In this exercise, we will tune the guitar to an open D major chord in just intonation, or a perfectly pure tuning. This should be good for students of any level to practice tuning their guitar. We will do this with our ears – do NOT use a commercial guitar tuner for this exercise. Once we are tuned up, the guitar will be suitable for single fret bar chords and modal scale passages.

Tune the 6th string, the lowest string, to D.

Tune the 5th string to A. You can tune the perfect fifth by ear, and use the harmonic at the 7th fret on your low D string to produce the A and check your accuracy. Try to listen to the high overtones produced when you pluck, and make sure there are zero waves or beating when both tones are played. When tuning, pluck the strings and let them ring – you really have to tune while the notes are ringing out in order to get them perfect. Just remember – pluck the string and let it ring!

Tune the 4th string to D. Try tuning by ear, and afterward checking it with the harmonic at the 12th fret on the low D string. Tune it absolutely pure, with no waves or beats.

Return to these three low strings and get them absolutely in tune. The tension adjustments you just made may have caused the strings to shift ever so slightly, which will cause a small amount of beating and ruin our pure tuning. Once you are satisfied, move on.

Tune the 3rd string to F#. The F# we want is the just major third from D – we CANNOT use the F# at the 4th fret of the 4th string, it will be too sharp. If experienced, you can tune this easily by ear, but if not, try to produce a nice clear harmonic just behind the 4th fret on the low D string to produce the pure, just intonation F# major third. This is the most difficult note to tune, so if you have trouble don’t worry too much. Tuning is an art and takes a lot of practice to get it right. If you think you’ve got it, the 3rd string tuned to the just major third should be a little flatter than your fretted F# that would be played at the 4th fret of the 3rd string.

Play each of the four strings we have tuned and listen for any unevenness, waves, or beating. Most likely you hear a little thing off, in which case you should go back and work on each string individually again.

Tune the 2nd string down to A. Use the harmonic at the 12th fret of the 5th string to produce the A. Your 5th string and 2nd string should be perfectly in tune, an octave apart.

Tune the 1st string down to D. Use the harmonic at the 12th fret of the 4th string, or the harmonic at the 5th fret of the 6th string to produce the high D harmonic. Your 6th string, 4th string, and 1st string should all be perfectly in tune, each one octave apart.

Check each string again, and try to isolate which string may be causing any beating. Once you have none, or are at least satisfied with what you’ve got, feel free to play around. You may notice that some fretted notes are out of tune, notably with the 3rd string tuned to F#.

I will say that it is impossible to get the guitar perfectly in tune, as there is a limit to what our ears can accomplish. Variations and inconsistencies in your instrument, especially if your strings are worn in, might make this obvious. The important thing is not being perfectly in tune, but being well in tune.

If you thought this was pretty easy, I’ll post another tuning exercise soon, this time tuning the guitar using a flat minor third, a flat minor seventh, and a pure flat tritone.