Standard Tuning on 6-String Guitar: Notes, Chords and How to Use It
Standard tuning is the home base of the six-string guitar. Almost every chord chart, tab, lesson and songbook you'll come across assumes you're in it, so getting it right and understanding how it's built pays off every single time you pick up the instrument. Once you see the simple pattern behind it, the fretboard stops looking like a random grid and starts making sense.
The Six Open Strings
An open string is a string played without pressing down any fret. In standard tuning, the open strings are:
- String 6 (the thickest one, nearest your chin): E
- String 5: A
- String 4: D
- String 3: G
- String 2: B
- String 1 (the thinnest one, nearest the floor): E
Notice both outer strings are E. The thin one is the same note as the thick one, just two octaves higher. An octave is the same note at a higher or lower pitch, like a man and a child singing the same tune.
Plenty of players remember the order with a phrase like Eddie Ate Dynamite, Good Bye Eddie. Silly, but it sticks.
How the Tuning Is Built
The distance between two notes is called an interval. On guitar, the smallest step is a half step, which is the distance of one fret. Most of standard tuning is built from one interval, the perfect 4th, which is five half steps, or five frets.
- E to A: perfect 4th
- A to D: perfect 4th
- D to G: perfect 4th
- G to B: major 3rd
- B to E: perfect 4th
A major 3rd is four half steps, so four frets. That one odd pair, between the G and B strings, is the quirk of standard tuning. It's there so common chords sit comfortably under your fingers. If every gap were a 4th, the two E strings wouldn't match and many familiar chord shapes would become awkward stretches.
Tuning Up, Step by Step
If your guitar has drifted, you can bring it back to standard tuning using only the guitar itself, once string 6 is right. Use a tuner or reference note for that low E, then work across:
- Press string 6 at fret 5. That's an A. Tune open string 5 until it matches.
- Press string 5 at fret 5. That's a D. Tune open string 4 to match.
- Press string 4 at fret 5. That's a G. Tune open string 3 to match.
- Press string 3 at fret 4, not 5. That's a B, because of the major 3rd gap. Tune open string 2 to match.
- Press string 2 at fret 5. That's an E. Tune open string 1 to match.
What to listen for: when two notes are slightly out, you'll hear a wobble, a sort of wah-wah-wah pulse. As you get closer, the wobble slows down. When it disappears and the two notes blend into one smooth tone, you're there. Always tune up to the note; if you're sharp, drop below and come back up, as the string holds its pitch better that way.
What You Hear When You Strum the Open Strings
Strum all six strings without fretting anything. You get E, A, D, G, B and E ringing together. It isn't a plain major or minor chord, so it sounds open, a little hanging and unresolved, like a question rather than an answer. That's the stacked 4ths doing their thing.
This is useful to know. Standard tuning isn't designed to sound finished on its own; it's designed to be neutral, so you can play in any key with roughly the same effort. That flexibility is exactly why it became the standard.
Still, the low open strings make great drones, notes you leave ringing underneath while you play other things on top. The open low E and A are the backbone of countless blues and rock riffs in the keys of E and A. Let that low E thump away while you play melody on the higher strings and you'll instantly hear why so many players love it.
How Chord and Scale Shapes Behave
Because most strings are a 4th apart, a shape that works on one pair of strings usually works on the next pair too. Move a pattern from strings 6 and 5 over to strings 5 and 4 and it sounds the same, just higher.
The exception is crossing the G to B gap. Since that gap is one fret smaller, any shape that crosses onto the B string has to shift up one fret to keep the same notes. This is why scale patterns look slightly bent in the middle, and why octave shapes change when they cross that line. Once you expect it, it stops catching you out.
For chords, standard tuning gives you the familiar open shapes that most songs are built on. A good first one is E minor: press string 5 at fret 2 and string 4 at fret 2, then strum all six strings. Every string rings, and it sounds full and dark, a great example of the open strings working with you.
A First Thing to Try
Play that E minor chord, then lift both fingers off and strum the open strings, then put them back. Go slowly between the two, listening to how the open sound feels unsettled and the E minor feels like coming home. Next, retune your guitar from scratch using the fifth-fret method, twice a day for a week. It sounds dull, but it trains your ears faster than almost anything else, and every song you learn afterwards will sound better for it.
More on the instrument itself: the 6-String Guitar guide.