Open E tuner: E B E G# B E, free, with your mic

This is a free online guitar tuner, already set to Open E. The strings become E B E G# B E, so the open strings ring out an E major chord. Three strings move, and unlike most open tunings, all three go up. Press Start, tap the button of the string you are tuning, play it, and tighten until the reading sits at 0 cents. Open D, Open G and standard are in the menu above the tuner. No account, no download. It sits alongside the rest of our free guitar tools.

What Open E tuning is

An open tuning is one where the open strings already form a chord. Open E is built on E major, and reads E B E G# B E from the thickest string to the thinnest. Strum all six without fretting anything and you hear a full, bright E chord.

The chord is complete and in root position. E is the root, G# the major third, B the fifth, and the lowest string is the root itself. That is the same layout as Open D, one whole step higher: the intervals between the strings are identical, so anything you know in one works in the other.

The third string is the one that decides the color. G# is the third of the chord, so that single half step is what makes the tuning major. The tuner writes it G#, never Ab: this preset names notes with sharps.

The reference pitch menu offers A at 432, 440 and 442 Hz, and opens on 440, which is what the frequencies above assume. Change it and all six targets move together.

Open E raises the tension: what that means

Most open tunings get there by loosening strings. Open D lowers four, Open G lowers three. Open E, like its cousin Open A, does the opposite: the fifth and fourth strings go up a whole step and the third goes up a half step, so the guitar ends up holding more total pull than it was set up for.

How much more is not a guess. On the same string at the same scale length, tension rises with the square of the pitch. A whole step up means about 26 percent more tension on that string; a half step up, about 12 percent. Three strings carrying that extra load is well within what a sound guitar is built for, but it is not nothing, and it is worth knowing before you start turning pegs.

• On a solid electric or a modern acoustic, go ahead. Plenty of players keep a guitar in Open E full time.
• On an old or lightly built acoustic, or a guitar whose neck or bridge already worries you, take the gentler route below and leave the tension alone.
• Bring the strings up slowly. A string tightened past its target is the one that snaps. Turn a little, pluck, read, turn again.
• Recheck the setup if you stay. More pull bows the neck a little more. If the action creeps up after a few days in Open E, that is why.

How to tune to Open E from standard

Start from an accurate standard tuning. Then work on the three strings that move, and let the tuner guide each one up rather than guessing from the string next to it.

1. Press Start and allow the microphone. The tuner is already on Open E.
2. Tap the button for the fifth string, B2. You hear its note, and the tuner now aims at that string. This matters: in automatic mode the tuner only locks onto a string within a little less than a whole step, so an A a full step under B would otherwise be read as just an A.
3. Play the string and tighten slowly. The message tells you whether to tighten or loosen. Stop at 0 cents.
4. Do the same for the fourth string, E3, then the third, G#3. The third only moves a half step, so it is quick.
5. Go round all six strings a second time. Raising three strings pulls the neck forward a little, and the others drift while you work.

There is an ear check for each step, useful when you have no tuner at hand. In Open E the gaps between strings are 7, 5, 4, 3 and 5 frets, reading upwards. The seventh fret of the sixth string gives the open fifth, the fifth fret of the fifth gives the open fourth, the fourth fret of the fourth gives the open third, the third fret of the third gives the open second, and the fifth fret of the second gives the open first.

Some players use Open E a half step lower, Eb Bb Eb G Bb Eb, to match a singer or a recording. There is no preset for that variant, and this page will not pretend the Open E preset handles it: its targets stay on Open E.

Chords in Open E: one finger across the neck

Because the open strings are an E major chord with the root at the bottom, laying one finger flat across all six strings at any fret gives you another major chord, in tune and in root position. The chord moves up one half step per fret.

1. Open strings, nothing held down: E major.
2. Barre the second fret: F# major.
3. Barre the fifth fret: A major.
4. Barre the seventh fret: B major.
5. Barre the twelfth fret: E major again, an octave up.

E at the open strings, A at the fifth fret and B at the seventh: those are the three chords of a blues in E, and you can play the whole form with one finger.

Minor chords need one adjustment. The third of the chord sits on the third string, so to make a barre minor you fret that string one fret below the barre. Barre the fifth fret for A major, put the third string at the fourth fret, and you have A minor. The open position is the exception: there is no fret below the open strings, so E minor is the one chord you cannot reach this way.

The same string gives you a suspended chord. Fret the third string one fret above the barre and the third becomes a fourth: in the open position, the first fret of the third string turns G# into A, and E becomes Esus4. Let it fall back to the barre and you hear the suspension resolve.

These diagrams are drawn for Open E, not for standard tuning. Read the open strings as E B E G# B E: the same shapes in standard would give different chords.

Slide guitar in Open E

A slide is a straight bar, so it can only play what a straight line across the strings gives you. In Open E that line is a major chord at every fret, and the brightness of the tuning helps the slide cut through. That combination is why Open E is so closely tied to electric slide blues and Southern rock.

• Sit the slide over the fret, not behind it. Directly above the metal. Behind the fret, the note comes out flat.
• Rest, do not press. The slide touches the strings and lets them vibrate. Press and you get a rattle against the frets and a note pushed sharp.
• Mute behind the slide. Let the fingers trailing behind it touch the strings lightly, or everything between the slide and the nut rings along.
• Tune carefully first. With a slide there is no finger pressure to nudge a flat string into line. Get each string to 0 cents, then strum the open strings and listen for one that wobbles against the rest.

For reference points, listen to the Allman Brothers Band, Statesboro Blues, and the Derek Trucks Band, Midnight in Harlem: the slide lines in both sit on top of an open E chord. Elmore James, Dust My Broom, is the older slide riff players reach for here, in Open E or in Open D with a capo at the second fret, which gives the same pitches. Listen to the guitar rather than the song, and you will hear the open strings ringing underneath.

Open E vs Open D vs Open G

These are the three open tunings slide players meet first. Two of them, Open E and Open D, are the same tuning at two pitches. Open G is a different layout, with the root on the fifth string rather than the sixth.

How to choose. Take Open E when you want the brightest, tightest version of the sound and your guitar is happy with the extra tension, or when the music you play along with is in E. Take Open D for the same shapes with a looser, rounder feel, and add a capo at the second fret whenever you need E. Take Open G for the rhythm and blues style that leaves the sixth string out of the way.

Open E has a cousin in the same position: Open A is to Open G what Open E is to Open D, a whole step higher with three strings going up. For every other preset, go to the online guitar tuner.