How to Tune a Guitar (or a Ukulele) Without Guessing
An out-of-tune guitar is one of the most common reasons a beginner decides they are bad. The chord is right, the fingers are right, and it still sounds wrong, so they conclude the problem is them. It is almost never them. It is a string well out of tune, far enough off that the chord it sits in sounds sour, and the fix takes ninety seconds once you know what you are listening for.
This guide covers the string names, the tuner you should use, the mistakes that make tuning feel hard, and the two ways to tune with nothing but your ears. Ukulele players, your section is near the end, and most of the advice above it applies to you too.
The string names
Standard guitar tuning, from the thickest string (nearest your face when you hold the guitar) to the thinnest: E, A, D, G, B, E. The two E strings are two octaves apart. Players remember it with a sentence: Eddie Ate Dynamite, Good Bye Eddie.
The thickest string is called the sixth string, the thinnest is the first. That trips up beginners constantly, because the first string is the one furthest from you. Tabs and teachers count from the thin string up.
The whole rest of learning guitar depends on these six names being automatic, because every chord chart and every conversation with a teacher uses them. Our guide to the five chords every beginner learns assumes them from the first line.
Use a tuner, and use the right kind
Tune by ear later. Tune with a tuner now. Most beginners cannot yet hear pitch finely enough to tune reliably, and playing on an instrument that is close but not right teaches the ear to accept close. Use a tuner while your ear develops, and once you do start tuning by ear, check the result against the tuner, which is what the fifth-fret section below advises.
A clip-on tuner attaches to the headstock and reads the vibration of the wood, so it ignores the television and the dishwasher. It is the right choice for acoustic guitar and ukulele, and it costs less than one lesson.
A phone app listens through the microphone. Fine in a quiet room, unreliable in a noisy one, and it will sometimes lock onto an overtone and tell you the string is a note it is not. If you use an app, tune in silence and read the letter, not only the needle.
A pedal tuner is what electric players use on stage. Accurate, silent, unnecessary until you are plugged in.
Whatever you use, set it to chromatic mode if it has one. Chromatic tuners tell you the nearest note to whatever you play; guitar mode only knows the six standard notes and will confidently misidentify a string that is a long way off.
The method
Pluck one string, cleanly, once. Let it ring. Watch the tuner settle, and read two things: the letter and the direction. The letter should be the string’s name. The needle, or the light, tells you whether you are below it (flat) or above it (sharp).
Turn the tuning peg a small amount. On a guitar, turning the peg so the string gets tighter raises the pitch; looser lowers it. Which direction that is on the peg depends on which side of the headstock it sits, so watch the tuner rather than memorizing a direction.
Always tune up to the note. If the string is sharp, drop it below the target and then bring it up. Coming up to the note takes up the slack around the tuner post and the backlash in the gears, so the string settles where you leave it. A string brought down onto the note leaves that slack in the system, and it is the one more likely to move once you start playing.
Pluck again, read again, adjust again. When the tuner sits on the note with the needle centered, move to the next string. Then go back to the first string and check it; on a guitar, tightening the later strings changes the tension across the neck and pulls the earlier ones slightly flat.
The mistakes that make tuning feel hard
Tuning the wrong string. The tuner says D and you are turning the peg for the G string. Everyone does this in the first month. Say the string name out loud before you touch a peg, and follow the string with your eye from the bridge to the peg.
Being an octave off. The tuner reads E, so you keep going, and the string gets tighter and tighter and then snaps. If the string is far tighter or looser than its neighbors, stop. Most tuners do not show which octave you are in, and one that does is easy to misread. A sixth string at pitch is thick and slack enough to move noticeably; a first string at pitch is taut and bright.
New strings. Fresh strings stretch for a day or two and go flat every few minutes. After you fit them, tune up, then gently pull each string away from the fretboard an inch, retune, and repeat until it holds.
A sticking nut. If a string jumps in pitch as you tune, with a small ping, it is catching in the nut slot. A dab of pencil graphite in the slot fixes it.
Tuning with a capo on. A capo bends the strings slightly sharp. Tune with it off, put it on, and then touch up only if something sounds wrong.
Old strings. Strings that are months old go dead and refuse to sit in tune between frets. If the open string is in tune and every chord still sounds sour, change the strings. Coated strings last longer; uncoated sound brighter and die faster.
Tuning by ear: the fifth-fret method
Once your ear is developing, learn this, because there will be a day the tuner battery is dead. Tune the sixth string to something reliable first (a piano, a tuner, a recording). Then:
- Press the sixth string at the fifth fret. That note is A. Tune the open fifth string to match it.
- Press the fifth string at the fifth fret. That is D. Tune the open fourth string to it.
- Press the fourth string at the fifth fret. That is G. Tune the open third string to it.
- Press the third string at the fourth fret, not the fifth. That is B. Tune the open second string to it.
- Press the second string at the fifth fret. That is E. Tune the open first string to it.
