How to Tune Your Acoustic Guitar

Even the best player sounds wrong on an out-of-tune guitar. Tuning takes less than a minute once you know how, and it's worth doing at the start of every practice session.

The six strings

In standard tuning, the strings from the thickest (closest to your face) to the thinnest are:

1. E (low E, the thickest)
2. A
3. D
4. G
5. B
6. E (high E, the thinnest)

A fun way to remember them is Eddie Ate Dynamite, Good Bye Eddie.

Which way to turn the pegs

Each string is wound around a tuning peg on the headstock.

• Tightening a string makes the note higher.
• Loosening a string makes the note lower.

Turn the peg slowly, a little at a time, while the string is ringing so you can hear the note change. Before you turn, follow the string with your finger up to its peg so you're sure you have the right one.

Tuning with a tuner

The quickest way is to use a tuner. Play one string at a time and watch the display:

• If it shows a note lower than you need, or the needle sits to the left, tighten the string.
• If it shows a note higher than you need, or the needle sits to the right, loosen it.
• When the needle is in the centre, that string is in tune. Move on to the next one.

Free toolOnline TunerA chromatic tuner that listens through your microphone, with guitar and ukulele string guides.

The fifth-fret trick

Once your low E string is in tune, you can tune the rest by ear. Press the low E string at the fifth fret and it plays an A. Now play the open A string. The two notes should sound the same. If they don't, turn the A string's peg until they match.

Repeat the same idea across the guitar:

• Fifth fret of the A string matches the open D string.
• Fifth fret of the D string matches the open G string.
• Fourth fret of the G string matches the open B string. This is the only odd one out!
• Fifth fret of the B string matches the open high E string.

Last updated 9 October 2026

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