Tuning Your Guitar By Ear

When I started playing guitar, along with almost everyone else, we all learnt songs in standard EADGBE tuning. Which is fine, while your stuill gettin to grips with the fretboard and different effects you can make etc etc. But later on, your gonna find yourself tuning to other tunings, a whole list can be found on this website's lessons section. In this lesson ill hopefully help you tune differently!

Lets start. Everyone should be familier with a guitar, has 6 strings usually, compromises of around 22-24 etc frets and so on. If we take a look at the 6th string more closly:

E|--F--|--F#-|--G--|--G#-|--A--|--Bb-|--B--|--C-|--Cb-|--D--|--D#-|--E--|

This is the E string the first 12 frets (each letter represents 1 fret). As we can see from this, the 12th fret is an E, and to save time, the 12th fret of the 5th string is a A, the 12th fret of the 4th string is a D, and so on. We now know, that every note on the 12th fret is what the tuning will be (in this case its standard - EADGBe).

We will now look at one of the most common other tunings, Drop-D which is DADGBe. If we compare this to standard tuning, it is only the 6th string that needs changing. If you look at the E string above with the notes, it says that the D note is fret 10, so we need to move the note from fret 10, to fret 12, get me? we can do this easily. look at the forth string. Its also a D, therefore, if we put our finger on the 12th fret, 6th string, and pluck it, we get an E note. Simply, turn the tuner clockwise, (keeping your finger on the 12th fret - 6th string). Now and again, pluck the 6th string with the 12th fret pressed, and pluck the 4th string open. When they sound similar without any resonating, you have managed to move the D note, down to places from 10th fret to 12th fret.

Moving on slightly, you may start to ask, what happens if you want to tune the 6th string to say D#? One fret down, but D# isnt anywhere on any of the strings on the 12th fret.

So what do we want?
-We want to have the following tuning: D#, A, D, G, B, e

How do we do it?
- start by mapping out all the notes on all strings (a copy can be found at the end of this lesson), then, look at the string below it, the 5th string (A). On thet 4th fret, there is a D#. We now know where it is, so pluck the 5th string on the 4th fret. This will give the note of D#, now, we want to take that sound, and place it on the 6th string. We already know, that the D# on the 6th string is fret 11, therefore we already know when we are ready to tune, you need to turn the tuner clockwise. (This will work best with an amp, but dont worry if you dont have one. ) Pluck the 5th string 4th fret, then pluck the 12th fret 6th string, turn the tuner on the 6th string clockwise, until the two sounds match up, without any resonating (resonating; matching the two sounds in harmony so there is no 'wobbling' of sounds). You have now managed to tune to D#, A, D, G, B, e

The real challenge: DADadd tuning (also called Open D5 (I think)). This is a popular tuning used by Mark Tremonti (formally of creed - now alter bridge). We already no by looking at this, we do not need to change the 5th and 4th strings, as they are already tuned to this. The 6th string is a D, which is drop D, we already learnt how to tune to this, but ill go over it quickly again; pluck the 12th fret of the 6th string and then pluck the 4th string open. Turn the tuner of the 6th string clockwise until when you pluck the 12th fret of the 6th string and the 4th string open there is no resonating. We now have the first three notes, DAD. now for the next 3, add.

Look at the 3rd string notes. The note A is fret 14. Because it is past the 12th fret (closer towards the body of the guitar), you know now you need to turn the tuner anti-clockwise 2 frets. Now, look at the 2nd string at the closest A to the 12th fret. On the second string, the A note closest to the 12th fret is on fret 10. Pluck this note, then pluck the 12th fret of the 3rd string. Turn the 3rd strings tuner anit-clockwise, until the 10th fret of string 2 and the 12th fret of string 3 sound the same without any resonating.

Once you have done that, you now have the tuning DADaBe. Just the last two strings to do! We now need to change the B on the 2nd fret to a D. Again, look at the chart of notes. On the 2nd string, the closest D to fret 12, is on fret 15, so we know again, we need to turn the tuner anti-clockwise. Now, find the closest D to the 12th fret on the 1st string. Its located at fret 10. Again, pluck the 12th fret on the 2nd string, with the 10th fret on the 1st string. Turn the 2nd strings tuner anti-clockwise, until both the 10th fret 1st string and 12th fret 2nd string sound the same without any resonating.

This leaves us with 1 string left to tune, but all the other strings have shifted notes remember, dont get caught out. We now have DADade. We want to change the e on the 1st string to a D. The closest D is on the 12th fret 2nd string. For the last time, we know that the D on the 1st string is before the 12th fret, so we turn the tuner clockwise. Pluck the 2nd string OPEN (This is because whatever note is on the 12th string, is also the note sounded when that string is played open. ) and play the 12th fret of the 1st string. Turn the tuner of the 1st string clockwise until the 2nd string open and the 1st string 12th fret (or played open) sound the same without any resonating.

