Over the years, many alternative tunings have emerged. Sometime in the beginning of the next century, the tuning based on EADGBe was established. It's not clearly known when the first six-string guitar was built, but according to most sources it happened in the late 18th century. The slight asymmetry is once again because of pragmatic reasons in the sense of playability. The intervals of the open tones on the guitar are perfect fourths in five cases and major third in one case: This means that e on the 2nd octave, for example, has more bass sound than e on the 4th octave. For instance, why is the second e written in small letters when the rest is written as capitals? This is done to distinguish them: the second e (the highest string) is two octaves above the other. The names, or letters, of the guitar strings may confuse some. In other words, the cause for the arrangement of the tuning is pragmatic.Īs you may notice, it's easy to play open chords such as C, D, E, G, A, but to find open shapes near the nut for chords such as C#, D#, F#, G# and A# is much harder.

It makes it easier to play chords in the most common keys and it's also beneficial for playing scales, partly because the distance between the lowest and highest strings is two octaves. So why are e, a, d, g, b and e chosen to be standard for this instrument? It's plainly because it's suitable in many ways. E2 will therefore be the e tone on the second octave and so on. The numbers indicate which octave on the keyboard the tone should be played. The image below illustrates the relationships. Tuning to a keyboardĪ third way is to compare the tones from the guitar strings to references on the piano keyboard. The method can be quite difficult if you’re a beginner, but you can watch this video and listen to the notes and at the same time play the strings on your guitar and turn the tuning pegs until you get a similar sound. This can be done by playing on specific strings, for example the so-called 5th Fret Guitar Tuning Method, and get the right tune by comparing the sounds. If you have the option to choose among hertz frequencies, the recommended frequency is 440Hz.ġst string: A › A# › B › C › C# › D › D# › E ‹ F ‹ F# ‹ G ‹ G# ‹ A ‹ A# ‹ BĢnd string: D › D# › E › F › F# › G › G# › A ‹ A# ‹ B ‹ C ‹ C# ‹ D ‹ D# ‹ Eģrd string: G › G# › A › A# › B › C › C# › D ‹ D# ‹ E ‹ F ‹ F# ‹ G ‹ G# ‹ AĤth string: C › C# › D › D# › E › F › F# › G ‹ G# ‹ A ‹ A# ‹ B ‹ C ‹ C# ‹ Dĥth string: E › F › F# › G › G# › A › A# › B ‹ C ‹ C# ‹ D ‹ D# ‹ E ‹ F ‹ F#Ħth string: A › A# › B › C › C# › D › D# › E ‹ F ‹ F# ‹ G ‹ G# ‹ A ‹ A# ‹ B 2. For example, if the display on the electronic tuner indicates D# you should turn the peg away from you (counterclockwise) to reach E. To get a higher note, turn the pegs away from yourself and to get a lower note, turn the pegs towards you (assuming you have the guitar in your knee or in front of you). You probably need to adjust the tuning pegs until the correct tone is matched. Using an electronic tuner is the simplest approach since you only have to pick a string and the tuner indicates which tone it's.

Some guitars have a built-in electronic tuner, commonly placed on the side of the body.

The picture to the right shows an example of a tuner of that kind, Snark SN-5 Tuner (#CommissionsEarned). Nowadays, it has become popular with small electronic tuners that you can attach directly on the guitar head without a cable between. This is probably the easiest way, especially if you’re a beginner. Now that you know which tone each string should sound like, you should tune the guitar thereafter. The reason why the sixth string is written in small letters will be explained later. How you do it and why the guitar tuned in this particular way, are questions this article is trying to answer.ĮADGBe is read from left to right as from the lowest (thickest) string to the highest (thinnest). If you play guitar, you want your it to be tuned just like that (there are also alternate tunings, more about that later). This means that the notes from lowest to the highest strings sound as the tones e, a, d, g, b and e (see picture) and if you are using a elctronic tuner it's recommended that you use 440 Hz. The guitar is normally tuned EADGBe on the pitch standad A440, which is 440 Hz frequency.

E standard notes