How To Tune Your Ukulele

One of the most important steps of learning ukulele, or any string instrument, is learning how to keep the strings in tune. An out of tune instrument sounds terrible. Keeping it in tune will not only help chords and songs sound how they’re supposed to, it will also make it much easier to play with along with friends.

Strings attach to tuning pegs on the head of the ukulele. Turning these pegs to the right tightens the string, and turning them to the left loosens them, moving the pitch of the string up and down. The strings tighten and loosen naturally over time and are also affected by cold and heat. They are most likely to lose their tune when they are first put on the instrument and therefore must be retuned a few times after you buy them.

Before the development of modern tuners and tuning apps the easiest way to tune a ukulele was to match the pitch of each string with tuning forks, a pitch pipe, piano or another ukulele - provided this was already in tune. Today, there are two much simpler ways - an electronic tuner or a tuning app on your phone.

1 - Tuning App

Tuning apps are the easiest way to tune up quickly, as long the microphone on your phone is enabled. The drawback is if you are in a noisy environment it can pick up other sounds and make the process harder.

If you search for ukulele tuners in the app store you will be overwhelmed with options. Some are totally free, others are free to download but require you to sign up for a paid subscription to use.

Some are specialised to ukulele, meaning they will only pick up the pitches of the four ukulele strings. Others are chromatic, meaning they will recognise any pitch. Some are advertised as guitar tuners but have settings which allow you to switch between guitar, ukulele, bass guitar and more.

We have tried out all of them to make it easier for you.

Ukulele Tuner - Simple Tuner
Free to download - no subscription. Chromatic ukulele tuning app. Allows you to switch between five different ukulele tunings.

Ukulele Tuner EM-1
Free to download - no subscription. Allows you to switch between standard tuning and chromatic.

Guitar tuner - chromatic
Free to download - no subscription. Chromatic tuning app.

2 - Electronic Tuner

There are many electronic tuners available today. Like the tuning apps they are available in specialised or chromatic, Many have settings to switch between C and U - chromatic and ukulele. Tuners attach to the head of the ukulele and pick up the sound as each string is plucked. They are a lot better at picking up only the string pitch and cutting out background noise.

There are two we recommend.

https://villageukuleles.com.au/collections/tuners

Important Tips For Getting Started.

1. Know your ukulele - the four strings are tuned to four different notes. The standard tuning for ukulele is G-C-E-A - from the top down. The G is usually tuned a whole octave higher meaning the pitch is a lot higher than the C, but the pitch moves up from the C to the E, then again to the A - the highest pitch of the four.
2. Some ukuleles have a low G string instead of a high one on top - this may mean a specialised ukulele tuner will not pick it up and you will have to use a chromatic tuner.
3. Start with the strings wound looser and tune up. This has a few benefits. Firstly it prevents the string from snapping. Secondly winding the strings too tight can stretch them out over time causing them to go out of tune more often and need to be replaced sooner. Finally many of the electronic tuners and tuning apps have trouble picking up the pitch when tuning down.
4. Winding a string too tight can break it, and the tension often causes the broken ends to fly up and hit you in the face or eye - this is especially dangerous when using steel strings. Most of the time the string will be close to the desired pitch. Turn the pegs in little bits at a time and observe the effect.
5. When plucking a string, let the sound resonate for as long as possible while turning the peg rather than plucking it repeatedly. The microphone will pick up the pitch more effectively this way.
6. The hash symbol # is a sharp. It is one note higher than the main note. If the tuner reads G#, you’ve gone too high.
7. If the screen on your tuner is dim and hard to read it could need to be charged or the battery replaced.

Learning how to properly tune your ukulele is the most important step in getting you up and playing, ensuring you can recreate your favourite songs as they’re meant to sound and play along with friends!