Category

Guitar Guides

Category

Whether you’re just getting to know your guitar or have loads of experience as a guitarist and want to teach someone new, it’s good to be familiar with all the key parts of your instrument by name!

Today, we’ll go over all the key parts of acoustic and electric guitars so that you can get thoroughly acquainted with the purpose of each one.

What are the parts of an acoustic guitar?

Let’s start by learning about all the key parts of an acoustic guitar, since it has many core elements in common with its electric counterpart.

1 . Headstock

The headstock is also sometimes called a “peghead.” This component is located at the very top of the guitar’s neck and serves as a platform for the tuning machines. The headstock is important since it provides a lot of the structural integrity needed for the tuning machines to do their job once a guitarist is done tuning their instrument.

Headstocks come in all kinds of shapes and sizes: sometimes there are cutouts for the tuning machines, and sometimes the tuning machines rest on the top or side of the headstock.

2. Tuning Machines

The tuning machines are also commonly referred to as “machine heads” or “tuners” and, as that last name would suggest, they’re used to tune the strings of the guitar. The tuning machines can be further broken down into smaller parts:

The tuning peg is the part that you grab to twist the capstan, or cylinder, to which it’s attached. This cylinder has a hole in it that the guitar string is pulled through so that it can wrap around the cylinder–that way, when you twist the tuning peg, you’re adjusting the tension of the guitar string. As a result, you’re adjusting the pitch of the sound that the guitar string makes when you pick it.

Worm gears also play their part in the tuning machine by keeping the cylinders from moving unless you’re adjusting the tuning peg. This function preserves the tune and allows for you to tune the guitar more finely.

3. Nut

The nut is the small piece of material–usually hard plastic, brass, or bone–that rests perpendicularly to the headstock and neck of the guitar. The nut might be small and anything but eye-catching, but it serves a very important purpose. It keeps the strings of the guitar evenly spaced and lifted to the correct height above the fingerboard.

The guitar’s nut also helps to “smooth out” the curve of the strings from the fretboard to the tuning machines, easing away some of the sharp bends and friction that would otherwise put added wear and tear on your strings. Not to mention: If the nut weren’t there, your strings would scrape and buzz against the neck of the guitar and create a horrible sound!

4. Neck and Fretboard

Fun fact: all fretboards are fingerboards, but not all fingerboards are fretboards! A fingerboard with frets on it (more about those in a minute) is a fretboard, where you press the strings down to create specific notes when you pick.

The neck of the guitar is the thicker piece of wood behind the fretboard that supports it, featuring a skillfully-crafted curve that’s engineered to resist the tension of the guitar strings and preserve the tune.

5. Frets

The frets are those metal bars on the fingerboard that qualify it as a fretboard! Fret bars are usually made of brass and are placed at precise intervals along the fretboard to create clean notes when you press the strings against them. This is why people say that you “fret” a note or chord on the guitar while you play it.

Some guitars also have useful little dots on the side of the neck that help you tell where commonly-used frets are at a quick glance. These dots are commonly located next to the third, fifth, seventh, fifteenth, seventeenth, and nineteenth frets.

6. Upper Bout

The “Upper Bout” of the guitar refers to the portion of the body that juts out on either side above the center of the guitar. Another way to look at it is to think of the Upper Bout as the part of the guitar’s body that’s nearest to the base of the neck. This is also the level of the guitar’s body where you’ll find the soundhole.

The Upper Bout is where you’ll find the guitar’s Cutaway, if it has one–many do not. Guitarists are sometimes divided on how the Cutaway, or lack thereof, affects the guitar’s sound. However, many musicians agree that guitars without cutaways have a deeper resonance than those that do have them.

Anyway, you can think of the guitar’s Upper Bout as its shoulders . . .

7. Lower Bout

. . . And, you can think of the guitar’s Lower Bout as its hips! The Lower Bout is also the height on the guitar’s body where you’ll find the strings ending at the bridge.

By the way: These parts of the guitar are called the “bouts” after the archaic English word “bought,” which means “a turning or bending”. So, the names of the guitar’s Upper and Lower Bouts actually directly reference their shapes.

