How to tune a Guitar using a piano

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By Dharmapunk
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tune a Guitar using a piano

Tuning the guitar is important to sounding good. If you don't have a guitar tuner on hand, you can easily tune the guitar by the sounds of a piano.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

Guitar
Guitar Pick
Keyboard/Piano
Or an online midi file of a piano.

Step 1

The open strings of a guitar from the thickest to thinest are as follows:
E - the thickest or lowest sounding string is known as the 6th string
A - is the 5th
D - is the 4th
G - is the 3rd
B - is the 2nd
E - the thinest or highest is the 1st
Step 2

Tuning the E (6th) string. On the Piano, you can tune it using the sound of the 1st E below middle C. Play this note on the Piano several times until you are familiar with the sound it produces. Pluck the E (6th string). Using the tuning peg on your guitar which controls the E (6th string), turn it while plucking the E string. until the sound of the string matches the sound of the 1st E on the keyboard.
Step 3

After you have the open E (6th string) Tuned by using the Keyboard, you can now continue tuning the rest of the strings by using the sound from the already tuned E (6th string) Lets start with the next string, which is the A or 5th String.

Place the first finger of your left hand just behind the fifth fret on the tuned E string. In this position, That sound is now an A note. Keep your finger on that fret. Now pick the fifth and six strings in turn, gently adjusting the fifth string (A) tuning peg until the two notes are the same.
Step 4

At this point, you should have your open E or 6th String tuned, as well as your open A or 5th String tuned. We'll now go on to tuning the D string, also known as the 4th String. We will use the same method we used to tune the A strin. Instead of placing your finger on the fifth fret on the E string, we will now place a finger on the Fifth fret of the A string. Doing this will produce a D note.

Place the first finger of your left hand just behind the fifth fret on the A string. That’s a D note. Tune the 4th string (the D note) to that.
Step 5

So, here we are. Almost there. You have The 6th, 5th, and 4th strings in tuned. Now, we'll be tuning the G string.

Place the first finger of your left hand just behind the fifth fret on the D string. That’s a G note. Tune your G string to that note.
Step 6

Im sure by now you're catching on. Tuning the D string uses the same concepts as above, with one exception. Instead of placing a finger on the 5th fret, you'll be placing a finger on the 4th fret.

Place the first finger of your left hand just behind the forth fret (note the B string is the only one that comes from a different position the forth fret, the rest are from the 5th fret).
Step 7

And finally, the 1st string. The E!
Place the first finger of your left hand just behind the fifth fret on the B string. That’s a E note.

Comments

Thims said

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on 9/15/2008 I don't know how tuning a guitar could get much easier unless you have a tuner! Another idea is when you tune ONE string to the piano you can also tune all other strings from that one tuned string.