Chromatic tuner

How to tune any instrument with the chromatic tuner

1. Check the A4 reference. It is 440 Hz by default. Choose 442 Hz or 443 Hz if your orchestra tunes higher, or set 415 Hz for baroque pitch.
2. Press Start, allow microphone access, and place the microphone close to the instrument. For a violin, point it at the f-holes. For a wind instrument, place it beside the bell rather than directly in front of it. For your voice, hold it at arm's length.
3. Play a long, steady note at a medium volume without vibrato.
4. Read the note name and octave first and make sure the tuner shows the note you meant to play.
5. Adjust the instrument: turn the peg or fine tuner on a string instrument, or move the tuning slide, barrel or headjoint on a wind instrument. Pull out to go lower and push in to go higher.
6. Play the note again and stop when it stays within ±2 cents.

Note names and frequencies

The chromatic tuner reads every note from E1 to C8. The table lists each note with its target frequency at the A4 reference currently selected.

What cents mean

A semitone, the distance between two neighboring keys on a piano, is divided into 100 cents, and an octave is 1200 cents. The needle shows how far your note is from the nearest note of the standard equal-tempered scale. A reading of −10 means the note is one tenth of a semitone flat.

The tuner treats a note as in tune when it stays within ±2 cents for 300 milliseconds. Wind players and singers often find a steady ±2 cents hard to hold while warming up, so the window can be widened to ±3 or ±5 cents in the settings, or narrowed to ±1 cent for careful work.

The tuner measures against equal temperament. In an ensemble, players often adjust some intervals by ear. A pure major third, for example, is about 14 cents lower than the equal-tempered major third, so a good chord can show the third reading flat.

Orchestral strings, winds and harp

Open strings of the violin family: violin G3 D4 A4 E5, viola C3 G3 D4 A4, cello C2 G2 D3 A3, and double bass E1 A1 D2 G2. Tune the A string first, then the others. Use the fine tuners for small corrections and the pegs only when a string is far from pitch.

The tuner shows concert pitch names and does not transpose. On a B♭ clarinet or B♭ trumpet, a written C reads as B♭. On an E♭ alto saxophone, a written C reads as E♭. On a horn in F, a written C reads as F. Warm up before you tune, because a cold wind instrument plays flat and rises in pitch as it warms.

For a harp, pluck one string at a time and stop the neighboring strings with your other hand so they do not ring along. The lowest strings of a concert harp sit below E1, outside the tuner's range, so tune them by octaves from the strings above.

Checking a piano and singing in tune

A chromatic tuner is useful for checking a piano, but not for tuning one. Piano tuners stretch the octaves, so the high notes sit slightly sharp and the low notes slightly flat compared with the equal-tempered scale. A well-tuned piano can therefore read a few cents off at the top and bottom. A note that reads very different from its neighbors in the middle octaves is a better sign that the piano needs a technician. The lowest notes of a piano are below E1 and outside the range.

For singing practice, sing a steady vowel such as "ah" on one note and watch the needle. Hold the note for a few seconds, because most singers drift during the first moment of a note.

Orchestra pitch and baroque pitch

Many orchestras, especially in continental Europe, tune to A4 = 442 Hz or 443 Hz instead of 440 Hz. If you join an ensemble, ask which reference it uses and set the A4 reference before you tune. Every note target moves with it.

Baroque ensembles that play on period instruments usually tune to A4 = 415 Hz, which is about one semitone below 440 Hz. Set the A4 reference to 415 Hz, the lowest value the setting allows. The tuner then shows note names relative to that reference.