8. Pickguards

The guitar’s pickguard, or “scratchplate,” is aptly named since it’s there in order to protect the guitar’s body and finish against errant pick strikes. Even the most skilled guitarists can get so immersed in the music that they would run the risk of damaging their guitar’s body if the pickguard weren’t there.

The pickguard isn’t always left as a purely practical element, either, and can come in all kinds of different designs. But the common denominator between them all is that they’re crafted from a hard material that can withstand plenty of wear–usually laminated plastic.

9. Bridge and Saddle

Remember the Lower Bout of the guitar, and how it frames the spot on the guitar’s face where the bridge is mounted? That bridge serves to anchor the guitar strings firmly in place and transfer their vibration to the body of the guitar. In other words, it serves as the guitar’s soundboard: In acoustic guitars, this is how each note you play is amplified. The bridge carries the sound from the strings to echo throughout the guitar’s body, adding richness and projection as each note reverberates.

In steel string guitars, the bridge is also fitted with bridge pins that keep each string right where it needs to be. Classical guitars, which often sport strings crafted from nylon, may not have bridge pins–they’re likely to rely on a tie block instead.

The saddle closely resembles the nut in appearance, often made from the same or similar material and mirroring the nut’s long, thin shape. The saddle sits atop the bridge, not only transferring sound from the strings to the soundboard but raising the strings to the desired height as well. Together, the saddle and nut determine the guitar’s “action,” or how far down you must press a string in order to fret a note.

10. Soundhole

So, with all the parts that work together to transfer the sound of the guitar strings through the soundboard to get amplified by the hollow body of the guitar, you may be wondering how the notes reach your ears without sounding muffled. The answer: The guitar’s soundhole!

The soundhole is the circular cutout on the front of the guitar that serves to let each note out once it’s reverberated and amplified, allowing each sound to reach your ears intact and sweet.

11. Strap Buttons

Strap buttons essentially speak for themselves: These are the sturdy little pegs, usually made of metal, that are mounted on the guitar body. One sits at the top while the other sits at the bottom, and they’re there for you to attach the ends of a guitar strap to. That way, you’ll be able to support the weight of the guitar hands-free, increasing your mobility and freedom to concentrate on making music.

Just a side note: Guitar straps and strap buttons are less crucial for a lot of acoustic guitar players than they are for electric guitar players. While electric guitars are generally played while standing up, a lot of people like to sit down to play their acoustic guitars. However, a shoulder strap might still come in handy for acoustic guitarists who plan to perform on stage.

Here’s a video showing the parts of an acoustic guitar:

Nice! So, what about electric guitars?

Many of the core parts of an electric guitar are essentially the same as what you’ll find in an acoustic guitar. The shapes and proportions may vary since electric guitars amplify their sound very differently, but several key structural components remain the same:

  • Headstock
  • Tuning Machines
  • Nut
  • Neck and Fretboard
  • Frets
  • Upper Bout
  • Lower Bout
  • Pickguard
  • Bridge and Saddle
  • Strap Buttons

These parts are all found on both acoustic and electric guitars, and serve essentially the same purposes in both. Since electric guitars don’t have a soundhole, they require a whole different set of parts to transmute its sounds through an electric amplifier.

The parts that are unique to electric guitars are as follows:

A . Pickups

Think back to the bridge pins commonly found in acoustic guitars, which pick up the vibrations of the strings and transfer them down through the soundboard and into the hollow guitar body to get amplified via reverberation. As you’ve surely noticed, the body of an electric guitar isn’t hollow at all! That means that there’s nowhere for the string’s soundwaves to echo. So, where do they go?

In electric guitars, the pickups begin with a carefully-engineered plastic bobbin that mounts six magnetic, metal bars–one for each guitar string. The plastic bobbin is then wrapped in a coil of enameled wire that winds around these magnetic elements to “pick up” the sound and convert it into an electric signal that eventually travels to an amp. This process is very similar to the internal workings of microphones.

B. Pickup Selector

Most electric guitars have more than one pickup installed. The way the wires are coiled can have a huge effect on how things sound, and most musicians like having options! The pickup selector allows guitarists to switch between pickups to get just the right sound to suit a specific song or mood. Some guitars even allow players to utilize a combination of more than one pickup at once for an extra level of expression.

