How to tune a guitar

Before anything else, your guitar has to be in tune — practicing against an out-of-tune instrument quietly trains your ear wrong. Standard tuning gives each of the six strings a fixed note. From the thickest, lowest string to the thinnest, highest string, they are:

E – A – D – G – B – E.

The low E (sixth string) and high E (first string) share a name but sit two octaves apart. A classic memory aid is Eddie Ate Dynamite, Good Bye Eddie — one word per string, low to high.

Every other tuning you’ll ever use is just a tweak of this baseline, so it’s worth committing to memory. Turning a tuning peg one way raises the pitch (tighter string), the other way lowers it (looser string). Always tune up to your target note when you can — creeping up to pitch holds better than dropping down onto it.

The fastest, most reliable method is a chromatic tuner. Pluck one string, let it ring, and the tuner shows the note you’re nearest and whether you’re flat (too low) or sharp (too high). Adjust the peg until the reading sits dead center, then move to the next string.

Two things beginners miss. First, tune each string individually and let it ring cleanly — don’t strum. Second, go around twice. Guitars are under tension, and tightening one string subtly pulls the neck and detunes the others, so a second pass brings everything into agreement.

If a string reads a completely different note than expected, you may be an octave off — compare it to a reference pitch before cranking the peg hard in either direction. A tuner removes all the guesswork, which is why even players with great ears keep one within reach.

No tuner handy? You can tune the guitar to itself, as long as one string is already at the right pitch (or close enough to play with). The trick is that most strings, fretted at the 5th fret, produce the same note as the next open string up.

Step by step, from the low E:

1. Fret the low E string at the 5th fret — that’s an A. Match the open A (fifth) string to it.
2. Fret the A string at the 5th fret to tune the open D string.
3. Fret the D string at the 5th fret to tune the open G string.
4. Exception: fret the G string at the 4th fret (not the 5th) to tune the open B string.
5. Back to the 5th fret: fret the B string there to tune the high E.

Get the two notes ringing together until the wobble between them disappears.

Once standard is second nature, alternate tunings open up new sounds and easier grips. A few worth knowing:

• Drop D — lower only the low E a whole step to D, giving you D A D G B E. It deepens your low end and lets you play power chords with one finger. It’s a two-second change and the gateway alternate tuning.
• Half-step down (E♭) — every string dropped one semitone. Countless rock and blues records use it for a slightly darker, slacker feel and easier bends.
• Open G (D G D G B D) — the strings form a G chord when strummed open; a staple of slide and rootsy rhythm playing.
• DADGAD — a modal, droning tuning beloved in Celtic and fingerstyle music.

The catch is that a standard tuner reference no longer matches, so you want a tuner that knows the target notes for each tuning.

Fresh strings stretch, so a new set will drift for a day or two — gently pull each string away from the fretboard and retune a few times to speed it up. Big swings in temperature and humidity move a guitar’s tuning too, which is why players re-check before every session.

Make tuning the first thing you do every time you pick up the guitar, right at the top of your practice routine. It takes thirty seconds and it protects everything else you practice. If the same string keeps slipping badly, the culprit is usually a poorly wound peg or an old string, not your technique. And once you’re reliably in tune, learning your first chords will actually sound right — clean, ringing, and in agreement with the recording you’re playing along to.

Tuning is one of those chores that’s easy to skip and quietly ruins your progress — which is why it belongs in the app you already open to play.

Guitar Genius includes a fast, accurate tuner with alternate tunings built in, so standard, Drop D, open G, and the rest are a tap away with the correct target notes handled for you. Pair it with the metronome for timing and the chord library for shapes, and the essentials all live in one place. No second app, no guessing whether that low string is a D or an E — just tune up in a few seconds and get to the part you actually came for.