It is very important to keep your guitar in tuner two reasons:

So you sound good

To train your ears

Your guitar has six strings and we count down from the thickest string to the thinnest string which can sometimes be a bit confusing because your thickest string is the one closest to you yet we class that as the 6th string not the first! The thick string is the closest to you and has the lowest pitch sound and the thinnest string is the one closest to the floor and has the highest pitch tone.

6 E
5 A

4 D

3 G

2 B 

1 E

Heres an acronym I like in order to remember the guitar strings: Elephants And Donkeys Grow Big Ears

The easiest way to tune your guitar before your guitar lesson is by using a digital guitar tuner. If you do not already own a guitar tuner I recommend purchasing one because your time in the guitar lesson is precious and tuning the guitar is the last thing you want to be doing in your half hour guitar lesson.

Your guitar tuner should automatically pick up which string you are tuning, if however the guitar tuner displays a note other than the note you are expecting (for example) you are tuning the A string and it says B your guitar might be too high in pitch. Equally if the tuner displays a G and you are tuning the A you might be too low in pitch.

The chromatic scale of music runs from A – G having sharp or flat notes in between. For the purpose of this guitar lesson we do not need to concern ourselves with this. 

When you are turning the tuning pegs the strings will move higher or Lower pitch depending on the direction you turn them. An easy way to determine which way to turn is to pluck the string and whilst the string is ringing, turn the tuning peg until the display is in the centre of the tuner if the needle is to the right you will need to lower the pitch and if the needle is to the left you will need to raise the pitch of the string. 

On most tuners when you reach your desired pitch the display will flash green. If I can be of any more help or to book in for a free no obligation guitar lesson please contact me here