C. Volume and Tone Knobs

The volume knob is pretty self-explanatory–as long as you’ve remembered to plug your electric guitar into the amp, that is! The volume knob won’t change a thing if you’ve just picked up your electric guitar for a quick strum or two without plugging it in.

Without over-complicating things: The tone knob on your electric guitar serves to increase or decrease the presence of the higher sound frequencies that you create each time you pick a note or chord. So, when you lower the number on your tone knob, you’re dialing down the higher frequencies to create a darker sound that’s ideal for heavier rock and metal music. And, vice versa: When you dial things up to a higher number with your tone knob, you’ll get a much brighter tone that’s better suited for rock leads and jazz guitar.

A side note for performing guitarists: Be careful to balance the treble on your amp with the brightness of your guitar’s tone! If you have both of those elements up too high, you can inadvertently create a piercing tone that can be unpleasant for some members of your audience.

D. Output Jack

The output jack is what allows you to plug your electric guitar into your amp so that you can crank up the volume and get ready to rock. As you already know, acoustic guitars rely on a hollow guitar body that serves as an echo chamber to amplify their sound. But electric guitars transfer the strings’ vibrations through the pickups, through the output jack and cable, and into an electric amplifier. This more high-tech approach to amplification offers you a world of artistic possibilities, depending on which amp you choose to go with your favorite electric guitar!

E. Tailpiece

In acoustic guitars, the bridge and saddle serve to guide the strings and their vibrations to their end goal: Amplification within the hollow body of the guitar. But remember that, in an electric guitar, the sound vibrations are transferred down through the pickups of the guitar instead. So, the strings’ ends serve a different purpose: Instead of carrying the vibrations into the acoustic amplification of the guitar body, the ends of an electric guitar’s strings merely need to be secured.

The tailpiece (or stoptail bridge) of an electric guitar serves to lock the ends of the strings in place and keep them secure so that they can hold up against the tension of tuning. Since there’s no reason to transfer the strings’ vibrations into the body of an electric guitar, the tailpiece is usually a raised metal bar to which the strings are attached, which is then affixed to the front of the guitar.

In short: The tailpiece secures the ends of the electric guitar’s strings so that they can be tuned effectively while delivering sound clearly through the pickups.

Remember:

If you’re new to the world of guitar playing, don’t worry if it takes you a while to remember all the parts of the guitar! Music is a journey, and familiarizing yourself with the anatomy of your instrument may take some time.

You can still practice and play without knowing the name of each guitar part or understanding how each mechanism works, so don’t sweat it.

But, as you learn and grow, learning more about the makeup of your guitar can help you understand how to bring out the best in its sound, maintain it more effectively, and even play better!

If you’ve always wanted to learn the guitar but get overwhelmed by the complex chord charts that seem to require you to contort your fingers into unnatural shapes, you’re not alone. Countless aspiring guitarists put off the first steps on their rock and roll journey for this precise reason.

Anyone who’s in this boat should know that there are some basic chords that are easy to start with and will build up your skills to enable you to move on to the harder, more nuanced chords when you’re ready. Read on for a step-by-step guide to jump-start your guitaring experience.

Before You Chord

Starting off, you should know that the first days – and weeks – of guitar playing are the hardest it’s going to be. While this might sound off-putting at first, it can actually serve as a strong motivator to push through and work your way to a more satisfying strumming experience. This is also helpful to keep in mind for reassurance whenever you feel like you’re not advancing quickly enough. Patience is a key element of picking up any instrument, and you’ll enjoy the experience so much more if you go in with realistic expectations for yourself.

Before we get into it, let’s review how to read basic tablature. (If you’re already familiar with tabs, feel free to skip ahead to the next section.) Since we’ll just be laying out the fingerings for individual chords, you won’t have too much tab material to take in, but it’s still important to make sure we’re all on the same page so that you learn the chords right the first time – and don’t have to unlearn an incorrect fingering after being confused as to why it sounds so bad.

Tablature – called “tabs” for short – is the most common way to write out guitar music. It’s preferred by most guitarists for its simplicity, communicating finger patterns in a visually intuitive way. You’ll see the string names laid out in a column on the far left to start a tab, organized from high to low in tonality, which looks like this:

e|
B|
G|
D|
A|
E|

Notice that there are two E strings, and the high E is differentiated by using a lower-case character. This will help you keep track of which end is which when reading tabs. That’s something to be careful you don’t get confused about: Instead of having the string closest to the ceiling on top of this column, it starts with the one that’s closest to the floor. If this seems nonreflexive at first, just know that it makes the most musical sense because it puts the higher notes on top of the tabs instead of the bottom. Don’t worry; it will become more natural the more you look at this type of notation.

