Guitar Lesson: Guitar Tuning Part 1 : Learning to Listen

Tuning the guitar is all about listening to a sound source and tuning the string up or down until it matches the source. The source itself will be one of two things :

• Another string on your guitar; or
• An external source - another guitarist, the 8notes guitar tuner, or a metronome bleep.

You're now going to try to tune the low E on your guitar to match this sound.

Tuning the low E String

Turn the low E-string tuning key so that the pitch of the string falls. Now slowly turn it back, listening carefully, until it matches the sound of the E from the computer.

Don't worry if you can't match the two sounds first time. Simply lower the pitch and try again. If you find this bit difficult, the first rule of guitar tuning is, you guessed it - be patient.

The Tuning Alternatives

From this point on, you have two alternatives tuning routes:

• Tune each of the other strings in the same way, using the 8notes.com tuner; or
• Tune the remaining strings to the low E. This is the subject of part 2.

> > Guitar Tuning Part 2 > >