Aside from playing music, you should also know how to tune your guitar if you want to become a better guitarist. This is an important skill to develop, especially if you are serious about guitar playing. Knowing how to tune your guitar is just as important as playing the chords of musical pieces correctly, because you can’t play the music properly if the guitar is out of tune.
One way to tune your guitar is by using the fifth fret method. Taking the meaning from the name, we will be learning to tune your guitar by primarily using the fifth fret of your guitar. “But how am I going to do that?”, you ask. Read on and find out!
Tune Your Guitar – Follow the Steps
Step 1: Make sure that your 6th (lower E) string is in tune
For this step to tune your guitar, you will need either a digital tuner or another instrument (like a piano or another guitar) to check if your sixth string is in tune. If you have a piano available, go and play the E note found in the middle octave (for standard tuning purposes). Adjust the sixth string’s tuning until its sound matches that of the piano note. If you are using another guitar, simply pick the sixth string of the guitar that is tune and then turn your own guitar’s sixth string until their sounds match.
If there are no other instruments available to tune your guitar with, you might want to use a digital tuner – this nifty little device is readily available in any guitar shop. You simply need to turn the device on, and then pick the string – when you do this, you will notice a light moving across the tuner. Keep adjusting the string and picking it, and then when the light stops and stays steady in the middle, you can stop adjusting the string already because it is already in tune.
Step 2: Go to the 5th fret
Why the 5th fret to tune your guitar? It is because when you press down on the fifth fret of the sixth string and you play it, and then you play the fifth string open (meaning you are not pressing down on any notes), they sound the same. The same principle applies when you press down on the fifth fret of the fifth string and then you play it, and then you play the fourth string open, and so on and so forth. This is the reason it is called the fifth fret method. This is also sometimes known as the relative tuning method to tune your guitar, because the tuning of the strings is relative to the tune of the string above it.
You now have your sixth string (E) tuned, so we can proceed to tune your guitar. If you have been paying close attention, you will notice that the next step has already been explained above. What you have to do to tune your guitar is to press on the fifth fret of the sixth string, pick this string, and then pick the fifth string. Adjust your fifth string (A) and play it until it matches the sound of the sixth string with the fifth fret pressed down. Do the same with the rest of the strings. When you are done tuning the fifth string, press down on the fifth fret, pick that string, and then play the fourth string open. Adjust the fourth string (D); pick the string to hear if it sounds the same as the fifth string. Do the same with the fourth string – press down on the fifth fret, then play the note. Adjust the third string (G) until it sounds the same as the fourth string with the fifth fret pressed down. When you get to the second string (B), instead of pressing down on the fifth fret of the G string, press down on the fourth fret, and then proceed with tuning as before. That leaves us with only the first string – go back to the fifth fret now of the second string, press down on it, and base the tune of the first string on that. When you have done all of this, you are almost done tuning your guitar.
Step 3: Double check
This is actually just a safety measure, in case you really want to be sure that you get to tune your guitar properly. You can check that you tune your guitar in the right way by playing another guitar that is in tune (similar to the suggestion when tuning the sixth string).
Tune Your Guitar – Train Your Ears!
To tune your guitar using the fifth fret method takes some getting used to. You will have to train your ears to be really sensitive to the sound of each note. Keep practicing, because the more your ears get used to the sound of a tuned guitar, the more you will be able to tune your guitar with ease.