to hear what the next string should sound like. If you are confused, take a look at the image below.To make sure that you are doing it right, your next string, the A string, should sound like the following:Once the A string is in tune, you can tune the next string up which is the D string by playing the 5th fret on the A string just like in the image below.Just to be sure, this is what your D string should sound like:Once your D string is in tune, you can repeat this process once again for the next string up, the G string. Once again, here’s an image and an audio clip just so you can make sure you are doing everything correctly.Up to this point, you should have the E, A, D, and G strings all tuned which leaves only the B and high e strings left. While we have been using the 5th fret method up until this point when tuning the B string you have to play the 4th fret on the G string instead of the 5th.Your finger should be pressing the note like in the image below and when you are done tuning the B string, it should sound like the audio clip below.Now all that’s left to do is the high E string! For this string, play the 5th fret on the B string just like with the other strings. If you’d like to double-check that your high E is in tune, you can also compare it to the low E since they are the same note just two octaves apart!Once again, here’s an image and audio clip:Now that you have tuned all of your strings, you might think that you are done, however, there are a couple more things we have to do to make sure that your instrument is in tune.Firstly, when playing the strings one at a time, they should sound almost identical to the audio clip below.Once you reach this point, you’re ready for steps 4 and 5.While it might seem like a complete waste of time to go through and tune your guitar again, this step is actually really important because odds are, your guitar isn’t 100% in tune.Even if you just tuned your guitar, it could quite literally already be out of tune and there’s actually a real reason behind why this is. To sum it up shortly, when you tune one string, you are affecting all of the other strings because you are changing the tension in the neck of the guitar.Changing the tuning of any string causes the neck to very slightly bend which pulls the other strings along with it. By the time you tune every string on the guitar, you’ll have to go through and tune it again because some of the strings will be out of tune due to this slight change in tension.While your guitar will likely only be very slightly out of tune, you should still quickly go through and make sure everything is right. At this point go ahead and repeat step three then you are ready for the final step.While this last step isn’t required, I always like to go through and play a couple of chords after tuning my guitar just to make sure that everything sounds right.My favorite is the G chord because it’s easy to play and every single string is used. If you don’t know how to play a G chord, take a look at the image below.This might seem difficult if you are brand new to the guitar but after a couple of hours of practice, you should be able to play this chord with ease.What’s great about playing the G chord after tuning your guitar is that if there is still a string out of tune, you should definitely be able to hear if something is wrong.To make sure that everything is correct, your G chord should sound like this.If you play a couple of chords and everything checks out then you are good to go!Now that you know how to tune your guitar, it’s probably a good idea to make sure that it stays in tune.While I would recommend that you always tune your instrument each time you play it, one of the best investments that I’ve ever made for making sure my guitar stays in tune was to get myself a set of locking tuners.With regular tuners, you wind a string around a peg over and over until the tension is great enough to put the string in tune. The problem with this design is that bending or constant playing on the strings can cause them to slightly unwind which ultimately causes the strings to go out of tune.Locking tuners avoid this issue by letting you lock your strings in place so that no matter how much you play them, they won’t lose their tension.The locking mechanism also makes changing strings a much easier and quicker process since the only thing you have to do is take the old string out and pop the new one in.If you are interested in looking at some locking tuners, you can click on the image or button below to see more for yourself.See MoreNow that you know how to tune your guitar, let’s dive into a couple of related questions about tuning just so you know what to expect.Ideally, you should be tuning your guitar every time you go to play it. Tuning your guitar on a regular basis will stop it from going badly out of tune and will keep the tension on your guitar’s neck consistent.In short, the more often you tune your guitar, the more it will stay in tune over a long period of time and the less time you’ll have to spend tuning it each time.There are many things that can cause a guitar to go out of tune. The most common reasons for your guitar to go out of tune are, changes in temperature or humidity, constant playing, and strings being stretched out over a long period of time.One way to help prevent your guitar from going out of tune is to get yourself a set of locking tuners. Locking tuners stop the strings from unwinding and will better hold the strings in place. They also make changing strings a lot easier.If you are interested in taking a look at some locking tuners for yourself, you can click this link to take a look.If you’d like to double-check that your instrument is in tune, you can always install a free tuning app on your phone. From my experience, free tuning apps work great for tuning a guitar as long as everything around you is quiet while you are tuning up.If there’s any noise in the background, your tuning app will likely pick it up and you may not have 100% accurate results.If you've ever had to hold a guitar for a long time, you'll know that it can start to feel really heavy after a little while and that it can put a lot of strain on your neck. While all guitars are...Continue ReadingWhether you are rocking around the globe on a world tour or just learning your first chords for an audition with a garage band, you will inevitably have to change the strings on your electric guitar....Continue ReadingHi there! My name is Alex Richards and I have been playing the guitar and bass for 7 years. Ever since I first picked up a guitar and gradually made my way to bass, I've been absolutely hooked on every aspect of both of them. My goal with this website is to share my passion for music and to make the learning process easier for you by sharing what I've learned up until now.This site is owned and operated by ACR Blogs LLC. SharpenMyAxe.com is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to Amazon.com. This site also participates in other affiliate programs and is compensated for referring traffic and business to these companies.This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. 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Skip to contentOne of the most helpful skills any guitarist can have is the ability to tune their instruments quickly and easily on the go. While using a tuner is one way of getting your guitar in tune, learning to tune your guitar by ear is much quicker and easier once you know what you’re doing.To tune a guitar without a tuner, begin by memorizing what the low E string sounds like. Starting from the low E string, play on the 5th fret (4th fret when on the g string) to get the note for the next string. Repeat this all the up to the top e string. Always tune your guitar twice to account for...

How to Tune a Guitar Without a Tuner (With Images and Audio) | SharpenMyAxe

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