How to Tune a Guitar? What is Alternative Tuning?

For many beginner guitarists, the excitement of picking up their instrument often overshadows one crucial step: tuning the guitar. Proper tuning is essential to achieving the harmonious and beautiful sound every guitarist strives for. Let’s walk through the basics of tuning your guitar and explore the world of alternative tunings.

1. Why is Tuning Important?

A guitar is a stringed instrument that produces sound through the vibration of its strings. These strings are stretched over tuning pegs located on the guitar’s headstock. When the tension of a string is too high or too low, the pitch will shift out of tune, leading to unpleasant and dissonant sounds.

For your guitar to produce clean and harmonious tones, each string must vibrate at the correct pitch. If your guitar starts sounding “off,” it’s time to check the tuning!

2. When Should You Tune Your Guitar?

Here are some common situations when tuning is necessary:

When you first purchase a new guitar: Strings on new guitars often lose tension due to transportation or storage.
After an extended period of non-use: Strings lose tension over time, especially in inconsistent temperature or humidity conditions.
Before performances: Even the smallest pitch deviations can affect how your performance sounds.

In general, it’s good practice to tune your guitar every 2–3 days, even if you don’t notice any obvious pitch changes. Regular tuning prevents strings from straying too far from their standard pitch, which could make adjusting them more difficult later. Prolonged out-of-tune strings may also damage the guitar's neck or lead to string breakage.

3. Tools for Tuning

You’ll need tuning tools to ensure accuracy. Here are the two most commonly used options:

Tuning Device (Clip-On Tuners): A clip-on tuner attaches to the guitar’s headstock and detects the vibration of the strings to determine pitch. These tuners are precise and unaffected by background noise, making them ideal for most situations. However, they require button cell batteries and are small enough to be easily misplaced.
Tuning Apps: Many smartphone apps now function as tuners, offering convenience and portability. Most are free and sufficient for standard tuning. However, they can struggle to provide accurate readings in noisy environments. Additionally, advanced features, such as support for alternative tunings, may require in-app purchases.

4. What is Alternative Tuning?

Alternative tuning, or special tuning, refers to adjusting the standard pitch of one or more strings to achieve a specific effect. This is often used to accommodate unique playing techniques or to simplify complex fingerings. Alternative tuning can be divided into two main types:

1) Modified Tuning

Modified tuning involves altering the pitch of specific strings while keeping others in standard tuning. This adjustment often simplifies chord shapes or makes certain musical passages easier to play.

For example, if a song frequently requires fretting the 2nd string at the 1st fret and the 1st string at the 5th fret, the large stretch can lead to mistakes. By lowering the 1st string’s pitch by a whole step, you can play the same passage by simply fretting the 1st string at the 3rd fret instead. While this simplifies fingerwork, it might alter other chords’ shapes, so such tunings must suit the specific piece.

A good example of modified tuning is Kotaro Oshio’s fingerstyle piece “Ryūsei (Shooting Star),” which requires adjustments to specific strings for accurate performance.

2) Open Tuning

Open tuning involves retuning all six strings so that when played open (without pressing any frets), they produce a specific chord. One popular example is Open D tuning (DADF#AD). In this tuning, strumming the strings without fretting produces a D major chord.

Open tunings are frequently used in fingerstyle guitar and slide guitar. A well-known example is Kotaro Oshio’s piece “Kiseki no Yama (Miracle Mountain),” which uses Open D tuning.

Alternative Methods with Capos

For some alternative tunings, you don’t need to manually adjust the tension of all strings. Instead, you can use a partial capo to alter the pitch of specific strings while leaving others unaffected. For instance, in Chen Liang’s fingerstyle arrangement of “Untitled,” a partial capo clamps the 4th fret of strings 2–6, leaving the 1st string untouched. This achieves the desired sound while preserving standard tuning.

5. Common Alternative Tunings: A Quick Tip

While playing guitar tabs, you may come across instructions like “tune down a half step.” This is often done to match the original song’s key or to accommodate specific fingering arrangements.

Here’s how you can achieve drop tunings:

Step 1: Attach a capo to the 1st fret.
Step 2: Use a tuner to retune all strings to standard pitch, but relative to the capo.
Step 3: Remove the capo. Your guitar will now be down-tuned by a half step (Eb Ab Db Gb Bb eb).

For full-step down tuning, place the capo on the 2nd fret and follow the same process.

Tuning your guitar correctly not only improves your sound but also extends the life of your instrument. By understanding standard tuning and experimenting with alternative tunings, you can explore a wider variety of musical styles and techniques. Keep your guitar in tune, and let your creativity take the lead! 🎸