Guitar Tunings

Guitar tunings assign pitches to the open strings of guitars. Tunings can be described by the particular pitches that are denoted by notes in Western music. By convention, the notes are ordered from lowest to highest. This article describes the standard tuning used by the majority of guitarists, and also alternative tunings.

The phrase "guitar tuning" also refers to the adjusting of the string-pitches to their desired tuning, which is described in how-to manuals for guitarists.

The standard tuning defines the string pitches as E, A, D, G, B, and E, from lowest (low E) to highest (high E). Standard tuning is used by most guitarists, and frequently used tunings can be understood as variations on standard tuning.

Nonstandard tunings are also called "alternative" or "alternate". Some tunings are used for particular songs by professional musicians, and may be called after the song's title. There are hundreds of such tunings, which are often minor variants of established tunings. Fewer alternative tunings are used regularly by communities of guitarists, who share a musical tradition.

The hundreds of alternative tunings have been classified into a smaller number of categories: open, both major and minor (crossnote), and modal; dropped; instrumental (based on other stringed instruments); and regular. Modal, dropped, and many other tunings are mentioned in the supplementary list of guitar tunings.