One of the first things you should learn as a guitarist is to keep your guitar in tune. While there are altered guitar tunings suitable for different purposes, the most widely used guitar tuning is the standard guitar tuning. Your guitar will be in standard tuning for the majority of your playing, so it is important for you to learn how to tune your guitar into standard tuning.
Before we get into what standard guitar tuning actually looks and sounds like, you might want to read these guitar tuning tips. Also, you can watch our video tutorial on guitar tuning as well.
Standard Tuning Basics
So lets get started, let’s tune your guitar to standard tuning. You’ll want to start from the low E string, and work your way up to the highest string. Here is how each string should sound in the end, click to hear the pitch:
You’ll need to tune each string by turning the tuning pegs on your guitar. Here are which peg controls which string:
Tuning pegs on various headstocks
So if you’ve arrived in correct standard tuning, it should sound something like this:
Here are the specifics of what you’re aiming for with standard tuning:
| String | Note | Frequency | Scientific pitch notation |
| 1 -- highest | e -- high | 329.63 Hz | E4 |
| 2 | B | 246.94 Hz | B3 |
| 3 | G | 196.00 Hz | G3 |
| 4 | D | 146.83 Hz | D3 |
| 5 | A | 110.00 Hz | A2 |
| 6 -- lowest | E -- low | 82.41 Hz | E2 |
Scientific pitch notation for the note C
If you’re not familiar with scientific pitch notation, it’s the method of naming the notes in a way which also shows it’s octave.
So for example, here are all of the C notes you could have, and how scientific pitch notation would label them. C0 is at around 16 Hz, so you can’t really go lower.
But this is just a sidetrack, the lowest note you can have on the guitar in standard tuning is E2, at 82.41 Hz.
Keeping your guitar in tune
Your guitar will go out of tune at times, so you’ll want to check your tuning regularly. After a while, you’ll hear when your guitar is out of tune just from strumming a chord. It will really bother your ear, since nothing will sound right.
- It’s best to check your tuning before each practice session, so you don’t have to deal with it later on.
- Your guitar may go out of tune even during a practice session, so don’t be surprised.
- New strings always go out of tune, but here is a good way to prevent it.
- If you have a tremolo, that might cause your guitar to go out of tune quicker as well.
