| String | Note | Frequency |
|---|---|---|
| 4 | G3 | 196.00 Hz |
| 3 | D4 | 293.66 Hz |
| 2 | A4 | 440.00 Hz |
| 1 | E5 | 659.26 Hz |
Tuning with a bow or by plucking
Rest the violin in playing position with your phone or laptop a little way in front of you. A long, even bow stroke gives the steadiest reading, because the note doesn’t fade; plucking works too, but read the needle quickly before the note dies away. Begin with the A string: the tuner shows A4 and the cents off. Turn the fine tuner, or the peg if it’s far off, until the needle sits in the green band and the A button’s dot turns green. Then D, G and E.
Push a peg gently into the pegbox as you turn it, so it holds. If a string is more than about a semitone off, the hint names the semitones to go instead of cents.
Fifths, and checking by ear
Violins are tuned in perfect fifths: G–D, D–A and A–E. Once each string reads green here, bow two neighbouring strings together: in tune, the pair sounds still and calm; a beat or wobble means one of them is still off. The tuner measures each string against equal temperament from A, which is within two cents of a pure fifth, less than the ±3 cent band shown as in tune.
Reference tone
Press Play to hear the selected string’s note, for example the A at 440 Hz, as an orchestra’s oboe would give it, and tune by ear. The tuner pauses its own readings while the tone plays, because the microphone hears it too. For the viola’s C string, open the viola tuner; to hear sustained notes instead, the violin tuning tones page plays all four.