How to Tune Guitar 5
Hi there welcome to Lesson #5, A Beginner Guitar 101 for Grownups. In this lesson, I�m
gonna show you the most effective way to get your guitar in tune. Now if you already know
how to tune your guitar of course you can just skip over this lesson but if you dont,
this could be a very important lesson. Nobody wants to play the guitar thats other tune,
never mind _____ 0:22.
I�m gonna divide this lesson into two parts. In the first part, we will go through some
music theory that you need to know to help you get your guitar in tune to use a tuner.
In the second part, I�ll go through a demonstration along would give you some tips on how to tune
the guitar. By the way, were gonna be using an electronic tuner for this lesson. I know
there are many other ways to tune the guitar including using a pitch fork and some people
called the fifth fret method. It is basically tuning one string to another by ear.
Tuning by ear for beginner is very difficult. Its hard to hear a difference in pitch unless
you�re already a musician or been playing an instrument. I think it is much better to
put your energy into using an electronic tuner. Learning to tune as quickly as you can and
spend your energy in the beginning on other aspects of playing guitar.
It�s also a great ear training device because when you try to tune without a tuner, you
dont know if its exactly in tune or not. When you have a tuner you can see its in tune.
Its basically giving you feedback which is the fastest way to develop the ability to
hear the differences in pitch. So there are many types of electronic tuners. There is
floor tuners, there is disk tuners. I prefer to use a clip on tuner on the acoustic guitar
because the acoustic guitar vibrates and that�s what it sensing. It�s more stable than the
one that use a microphone and would pick up room noise as well. Also, at least both of
my hands free so I can tune the guitar and just look at the tuner on my headstock.
Okay lets talk a little bit of theory. Now we already talked about the names of the strings
that was in a previous lesson. What? You skipped over that? Hey, go ahead and go back to that
lesson if you did and practice the names of the strings. You�ll gonna need it for tuning
the guitar. This is where it comes in handy.
Next, I wanna talk about a concept of sharp and flat. Sharp basically means high and flat
means low. Now more specifically with the note, if a note is sharp that means its high
and if a note is flat it means its low. Another way we use it, if you say I want to make that
note sharper you�re going up in pitch so with the guitar that means your turning the
knob and making the string tighter which goes up in pitch.
Flat means going down in pitch. Now where you use it when your tuning the guitar is
you�ll get the note that you want. Let�s say in this case the low E and then you�ll
see a dial on the tuner that says to the left which means flat or to the right which means
sharp. And you wanna adjust it until its wide in the middle neither sharp nor flat. Using
my tuners that means red on left or right and green in the center.
Okay let�s now talk about the musical alphabet now. The musical alphabet consist of 7 letters
� A B C D E F G and then you start over. There�s no H or I. That�s not all the
notes there are. There are actually notes in between many of the letters. So between
A and B there is A sharp. It�s just a half step above A and many of the notes have either
a sharp or a flat.
There are two pairs of notes that there is no sharp or flat and that�s between B and
C and E and F. You wanna memorize those two. B and C and E and F so there�s no E sharp
or F flat. You just goes to E to F then to F sharp then to G and so on.
You need to know also that some notes actually have two different names, that is an interesting
idea. So let�s take that A again. You could go to A to A sharp but another way you can
look at it is go back from B. B to B flat. B flat and A sharp are the same note. They
sound the same but they looked different either when you write them out or the actual note
itself. We called that in harmonic by the way.
So you need to know that when you look at your tuner. You might see any sharp or might
see B flat. It�s the same note your aiming for the same thing.
So in summary three things musical alphabets, seven letters A to G. There are notes in between
the letters A, A sharp, B, C, C sharp, D and there are two sets of notes where there is
nothing in between B to C and E to F and then finally, there can be two names for one note
� A sharp and B flat are one and the same. D sharp and E flat are the same note. So with
that, let�s go ahead and do a demonstration. Feel free if you wanna either just watch it
or try it with me.
I�m using my iPad to see you can see the notes clearly but the same concept works for
the Clip On tuner as well as any other electronic tuner. And sometimes its a dial, sometimes
its a little line but its the same idea. And usually, red means its out of tune and green
means its in tune.
So I�m gonna start with this low E note. The idea to get it to the note first and then
to the note. For low E, I want to go to E and this is flat � E flat, that means its
too low. I gotta bring it up first. Go down instead of up. So I�m aiming for E. You
got the E flat. Green on E flat doesnt work, there. Now I�m on E and you can see its
flat cause its to the left. Bringing it up higher and there we are. The low E by the
way is often the hardest to tune because the note is low and somehow its a little more
difficult for tuners to read this but I can tell it landed on the green enough for me
to know that�s in tune.
Okay now I�m gonna untune the rest of the strings and were gonna practice tuning the
whole guitar. I�ll start with the fifth string now, the A. Oh its on A flat. Bring
it up to A first. By the way, it always is better to bring it up to the note instead
of coming down and leave it there. It�ll stay in tune better if you do that. The string
tends to catch a little bit on the note of the guitar if you go down to it. So I gotta
get to A and now I�m on A. I want to get in tune, green. There we are. Now it is more
stable.
Now let�s go for the D string, the fourth string. E flat, that means I�m too high.
That�s higher than D. Get down to D but I wanna go a little below it and then bring
it back up. There we go, D that�s in tune. Now let�s go to the G string. F sharp that�s
too low. Bring it to G first. Now get in to green. Ooops, I want a little high. I wanna
get back down again and I�m gonna bring it up in tune, green. Good. B string second
string. A B that�s pretty low. B flat, I�m aiming for B yeah, so A B flat, B now go for
green in the middle, got it. And I found the high E. And too low E flat, _____ 8:11 to
which E it is. In this case E4 means high E, E2 means the lower E. Most tuners dont
have the numbers. I dont need them. Okay E and... Did I missed it? No, got it. It should
be in tune. Perfect.
Now normally especially if your guitar has been out of tune for a litle while, I have
to go through and tune the whole thing again, just give it a little tweak.
Okay so that�s it for tuning the guitar. This is something you need to go and practice.
It�s not usually something somebody can explain to you and you get it right out of
the gait so be patient with yourself. I suggest doing a little bit each day for a week or
so and you should feel pretty confident by then.
In the next lesson, it�s number 6 were gonna talk about how to hold the pick properly and
some tips on getting a good smooth strum. I�ll see you there.