The strings of the guitar are denoted to a specific pitch or sound (we often call them musical notes), hence the guitar is designed and persuaded in such a way that the strings need to sound exactly in their designated perfect pitch. 

With time and weather conditions, the string sometimes loses its tension and sounds up or down the pitch, so we loosen or tighten the strings to get that desired tension, this phenomenon is called tuning of the guitar. 

There can be multiple ways we can tune the guitar, in this blog we will look into the different methods we can adopt. Learning to tune the guitar properly is crucial in the learning path, the same method can be used to tune other string instruments like bass, ukulele, mandolin, etc. One can also refer to their teachers to avoid any confusion and understand the concept properly. 

You can tune your guitar in the following ways:

1. Using a physical headstock clip-on tuner that works based on the vibration of the instrument.

The physical tuner is attached to the head of the guitar and it works with the vibration of the strings. From bottom to top the strings are named EBGDAE. Once the tuner is placed in the head of the guitar, the task here is to play the particular string and match it with the assigned note. For example, if you want to tune the third string from the bottom, you have to tune it to the G note and hence you have to get G in the display, the string can be tuned up and down by rotating the tuner pegs to the desired note.

2. Tuner application on any smartphone:

Just like the physical tuner, in the tuner app, you have to open it on the smartphone and allow all the required permissions. The application recognizes the sound you are playing on the guitar to tell if the guitar is tuned or not. You have to play the specific string and turn the tuning pegs up and down to match the pitch of the required note of the string. The process is also the same for tuners that are attached to the body. 

3. The tuner that comes attached to the body of the guitar body:

Think of the tuner attached to the body of the guitar as the clip-on tuner, you just have to turn the tuner on and tune the strings by turning the tuning knobs up or down. 

4. The tuner software on the Spardha portal:

To access the tuner application on the Spardha portal,  the student has to go to the left panel of the home screen to find the option ‘Music Tools’ and then click on ‘Guitar Tuner’. The process of tuning the guitar is the same, you have to tune the respective strings with the notes. 

If you are not a student at Spardha, you can still access the Guitar Tuner on the Spardha Website. Go to Resources on the top menu, click Tools, and then select Guitar Tuner. For further guidance, check out this simple video tutorial or read this blog on tuning the ukulele.

Written by
Turja Das Gupta
Guitar SME