The only other thing you have to know about tabs is what the numbers mean. As you might’ve already guessed, this refers to the fret where you should put your finger. Frets ascend one by one from the headstock – the part with tuning pegs sticking out of it. Most guitars have helpful dots to indicate the third, fifth, seventh, ninth, and twelfth fret; consider taking a little time to memorize these numbers to make navigating more complex tabs much easier. For now, though, we’ll be sticking to the lower digits for these chords.

When a string is played without any fret at all, it’s denoted with a zero. Strings that aren’t meant to be played at all are marked with an “x.”

Just one more thing…

Don’t Forget to Tune!

It doesn’t matter how perfect your finger positions are if you’re playing on an instrument that’s not even in tune with itself. If you have a hard time hearing when a string is sharp or flat, there are countless free apps to try that make the process much easier. You might even find it worth it to buy an inexpensive tuner, which tends to be more precise and reliable.

Also, double-check that you’re using standard tuning! You don’t want to get halfway through learning a new chord progression only to find out that it sounded off the whole time because you’re tuned to the wrong notes.

Now, without further ado, let’s play some chords!

Power Chords

The first type of chord we’ll be learning is great because once you have the pattern down, you can play it anywhere up and down the fretboard – and you only need to strum three strings to do it.

Later, we’ll be discussing the difference between major chords and minor chords, including how to tell the difference the moment you hear them. But for these first chords, you won’t even have to worry about major and minor because the element that designates a chord as major or minor – the third – isn’t present in a power chord. Don’t worry – we’ll cover that later.

All you need to know for the basic power chord is the first and the fifth. These numbers refer to the steps in a scale – think “do re mi fa so la ti do” – with “do” being the first, “re” being the second, and so on. For the moment, we’ll assume that we’re dealing with a major scale.

Power chords are what you often hear rock and rollers or punk rockers jamming out on, and there’s a good reason for it: They sound cool. Composers and musicians have known for centuries that there’s something special about this particular interval, called the perfect fifth. There’s something powerful in the sound – hence the name, “power chord” – which is why the interval was historically associated with the Divine. It’s also perfect for beginners because it’s one of the easiest chords in the book.

Let’s start off with a G power chord. First, take a look at it in tab form, and then we’ll break down how to get your fingers there.

G Power Chord

e| x
B| x
G| x
D| x
A| 5
E| 3

Put your index finger on the third fret of the low E string. Then put your ring finger on the fifth fret of the A string. And then – you did it! That’s it. That’s a power chord. Simple, isn’t it?

Now you can practice strumming just those two strings without letting any of the other four ring out. To prevent the D string from joining the mix, try to get your ring finger to mute it as you’re fretting the A string. As you continue to practice, this will become more natural until it’s something your fingers just automatically do.

Don’t forget about your right palm either – if you can – keeping it sprawled across the bridge of your guitar to mute all the inactive strings to prevent them from ringing out. This is something that electric guitar players have to be extra careful about, particularly if they’re playing face-melting lead solos with heavy distortion and effects.

Does this seem like a lot to think about at once? Don’t worry, and try not to get overwhelmed. Just take it one step at a time, and gradually, it will all become easier.

Adding the Octave

Once you’re feeling confident about your power chord, you can add even more power by adding what’s called the octave on top. Going back to the scale, an octave is simply the note at the bottom of the scale and the one at the top: Both are the same note, but one is higher and one is lower. If you can add the octave on top of your power chords, it makes them pop all the more.

Your G power chord with the octave added looks like this:

e| x
B| x
G| x
D| 5
A| 5
E| 3

As you can see, the extra note that’s needed is on the same fret as the note on the A string, simply moved up to the next string, so it should be easy to find. Fret this note using your pinky; it might take some work to get your pinky strong enough to hold it down all the way, but it’s worth it to build up that strength so you can use your smallest finger to add big flavor to the more intricate chords.

