Tuning a guitar, to what pitch does my guitar need to be tuned to?

Why do I need to tune my guitar?

Most instruments change pitch over time, change in temperature, humidity and because the strings get stretched. An instrument is usually tuned in fifths or fourths, so when there's one or more string out of tune, it will sound dissonant.

How do you tune a guitar?

A guitar is tuned by turning the tuning-heads on the head of the guitar. You can tune a guitar with help of a tuner or by ear. When you want to tune the guitar, you also need to know to what pitch you are going to tune the guitar. The standard tuning is E – B – G – D – A – E  (bottom to top, thin to thick). You can remember this tuning with the following acronyms: 

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How do you tune a guitar by ear?

You can tune your guitar using a reference tone. Is easy to use a string of your guitar as a tone of reference, although you have to be really sure that string is in tune (!). For example, use the lower E string to tune your A string. For standard tuning (E-B-G-D-A-E) press the 5th fret on the lower E string and your A string open to check if the pitches match. The B string is the odd one out, because you need to push the 4th fret of you G string to see if it's in tune. You can use the list below as a reference:

• Tuning the A string: Press the 5th fret of your lower E string
• Tuning the D string: Press the 5th fret of your A string
• Tuning the G string: Press the 5th fret of your D string
• Tuning the B string: Press the 4th fret of your G string
• Tuning the higher E string: Press the 5th fret of your B string

Read more: Are you going to buy a guitar tuner? Read here on where you should pay attention to [Tuners starting at €10,-]