You have now finished tuning to DADadd. To tune back to standard, its simple, use strings 4 and 5, and tune around those. So if you want to tune string 6 from a D to an E, put your finger on the 5th fret of the 6th string, and pluck that (while turning the tuner anti-clockwise) untill it sounds the same (without any resonating) as the 5th string played open. If you do not know how to tune by ear to standard search this site's lessons for either 'tuning by ear' or 'harmonic tuning' (the last one works best if you have an amp).

I have based how to tune around the 12th fret as that is how I learnt to tune. You can also tune around playing strings open, but thats harder and complicated. Below you will find a complete list of notes on the strings (like the diagram above). You can use this to find out were notes are on a string. Take note how everything can revolve around the 12th fret - any string)

When you get to the 12th fret, and want to know what note is past that, just start from fret 1 again, its an endless cycle. I have wrote the string names in standard to make it easier to understand

E|--F--|--F#-|--G--|--G#-|--A--|--Bb-|--B--|--C--|--Cb-|--D--|--D#-|--E--|
B|--C--|--Cb-|--D--|--D#-|--E--|--F--|--F#-|--G--|--G#-|--A--|--Bb-|--B--|
G|--G#-|--A--|--Bb-|--B--|--C--|--Cb-|--D--|--D#-|--E--|--F--|--F#-|--G--|
D|--D#-|--E--|--F--|--F#-|--G--|--G#-|--A--|--Bb-|--B--|--C--|--Cb-|--D--|
A|--Bb-|--B--|--C--|--Cb-|--D--|--D#-|--E--|--F--|--F#-|--G--|--G#-|--A--|
E|--F--|--F#-|--G--|--G#-|--A--|--Bb-|--B--|--C--|--Cb-|--D--|--D#-|--E--|

If you want to correct me on any of this, please feel free to email me, my email address is [e-mail]. Also if you need any help at all with this, or you didn't understand aspects of it, feel free to email me as well, ill always help as best as I can and reply as soon as I can.

Comments

[Thefrontlines]

1st! Good article!really helpful!

[moosedealer]

Thanks for the help!!!

[Kade]

Really helpful. Thanks.

[TrappedUnderIce]

Awesome thanks.

[verdiesnatalies]

thanks, arigato, to kangs, terima kasih.

[antonio1990]

It's really good but is there like another strategy to like try and tune a really out of tune guitar to EADGBe??? How can we do that but overall its awesome if i want to change notes, ***..

[lazyazn]

top stuff
really helpful

antonio1990:
It's really good but is there like another strategy to like try and tune a really out of tune guitar to EADGBe???

U can use a guitar tuner, if u dont ave one of those, u can also tune with a piano, just play the desired note, and try to get rid of any resonating notes by retuning ur guitar, or a pitch fork, available from ur music shop... i think the pitch fork produces a high E note, i dunno if thts rite tho

also, i find a really good song to tune my guitar to is nothing else matters by metallica, the first four notes play the Low E, G, B and High E strings open. Already you got 4 strings in tune!

[25or6to4]

most tuning forks are "a" forks. not very helpful to me, but i see where a beginner could have been enlightened.

[jayant412]

Great Article!!!.. Thanks for the help

[jayant412]

Hey does anyone know any good softwares that you can use to tune your guitar..... can ya eamil me at [e-mail] Your help will be greatly appriciated

[daradesho]

well
its not that hard,but thanks

[carlsbad]

jayant just use guitar pro or something

[Kenan]

need some practice but good
thanks

[cassiexjean09]

great work it helps alot thanks!

[Cool Blink]

Cool!!! helpfull

[1234bubba]

wats your website

[ridcullylives]

http://homepages.ihug.co.nz/~mervmcl/page5/

It's an online tuning fork...click on it and you should get an A. Tune the second-lowest string on your guitar to that note and then tune the rest of the strings to that note.

[lilhotred]

thnx...my guitar wuz way outta tune but its way bttr now

spam deleted

[benwahballs]

the map of the notes doesnt match how it shows it on chordfind.com
i think its supposed to be like # in front of a letter means like the letter adn a hald so for example F# is between F and G.
and "b" means a half before so Gb is the same thing as F#and their bothe inbetween F and G


maybe i got it all wrong help me and email me at [e-mail] if im wrong

[wails a virgin]

u no what i love f ckin shredding

[JimiFloydStones]

If you don't believe his chart there's a hint, every fret is a half step up if you know your notes.

[hanesh]

very good....i learnt alot from you..ty loads man...rock on...