Now that you’ve got one power chord in the bag, here’s something you’ll love to hear: These chords can be moved anywhere up and down the fretboard! Not only that, but you can also start them on the A string and follow the exact same pattern. Congratulations; you can now play every power chord in existence.

Let’s move on to something a bit trickier but still at the beginner’s level.

Here’s an excellent primer on power chords:

Open Chords

Sometimes called “cowboy chords” because of their widespread use in country music and related genres, these chords are nice for beginners because they tend to be easier on the fingers. The reason is that they are – as the name suggests – open, meaning some of the strings involved are played without holding down any frets.

If some of these chords sound familiar, you’re probably right: They’re used so much in popular music that you might hear the start of one of your favorite songs in them. With just a little bit of practice, you’ll be using these simple patterns to rock out on the same type of tunes that you hear on the radio every day.

E Major

e| 0
B| 0
G| 1
D| 2
A| 2
E| 0

This is a great open chord to start on – it has a nice full sound that’s probably quite familiar. Using the full range of the open strings, E major will help you get acquainted with the natural sound of your guitar.

Start with your middle finger on the first fret of the G string. Make sure you’re in the right place by checking that you’ve skipped over the top two strings. Now put your pinky one fret higher, on the second fret of the D string. To finish the chord, put your ring finger on the same fret, but one string down – on the second fret of the low E string. You can now play a beautiful and versatile open E major.

D Major

e| 2
B| 3
G| 2
D| 0
A| x
E| x

Place your middle finger on the second fret of the high E string, ring finger on the third fret of the B string, and index finger on the second fret of the G string. Make sure to strum the open D string for the full sound – your D string will provide the root of the chord that makes it sound complete.

G Major

e| 3
B| 3
G| 0
D| 0
A| 2
E| 3

Another full-bodied open chord that’s any musician’s staple, start your G major with the pinky finger on the third fret of the high E string and your ring finger on the third fret of the B string. Skipping two strings, put your index finger on the second fret of the A string and your middle finger on the third fret of the low E string.

C Major

e| 0
B| 1
G| 0
D| 2
A| 3
E| x

This one is a little tricky to wrap your fingers around at first, but once you get them all placed on the correct strings enough times, it becomes a fairly simple chord. What tends to trip people up is the string you have to skip rather than the ones you’re actually fretting; it’s helpful to keep this in mind so you naturally anticipate the extra space that’s needed.

Start with your index finger, placing it on the first fret of the B string. Next – and here’s where that skipped string comes in – put your ring finger on the second fret of the D string. Finally, get your ring finger all the way up to the third fret of the A string, and there you have it! Strum everything but the low E string and you’ll have yourself a beautiful open C major chord, as featured in countless songs from pop to folk to country.

Moving open chords up and down the fretboard doesn’t work in the same way as a power chord. However, with the simple addition of a guitar player’s best friend and secret weapon, a capo, you can use these same chord patterns anywhere on your guitar. A capo is just a special type of clamp that bars all your strings on any fret you want, and from there, you can use the same open chord finger positions to play any chord in any key you want. This is helpful when you need to play in a particular key to accommodate for vocal range but want to keep that same open feel.

Minor Adjustment

You’ve already learned some chords that can be easily modified to play their minor versions. The way to tell whether a chord is major or minor might be simpler than you think: If a chord sounds happy, it’s major, whereas the minor ones sound sad. As hinted at earlier, the relationship between major and minor chords lies in the third of the chord. To make a major chord minor, all you have to do is lower this note by a half-step. Let’s look at the easiest example of this.

E Minor

e| 0
B| 0
G| 0
D| 2
A| 2
E| 0

To lower the third, all you have to do is lift up the fret from the G string and play it open, making it even simpler to play. Once you start noticing where the third is in other chords, you’ll be able to switch between major and minor practically effortlessly.

Though it takes time and patience, it’s possible for anyone to learn the guitar. If you keep playing these chords regularly, you’ll eventually start to notice yourself improving. But most importantly, remember to have fun along the way, so that you’re motivated to pick up your instrument and play at every opportunity.

There are few things in life that match the excitement of purchasing and receiving your very first guitar. The world is open to possibilities of making sweet music and rocking your heart out!

