If you’re like most people, you probably use a guitar tuner to keep your instrument in tune. But what if you don’t have one? Or if you just don’t want to buy one? There are a few ways to tune your guitar without a tuner. The first is to use a metronome. This is a small, electronic device that you can place near the strings of your guitar so that it can keep track of how often they’re played. You can also use an earphone and listen to the sound of the strings while you play. The second way is to use an app on your phone or computer. These apps let you tune your guitar using different intervals and scales. The third way is to use a set of earrings or other jewelry that has small tuning pegs on it. You put these pegs in different places on the strings of your guitar and then play them back together so that they sound like notes being played by the instrument itself. The fourth way is to use a set of headphones and listen to the sound of the strings through them. This way, you won’t have any noise interference from other people or things around you while you’re playing.
How to Find Google Guitar Tuner
To access the Google tuner, start by opening your browser. We tested using both Safari and Chrome. Navigate to the Google search page, type google guitar tuner into the search bar, and click or tap the search button. This applet should appear at the top of the search results.
In our testing, simply typing “guitar tuner” did not invoke the applet. This is different from other applets, such as the Google Calculator, which will appear at the top of search results even if you only search for “calculator.”
How to Use Google Tuner
Before using Google Guitar Tuner, you’ll have to give the website microphone permissions. You’ll see the message “Press Mic to Begin Tuning.” Tap or click on the microphone icon.
You should see a popup asking for permission to use your microphone. Select “Allow” to proceed.
You should now see a message in the Google tuner that says “Listening,” which means the app is ready to help you tune your guitar.
Play the open string you want to choose, and the tuner will show what note it’s currently tuned to. In this case, we’re tuning the low E string (in EADGBE standard tuning), and the Google Guitar Tuner shows we’re a little off from there. If you’re using overdrive or distortion, turn it off for better results.
Tune the string higher or lower as needed until the tuner shows you’re on the right note with a green arrow.
Keep in mind that the Google tuner is a chromatic tuner. In other words, it will tune to any note in Western music notation. At the time of writing, there’s no option to set it to specific guitar tunings, so you’ll have to know which note you want to tune and whether it’s higher or lower than the currently displayed note.
How Accurate Is Google Guitar Tuner?
You may wonder if you can trust the Google tuner to tune accurately. In practice, the microphone quality in your device might affect how accurate the tuner app is. But since it’s listening for a simple frequency, it should work correctly on just about any device.
We used Google Tuner alongside the popular GuitarTuna app, the built-in tuner in an acoustic guitar, and an integrated tuner in a multi-effects pedal. They all returned precisely the same result as Google’s tuner applet, so we’re confident it will work well enough for all but the most discerning musicians.
Once you’ve got your guitar in tune, why not put the word “metronome” into Google for their metronome applet? It’s the perfect tool to practice your scales, and like Google Guitar Tuner, it’s entirely free to use.
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