Things You'll Need:
- A guitar
- A guitar tuner, piano or a good ear
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Step 1
The first thing you'll probably need to know is that a guitar has 6 strings which when tuned properly should be tuned as follows E-A-D-B-G-E starting with the lowest (thickest) string.
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Step 2
If you can manage to get the low E string in tune, you can tune the rest of the guitar off of that string. Use your tuner, piano or good ear to find the low E.
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Step 3
Once your low E string is in tune, hold your finger (whichever one is comfortable) on the low E string on the 5th fret (if you don't know what a fret is, you have bigger fish to fry than how to tune your guitar). Alternate strumming the low E string and the next string down (the A string) and tune the open A string (using the correleating tuning key on the headstock) until it sounds the same as the low E string held at the 5th fret.
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Step 4
Repeat step 3 for each of the strings in succession (i.e. hold the A string at the 5th fret to tune the D string, hold the D string at the 5th fret to tune the B string and so on).
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Step 5
The music gods throw you a curve ball when it comes to tuning the G string. Rather than holding the B string at the 5th fret, hold it at the 4th fret. This only applies to the G string (insert humerous underwear joke here), so be sure to hold the G string back at the 5th fret in order to tune the high E string (the thinest string).