At the same time, beginning to learn how to play the guitar can be overwhelming. It can be difficult to know where to begin. Diving in too deep in the beginning could set yourself up for frustration and disappointment. With a little guidance, however, learning to play guitar can be a fun and enjoyable experience.

So, what is the first thing to learn on guitar?

The First Thing to Learn on Guitar

Before you dig into learning chords or strumming patterns, true beginners will need to know all the parts of the guitar and some basic lingo you will encounter with various guitar learning resources.

Parts of the Guitar

Surprisingly, there are over 20 parts to a guitar! Don’t worry, you don’t need to memorize all the over 20 parts right away. For beginners, there are a few key parts to know the name of and understand their role in learning to play guitar.

Body.

The body is the largest and main part of the guitar. It houses the base for the strings to attach and is where your right hand will strum. An an acoustic guitar, the sound vibrates with the body of the guitar to produce the sound.

Neck.

The neck of the guitar is the longest piece of the guitar. This is where the left hand creates the chords or single notes.

Head Stock.
At the top of the neck, opposite the body, is the head stock. This is where the string attach to the guitar. The head stock is an important piece to learn because it is also how you tune the guitar.

Strings.

On a guitar there are six strings that attach to the head stock and the body of the guitar. Guitar strings typically have a steel metal core with some kind of coating.

Frets. Frets are the raised lines along the neck of the guitar. The frets help guide you to proper finger placements to make the variety of chords available on the guitar.

Learn to Tune the Guitar

Tuning is a critical component to learning to play the guitar. This should be a starting point for beginners before diving into learning chords, strumming patterns, or songs.

Standard Tuning for Guitar Strings

For the purpose of visualization, this explanation of tuning the guitar will start with the “first” (1st) string on the guitar. The first string is the highest tuned on the guitar and if you are looking at the neck of the guitar while holding the guitar, the first string is lowest and closest to the ground. The numbers of the strings go up from the bottom to the top, one through six.

Standard tuning for the guitar goes as follows:

1st String – E
2nd String – A
3rd String – D
4th String – G
5th String – B
6th String – E

The two E strings are an octave apart from each other.

The easiest way to learn to tune the guitar is with an electronic tuner. There are several types of tuners including handheld tuners, tuners that clip onto the stock head, and you can even find tuning apps on your phone (although these can sometimes not be as accurate). A solid tuner is a valuable investment for beginner guitar players.

You can tune a guitar by ear with a piano or pitch pipe, but that is a more advanced skill that can come later.

Basic Guitar Skills for Beginners

Once you have your guitar tuned correctly, it is time to dig into actually playing! You will want to get familiar with certain terms and techniques that you will build upon as you learn more about the guitar. The following are a few basic skills and terminology for beginner guitar players.

Strumming. Strumming on the guitar is traditionally done with the right hand on the body of the guitar. Strumming can be done with a pick (a triangle piece of equipment, usually plastic) or with your bare hands. When strumming, you are playing multiple strings and notes simultaneously to create a chord (more on that in a bit).

Strumming Pattern. The term strumming pattern refers to the rhythm and movements of the strums. These are created with various combinations of up and down motions with the strumming hand. Tackling strumming patterns can be a challenging part of learning to play guitar, but can be accomplished with dedicated practice.

Chords. As mentioned before, chords are the sounds of multiple complimentary notes being played simultaneously. Chords provide the fuller and more complex sound that you have come to love from the guitar.

Finger Placements. Finger placements with the left hand on the neck of the guitar is how players create chords on the instrument. Each finger placed on different parts of the neck will create different sounds. This is another challenging part of learning the guitar, but with practice you will find your muscles remember where to place your fingers. Before long, it becomes an almost automatic movement.

Picking. Picking the guitar, like strumming, can be done with a pick or bare hands. When picking the guitar, the player only plays one string at a time. This produces a single note, rather than an entire chord. Picking is the process that lead guitarists and soloists use create dramatic, moving melodies. Strumming is used more often for keeping rhythm in a song.

Basic Chords for Beginners

One of the easiest ways to burn yourself out when trying to learn guitar is to forget to have fun. Practicing chords and strumming patterns is important, but doing the technical exercises over and over can be brutally boring.