[monty_mike]

Err... I didn't know there was a C flat on the guitar, but what i think you mean is C sharp. I'm pretty sure it dosen't go B-flat, B , C , C-flat. Sorry but everyone needs to know.

[monty_mike]

It goes C-sharp not flat

^ I realise theres an error on the C Note, i wrote that by accident, its ment to be C#.


And also, there is such thing as Cb, B#, E# and Fb. There enharmonic:

Cb = B
B# = C
Fb = E
E# = F

[liberator]

Nice done!

[fuco]

good job man you are god

[poetik_fing3rz]

thanx alot...i will take it in consideration!

Thanks

[wabusy33]

it's not the sound of the note that matters, it's how they sound compared to the other notes, nm i don't know what i'm talking about.

[MasterCleese]

AHHHH! The grammatical errors are hurting my brain! please shoot yourself for being so stupid!

[mkay?]

wails a virgin:
u no what i love f ckin shredding


Hear Hear! Hail Kirk Hammett!

[tidus730]

very good article. i learned everything i need to know about tuning by ear. thnx a lot

[stu18visions]

or go here to tune your guitar:
http://www.gieson.com/Library/projects/utilities/tuner/

[fishinator]

yeh i think u done a good job. i think i understand it pretty well but we will c...

[Rundle]

We now know where it is, so pluck the 5th string on the 4th fret. This will give the note of D#

D# is on the 6th fret. It even shows it in the diagram.

[Rundle]

We now know where it is, so pluck the 5th string on the 4th fret. This will give the note of D#

The D# is on the 6th fret. The diagram even says that.

[Rundle]

sorry didnt think the first one worked. =)

Rundle:
We now know where it is, so pluck the 5th string on the 4th fret. This will give the note of D#

The D# is on the 6th fret. The diagram even says that.

Sorry, your right, thats a mistake on my part. Thanks for pointing it out, ill update it later :cheers:

[ace_lester]

wats the difference between

E F F# G Ab A Bb B C Db D Eb E ?????

ace_lester:
wats the difference between

E F F# G Ab A Bb B C Db D Eb E ?????

They are notes. If you go up half a step (a semitone) from the note E, you get to the note F. If you go up another semitone, you get to F#. Up another semitone, you get G, up another semitone you get G# (or Ab) and so on.

Those letters just indicate different pitchs.

[duffmansweenie]

pretty good

[mrnizzo]

kirk hammet is god, dude, great lesson jayant use ap3 tuner just search for it
any tips on harmonics let me know

[mrnizzo]

dude great lesson. jayant search for ap3 tuner. any tips on harmonics let me know.

[weeks]

thanks for helping

[fallinsuburbia]

well another thing that works for people is to tune your guitar by playing a scale, a chord or an intro to a song. For example, even though I hate the song, I use Dammit by Blink 182 to get out of whatever tuning I was in to get back to standard tuning.

[jamis8891]

ive never learned anything about theory or anthing so everything i pick up along the way helps a ton. more stuff like this!

[noturb]

does the E stay with E and G stay hold of fusion between D of a

[phatdrew52]

good stuff thx bunches!

[motioncity1218]

nice article!

[jessieca]

are you supposed to tune your electric guitar with it hooked up to the amp?

jessieca wrote:

are you supposed to tune your electric guitar with it hooked up to the amp?

No, you dont have to. It does help though, especially with distortion

[DRoboWHOids06]

do you change strings? or leave them. if you change them to drop-d youll have 2 d string will they sound the same?

^ You change the open note of the string.

If you drop D it, you will have 2 strings that play D notes, but they will be an octave apart

[DRoboWHOids06]

^^^^^so will they be the same measurement like.23&.23 or will they just be tuned like the E string to D?
sorry never have done this with the string colaberations

No, you dont need to actually take your string off and put another "d" string on, you just need to downtune the E to a D.

[dobby240]

very good i will need to study this a bit more but i never did know how to tune my guitar differently untill i read this all the tunings i knew were drop D and normall lol thanx man alota help

[mickmickmicho]

NICE ONE

[metalkid66]

hey can someone please help me with dropc tuning coz i can do drop d but dropc is hard for me coz im new at playing thanks ppl

[metalkid66]

can soneone plz help me with drop c tuning coz i cnt get it right its hard for me...thanks heaps ppl

metalkid66 wrote:

can soneone plz help me with drop c tuning coz i cnt get it right its hard for me...thanks heaps ppl

http://www.ultimate-guitar.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&postid=3636975

[ToxicSoup]

im a little worried to try and tune my guitar by myself without an electric one and i want it tuned down a full step so i can play some of my favorite metal songs. How do i do that in a nutshell?

