How to tune your ukulele with the tones
Hold the ukulele as you play it. The 4th string is the one nearest your chin and the 1st string the one nearest the floor. The page opens on G4, the 4th string of a standard ukulele.
- Press G4 to hear the note, and pluck the 4th string while the tone plays. If you hear a slow wobble in loudness, the two notes are close but not the same; the faster the wobble, the further apart they are.
- Turn the tuning peg a little and pluck again. Tighter strings sound higher, looser strings lower. When the wobble slows and disappears, the string is in tune.
- Press C4, E4 and A4 in turn and repeat. Pressing the button that is playing stops the tone.
Turn the pegs in small steps; Kala’s tuning guide puts it simply: move slowly. When the 1st string is done, go through all four once more and touch up any that wobble.
The four tunings on this page
| String | Standard gCEA | Low G | Baritone DGBE | Hawaiian ADF♯B |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4th (nearest your chin) | G4 · 392.00 Hz | G3 · 196.00 Hz | D3 · 146.83 Hz | A4 · 440.00 Hz |
| 3rd | C4 · 261.63 Hz | C4 · 261.63 Hz | G3 · 196.00 Hz | D4 · 293.66 Hz |
| 2nd | E4 · 329.63 Hz | E4 · 329.63 Hz | B3 · 246.94 Hz | F♯4 · 369.99 Hz |
| 1st (nearest the floor) | A4 · 440.00 Hz | A4 · 440.00 Hz | E4 · 329.63 Hz | B4 · 493.88 Hz |
All frequencies are equal temperament with A4 at 440 Hz (the ISO 16 standard pitch), so they agree with a piano or a clip-on tuner at its 440 Hz setting.
Check the strings against each other
Once one string matches its tone, the frets confirm the rest in standard tuning: the 4th fret of the C string gives E, the 5th fret of the E string gives A, and the 2nd fret of the high G string also gives A, the same note as the open 1st string. In low-G tuning that 2nd-fret A is an octave lower than the open A string. On a baritone, the 5th fret of the D string gives G, the 4th fret of the G string gives B and the 5th fret of the B string gives E, the same pattern as a guitar.
Related pages
A baritone ukulele shares its tuning with the four thinnest strings of a guitar, so the guitar tuning tones work for it too. Violinists tune in fifths instead: see violin tuning. Any other note is one click away on the tone generator: type it into the Note box.