Tuning a Guitar by Ear

Series Summary

The guitar has been around for nearly 5,000 years, developed from even more ancient instruments akin to the sitar, it has been inspiring audiences since its first chord was strummed. The guitar is the primary instrument involved with many genres of music including country, blues, flamenco, rock, and pop, and has been celebrated as one of the most expressive instruments in the world. Whether blending acoustic harmonies on a classical guitar or shredding solos on an electric guitar, the importance of the guitar to 20th century music cannot be ignored.

In this free video series, expert guitarist Aaron De Azevedo teaches you the basics, and the not-so-basics of playing guitar. He covers a wide variety of styles, adding to the typical fundamentals of guitar playing. Aaron teaches you major and minor chords, how to tune the guitar, fingerpicking techniques, and more. You get tips on starting off in blues, Flamenco, funk, Bossa Nova, and other styles as well. Aaron really gives you the scope of guitar playing, while helping you learn the basics.

Video Transcript

"Hi I'm Aaron De Azevedo, and I'm here on behalf of Expert Village. Today I'm going to teach you how to tune a guitar. Now the easiest way to do it is with a tuner. Go to the store, the music store, and buy one of these. But sometimes you're at a friend's house, and you've got to get that thing in tune so you can play. So there's another way to do it. I will show you. First, you want to make sure that your E string, that's your biggest string is in tune, or somewhat in tune. If you don't have a piano, it's kind of hard, but do your best. After that, you can tune all the strings to that one, and you do it this way. If you put your finger on the fifth fret on your E string, then you play the next string down, your A string, they should sound the same. And then you can tune it until they sound the same. Now they sound good. Again, on the fifth fret on the A string will sound like the D string. Now if it's out of tune you'll kind of hear that it's out of tune. So I can tune it up. Now it's in tune. Same thing on your D string should sound the same as your G string. Then on this one it's on the fourth fret on your G string and that will sound, should sound like your B string. And then on your B string, it's on the fifth fret, and if it's in tune it will sound the same. So that's how you tune a guitar. Quick review with that: fifth fret, fifth fret, fifth fret, fourth fret, fifth fret. That's how you tune a guitar by ear."