[ToxicSoup]

i know you probably know this but its CGCFAD
atleast i think thats full step

[rrb6699]

To me tuning by ear means you know what at least one note sounds like. How are you going to tune an E if you dont know what it sounds like to start with? Ok, getting past that point I'll assume you know you have an E on the 6th string.
Well, I'm not a great player but sounds like drop D would be easier to tune if you pluck the 3rd string (open D) and turn the 6th string tuning key until they are the same. why pluck the 12th fret and try to hold the string and turn the tuning key? You just gave a different way to do it but, if you know your guitar is EADGBe then you should be able to tune any string to any tuning since you can find the notes on any string by counting 1/2 steps up from the 1st fret (pick a string it doesn't matter)-- (this comment for beginners - I mean each fret is a half 'step' up as sound goes from the previous lower fret). your diagram of the 1st E string is a great example of how you can find a note on any string by knowing it is in tune to begin with. the 2nd string (A) would start A (open) A# (1st fret) and so on. Easy? -RayRay the Drummer

[delondcosta27]

yo dude u said tht on the 5 string(a) the 4th note is D#.It aint.its c#....so one of ur tunings is messed up

[delondcosta27]

weh wrong smilie

[delondcosta27]

you wanted to have the following tuning: D#, A, D, G, B, e
hmm how come noone noticed tht or am i mistaken?

[fender_cro]

cul

[kwatrokantos]

Hey i tune drop DADGBe like this. 6th sting (E) at 7 fret and 5th string (A) open. And its the easiest way!!!!

[themanwithnonam]

for DAdBGe you can tune the D string, 7th frett to the A string

[jimmiew]

that seems like common sense? idk i was just hoping you would have a lesson on tuning your guitar to standard when its out of tune (as in its gone flat or sharp)

Logz wrote:
How about you go **** yourself.

Lol, and know you're a mod.


Checked/Deleted.

[Kadrean]

Good lesson, I was looking for something like this, since electric tuners are a bit gay sometimes, and tuning harmonically sucks if you're out of tune anyway

[CatEyez]

If anyonez willing to help me, herez my email: [e-mail]!

[Mr.Glue]

Ok I play bass and,DOES ANY ONE KNOW TUNING??? I know that standard on a bass tuner iz no flats (E,A,D,G) and five flats are low B (B,E,A,D) and I know that two flats are (D,-,-,-,) or somthin but what are 1,3,and4 flats called PLEEZ SOMEONE TELL ME!!!If u can THNX!!!

[white.zol]

LYRASTAR REVENGE

[Terrance_1_]

for guitar also if u want to tune to DADGBe just use the 7th fret on the 6th string and the A string, 7th fret is A when u tune it down to D

[Chicago03]

Is this right or what?

[MetalhArt]

hehe thx alot dude!

[phenom14]

how you you do drop d#?... is drop d# and half step down the same?... sorry... noob here...

[killswitchCurse]

Mr.Glue wrote:

Ok I play bass and,DOES ANY ONE KNOW TUNING??? I know that standard on a bass tuner iz no flats (E,A,D,G) and five flats are low B (B,E,A,D) and I know that two flats are (D,-,-,-,) or somthin but what are 1,3,and4 flats called PLEEZ SOMEONE TELL ME!!!If u can THNX!!!

Alright you confused the shit out of me.....lol, bass tunes same as guitar EADG, DGCF(full step down, meaning 2 semitones down), CFBbD#(this is 2 full steps down, in other words 4 semitones), and then we have your BEAD(dropped 4 full and 1/2 steps down) that makes 5 semitones down. Hope this helped to find what you were looking for =D

[chanahbanana]

yeh that really help- i understood it. but i dont have tuner lol

[Robster8942178]

I need some help tuning to CGCFAD from EADGBe or Drop D. I dont have a tuner for C only for E, If somone could help me that would be great. Send me a e-mail ([e-mail])explaining how to tune to CGCFAD by ear from EADGBe. Thanks

[devil_guitarist]

hey..... awesome article.....thanx a load.....
peace

[devil_guitarist]

hey thanx a lot.....awesome article..... peace

[nghienviec]

antonio1990 wrote:

It's really good but is there like another strategy to like try and tune a really out of tune guitar to EADGBe??? How can we do that but overall its awesome if i want to change notes, ***..

You can choose one note as reference point and just learn it. After a while, you can produce the note on your own, then you're body is a 'tuning fork' now. Use that note as your reference to turn all the strings.

[ellucifere]

i was reading another lesson and it was

E|--F--|--F#-|--G--|--Ab-|--A--|--Bb-|--B--|--C-|--Db -|--D--|--Eb-|--E--|

why are they different?

[Tsage]

E F F# G Ab A Bb B C Db D Eb E
is the same as

E F Gb G G# A A# B C C# D D# E

[BrokenString97]

cool you just taught me wat i needed to play chevelle, system of a down and many songs (i could't tune before)