Well i taught my friends son the other day how to do it, and i’m not sure if he got it, but its a step in the right direction for him. Ive played guitar for about 2 and half years, and i have to say im not that great. I just recently received an ear to hear the sounds, before it was all math and memorization. Kinda a big eye opener, kinda like jumping your first hurdle in a track race. Anyways the idea of tuning your guitar is to match the strings note with a string thats already in tune. There in lies the rub, aye the obstacle. How do you tune a guitar thats all out of tune? Well you either have the sound one of the strings needs to make embedded into your head, which after a while you’ll be able to do (i cant), or you can go buy a tuner. There only like 10 bucks. Another way is if you have a piano you can match the string to a note on the piano.

Ok for this to work you need to know the standard tuning for a guitar is EADGBe thats from fattest string to thinnest string. The acronym that i learned to make this easy is every-adult-dog-growls-bites-eats. Memorize that it will be important FOREVER.

Ok OK nuff ranting. Ok here is the nitty gritty. (and this is hoping your E string is in tune) Your E string is the fattest string on your guitar. Now what you want to do is put your finger on fret 5 and hit the string. This causes the string to Ring A, which happens to be the next strings standard tuning. So what you do is hit both those strings and turn the Knob for that string until it sounds just like the string your fretting. Now repeat this except move up a string. Fret the A string on the 5th fret and match that string the the D string. Again repeat this for the next set, Fret the D string on fifth and match it to the G string. IMPORTANT the next string is different, Fret the G string on 4th and match the B string to it. Thats important cause if you dont match it right, your guitar will sound like crap. No for the final string again fret the 5th on the B string and match the e string to it.

Ok now to my little trick, as im doing this i always knock the next string a little down outa tune that way i only have one way to go with it when listening. At that point i know that im suppose to tighten, and i can pretty much hear when i go to far. I bet thats a bad way to learn, i dont know but it works for me.

Author: Jason Rogers