What can enhance the experience is to work towards learning songs at each level of your practice. Start with three to four chords to practice and then find a few songs that only use those chords. You will be pleasantly surprised just how many songs you can play with only a few chords.

Many professional guitar teachers agree that the four best chords for beginners to learn on guitar are:

  • E Minor (Em)
  • C Major (C)
  • G Major (G)
  • D Major (D)

There are literally thousands (maybe even millions) of songs that utilize these four chords. Practice making the finger placements and then moving between the different chords. Then find a song you like that uses those four chords and start learning it. Having entire songs you can play will be more motivating than running through just exercises.

Have a great time learning!

In any performances, you do not want your listener to cover their ears for you are playing loud with an out of tune guitar. Having a well-tuned guitar and an ability to tune your guitar by ear is very important. So let me give you some helpful tips on how to tune your guitar. Unless you have a “Perfect Pitched Ears” to tune your guitar, you need a Reference Pitch to be able to compare while tuning your instruments: a tuning fork, pitch pipe, piano, or another reliable-tuned instrument. We call it Relative Pitch ears, where you relate a pitch from another pitch.

By the way, tuning your instrument using a digital tuner (visual tuning) is a preferable way during live performances or for quick tuning. Using a digital tuner is another topic we can discuss in the next article.

Before you make any adjustment with your guitar, make sure you have a reference pitch. I used to carry in my gig bag a chromatic pitch pipe or a tuning fork. Now I use a digital clip-on tuner with my guitar, so I can tune it without making a loud sound on stage. The new digital tuner works by picking up the strings vibration and not from the sound signal input. My favorite clip-on tuner is made by D’Addario. It is smaller than Snark and snugs well on the headstock. I do not prefer Snark as I had broken many of them before because it sticks out on top of the headstock as compare to the D’Addario one.

You Need to Learn How to Tune Your Guitar By Ear

It is very important for any guitar player to know how to tune their guitar because you want to have a beautiful sound, not irritating to the listeners. I am not talking about the tone-quality of your guitar. I am talking about a well-tuned guitar, even the pitch intonation. You might say that it is difficult to tune your guitar because the strings are old and always get out of tune easily. Read these helpful articles. “ “How Often Do Professional Guitarists Change Strings?” and “What Happens When Guitar Strings Get Old”.

During your practice time, it is also a good habit to check the tuning of your guitar regularly so you are assured what you are practicing is in the correct song key, whether its a scale, chord or lick.

Tuning your guitar by ear also develops your hearing skill which makes you a better musician.

Guitar Standard Tuning E-A-D-G-B-E

When tuning a guitar, it is essential to know what are the notes of each open string of the guitar. A standard guitar has six strings. Even nowadays I’ve seen 7-strings, 8-strings or 9-strings guitar at the music stores. There is also a 12-string guitar which is very similar to the standard six strings guitar tuning but doubled each string, either in exact same pitch or an octave above or below.

1st string = E
2nd string = B
3rd string = G
4th string = D
5th string = A
6th string = E

The image shows you each note of the guitar strings. The 6th string (thickest) from the top of the guitar (not top of the image)  is tuned to E, 5th string is tuned to A, 4th string is tuned to D, 3rd string is tuned to G, 2nd string is tuned to B, then the 1st string is tuned to high E, which is the skinniest string below. You have to memorize the note name of each string. You will probably realize there are two E notes in the guitar strings. One pitch is either two octaves higher or lower than the other pitch.

Tuning Your Guitar

Using piano as the Reference Pitch, locate the middle C key. It is usually located in the middle, close to the keyhole in front of the piano. Now play the E note which is the third white key from middle C moving to the right. That E note is exactly the same pitch vibration as the 1st string (E) of the guitar. Adjust your 1st E string accordingly, either turning the tuning peg upward or downward. You may not get it 100% in tune during the first few times but tune it as close as you can. In time, you will get better tuning your guitar by ear.

Once you tune the 1st string (E), you are ready to move on to the 2nd string (B). Play the 1st string open E, then compare the fretted E note on the 2nd string (B). You can play at the same time or simultaneously, and see if they are in tune. They should exactly the same. Pay close attention to the pitch and the vibration.

Assuming you tuned the 2nd String B, move on to the 3rd string G. Do exactly the same process tuning the 2nd string but do it on the 3rd string. Look at the image. While tuning the 3rd string, you should be fretting a B note on the 3rd string 4th Fret position.