Listen for the beating, the slow wobble you hear when two notes are almost but not quite the same. As you turn the peg the wobble slows and then disappears. That moment is in tune.
Harmonics are a quieter, cleaner way to hear the same comparison. Touch the string lightly over the fret wire without pressing, pluck, and lift your finger. The fifth-fret harmonic on the sixth string matches the seventh-fret harmonic on the fifth string; the same pair works from the fifth string to the fourth and from the fourth to the third. The third-to-second pair is the exception, exactly as it was with fretted notes: match the open second string to the seventh-fret harmonic on the sixth string instead, since both are B. Then the fifth-fret harmonic on the second string matches the seventh-fret harmonic on the first. When two chimes are in tune the wavering between them slows and stops. Check the result against a tuner the first few times; harmonics are a good ear method, not a replacement for one. A teacher can show you this in five minutes, and it is one of the small skills that makes the difference between playing and fumbling. Our guide to the fretting hand covers the light touch that harmonics need.
Ukulele
A standard ukulele (soprano, concert or tenor) is tuned G, C, E, A from the string nearest your face to the string nearest the floor. Remember it as My Dog Has Fleas, sung on the four notes.
The odd part is that the G string is tuned high, above the C. This is called reentrant tuning and it is why a ukulele strum sounds so bright: the strings do not go low to high in order. Do not fight it, and do not let a tuner app in guitar mode tell you the G is wrong.
Ukuleles go out of tune more than guitars because nylon strings stretch more, and a brand-new ukulele can take a week to settle. Retune every time you pick it up for the first month. Friction pegs, the ones that push straight into the headstock, are harder to tune finely than geared tuners. If yours slip, tighten the screw on the peg’s end a quarter turn.
Clip-on tuners work perfectly on ukulele. Set to chromatic, tune up to the note, check all four again at the end. Our guide to online ukulele lessons for beginners covers what comes after the instrument is in tune. Once it holds, our guide to easy ukulele songs sorted by skill gives you one- and two-chord songs to play on it.
When it still sounds wrong
If every open string reads in tune and a chord still sounds off, three things remain. The first is the fretting hand: pressing too hard behind the fret bends the note sharp. The fix is to press only as hard as it takes for the note to ring clean, then watch the tuner while you hold the chord. Our guide to the fretting hand shows how little pressure that is, and our beginner guitar tips cover the practice habits that make the lighter touch stick. The second is intonation, which is the instrument’s own setup; if the twelfth-fret harmonic and the twelfth-fret fretted note do not match, the guitar needs a technician, not a tuner. The third is that the chord is wrong, which is what reading guitar tabs will settle in a minute.
Tuning is one of the first things a teacher checks in a trial lesson, because it is the fastest way to tell whether someone has been practicing on an instrument that was fighting them. The debate about teaching yourself versus taking lessons is usually decided by small things like this: a teacher catches in one lesson what a self-taught player spends a season not knowing.
How to Find a Guitar Teacher on Tunelark
Tunelark connects you with deeply vetted guitar and ukulele teachers who teach online. Vetting is run by working musicians and music teachers, not a general recruiter, and every teacher sets their own rate and shows it on their profile. Scheduling, billing and support are handled for you.
- Browse guitar and ukulele teachers at tunelark.com/find-a-teacher.
- Read bios for beginners and the style you want to play.
- Book a trial lesson at $25 off the teacher’s 30-minute rate, and tune up before it starts.
- Ask yourself afterward whether the teacher noticed anything about your instrument that you had not.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are the notes of the guitar strings?
From thickest to thinnest: E, A, D, G, B, E. The thickest string is the sixth string; the thinnest is the first.
What is the best way to tune a guitar for a beginner?
A clip-on chromatic tuner. It reads the vibration of the instrument rather than the room, costs less than a lesson, and removes the guesswork while your ear develops.
Why does my guitar go out of tune so fast?
New strings that have not stretched, old strings that have died, a string catching in the nut, or tuning down to the note instead of up to it. Fresh strings need a day; everything else is a two-minute fix.
How is a ukulele tuned?
G, C, E, A from the string nearest your face, with the G tuned high, above the C. That reentrant tuning is normal and is what gives the ukulele its bright sound.
Can I tune a guitar without a tuner?
Yes, once your ear is ready. Tune the sixth string to a reference, then match each open string to the fifth fret of the string above it, except the second string, which matches the fourth fret of the third string.
Looking for an online guitar teacher? See our full Online Guitar and Bass Lessons page for everything you need to know about getting started.
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About Jennifer Heath
I'm Jennifer Heath, VP of Operations at Tunelark and a lifelong singer. I joined the company in 2020 and oversee much of what makes Tunelark work for students and teachers: hiring, training and supporting our instructors, student support, marketing and day-to-day operations. I started voice lessons at 7 and sang with touring choirs through my teens. Music belongs in every life, for the self-expression, the discipline, the comfort and the simple joy of it.
