Online Guitar Tuner

Here's an online guitar tuner you can use to tune-up any type of guitar, whether acoustic or electric. Learn about non-standard tunings below.

The flash file below is set to standard tuning of A=440hz. Just click on the machine heads to hear the sound of the required notes.

For beginners, tuning up by ear like this is an excellent way to train yourself in pitch recognition.

As a guitar teacher, I regularly meet new students who can't tune-up at all. They just can't tell if two pitches are identical. It's as if they are not hearing a note at all, but just a sound.

If you have this problem, keep trying but don't get upset about it, just get someone else to tune it for you in the early days.

Meanwhile, buy yourself a top quality electronic guitar tuner, available from any good music store and use that. Why top quality? Because some cheap tuners can only tune the string exactly if it is already close to being in tune. If it's way out, forget it!

Within a few weeks, you will be able to tell the difference in note pitches.

This ability is crucial in guitar playing as you will also need it for string-bending and improvising, not just for tuning.

You can also experiment with other tunings but you will have to re-learn some of the basic scale and chord shapes due to the notes now being in different places on the fretboard.

These are some of the most common non-standard tunings used for guitar:

Follow the links to see the other online guitar tuners.

Lower Tunings

First the Lower Tunings where all the string pitches are lowered by the same amount. Heavier gauge strings may be required for these tunings: It depends on the thickness of the strings you normally use.

Get some advice from a guitar tech if you're not sure of what you are doing.

Eb Tuning = Eb Ab Db Gb Bb Eb

D Tuning = D G C F A D

Dropped Tunings

With this tuning, the 6th strings are 2 frets lower than the rest. Thicker gauge strings may also be required for these tunings, especially on the 6th string.

Drop D Tuning = D A D G B E

Drop C Tuning = C G C F A D

Chord Tunings

These are handy for slide guitar as the open notes form a chord that can be slid up or down the neck by fretting all six strings with a bottle-neck.

Some strings are tuned up, some down, so get advice from a guitar tech before doing anything drastic.

Too much string tension can warp the neck of the guitar!

Open E Tuning = E B E G# B E

Open G Tuning = D G D G B D

Open A tuning = E A E A C# E

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