Continue the process of relative tuning. Play the open 3rd G string, then play the fretted 4th string in 5th position. Check the diagram.

The same process with the last two string 5th & 6th. Check the diagram below and tune as close as you can while listening to the quality of its vibration.

Another step is to check and see if the 1st and 6th strings are tuned in 2 octaves apart from each other. In that way, you are pretty close that your strings are all tuned. Play both E strings at the same time. Check the diagram.

Now play any chord progression. Play in the open position only (Open Chords), then play all barred chords only. Finally, combine both open and barred chords. Listen if there are any slight out of tuning while playing an open chord with a barred chord. For example, compare the open A chord and the A barre chord in 5th position. Sometimes you will see that the out of tuning is caused by how you are fretting the chords.

This may seem like a daunting process, but once you get the hang of it, you will be tuning your guitar in no time. Anyway, most likely you will end up getting a digital tuner that is either part of your pedal chain or a clip-on tuner. But tuning your guitar by ear is a great skill to develop, sharpening your ears.

Playing on Your Own

In the beginning, I mentioned about having a ‘Reference Pitch’ when tuning your guitar. However, if you do not have any reference pitch to relate or compare your strings’ sound, you can go ahead and tune your guitar based on whatever current pitch you have on your guitar. Chances are one of the strings is in tune, as most of the time, not all the strings are out of tune. You can apply the same process as I have described with the diagrams. But this way you are tuning your guitar and using the same guitar as your Reference Pitch.

Your guitar will still be in tune on its own, and ready to rock playing by your self, solo. Since it is only an approximation tuning process, it may not be similar or in tune with the standard tuning which is A440 MHz.

A Very Important Lesson I Learned

When I was attending music school, I had this embarrassing experience playing in an ensemble class on the first day. We were two guitar players, bass guitarist, piano player, drummer, and a saxophone player. In the middle of the first tune that we were playing, the professor stopped us and asked both guitar player to check our intonations or the tuning of our guitar.

I could not remember how my ensemble professor’s facial expression was, but I knew he was not happy about the two guitar players. So, the whole band had to stop playing to give us the opportunity to tune our instruments. Back then I do not have any digital tuner. We used the piano as the reference pitch. So I tuned my guitar first, asking the piano player who played me an “E” below the middle “C”. I started with the 6th string going all the way down to the 1st string, tuning it one string at a time. Having an assumption that my guitar was tuned, I played an open G chord, and it sounded horrible. I played a barred C chord at the 8th fret and it sounded worst.

All my classmate couldn’t help but laughed nonstop. I turned pale! So I paused and gave the other guitar player a chance to tune his guitar. The same process, he asked the piano player for a reference pitch. He said, “give me an A, any A-note”. Very cocky arrogant dude. I told myself, he must be a good player. I was watching how he tuned his guitar, almost same process as I did but he started from the first string. Afterward, he played the whole strings gently without fretting any chord. It sounded okay. Then he played a Cmaj7(9) chord, perhaps trying to impress us all, but it sounded so off and the professor asked him to tune his guitar again from the beginning but it was worst and he got very frustrated later on.

Our professor made a comment: “How many guitar players does it take to replace a light bulb having a guitar in one hand?” Everyone made each of their guessed answers and finally, the professor said, “NONE”. He added, “because none of them knows how to tune the guitar properly”. Honestly mean, but very true. Anyway, in the end, the professor helped us guitar players tuned our instrument by ears, using the piano with six reference pitches, that corresponds to the six-stringed guitar.

I and the other guitar player were so embarrassed. And it is still a fact these days, that guitar players are known for playing an out of tune guitar without being aware of it, especially the power chord players. Well, even if I know how to tune my guitar by ear now, I would prefer to tune any of my instrument using a precise digital tuner. There are lots of available App for your smartphone these days.

No matter how good of a player you are. If your guitar is out of tune, it will sound unpleasant. There might be an exemption to that. I knew some players or even great players like Jimi Hendrix, playing an out of tune guitar, but when he played it, he made it sound in tune. So now let’s talk about tuning the guitar by ears.

In any case, stay in tune with us and your guitar!

Pin It