How to Tune Your Ukulele

We’ve talked a few times about ukulele chords, easy songs, and so on. However, before you start playing, one of the first and most crucial steps is to learn how to tune your ukulele.

But how do you tune your ukulele? Isn’t that something for expert musicians?

Not really. Tuning a ukulele only takes a few minutes, and it won’t take you too much time to finally learn how to do so the correct way. You’ll be playing the most beautiful chords after a few minutes!

Before we start, it’s essential to note four types of ukuleles: soprano, concert, tenor, and baritone.

Soprano, concert, and tenor ukuleles use this tuning: G (Sol) – C (Do) – E (Mi) – A (La)
If you own a baritone ukulele, their correct tuning is: D (re) – G (Sol) – B (Si) – E (Mi)

There are five ways you can use to tune your ukulele. We’ll explore each option thoroughly!

Using a Ukulele Tuner

There are two types of ukulele tuners, including electronic and digital ones.

Electronic Tuner

The easiest way to tune your ukulele is to use the electronic tuner. This option is what most experienced musicians recommend to a novice, as it is practical, tiny, and easy-to-use. You can adjust it on the upper part of your ukulele, and it will show you the way in two modes: chromatic and ukulele.

The chromatic mode will indicate to you in what chromatic scale position you are. When you play a string, the tuner will show you the note you played and how far you are from it. The rest is up to you.
The ukulele mode will automatically detect the strings and let you know their respective number and letter. It would help if you waited until the tuner shows the “green” screen to know you’re in the correct tune. The same thing applies to the previous mode!

Using a note as a reference

There are air tuners, and although they are more complicated to use, it’s another way you have to tune your ukulele. You have to “blow” and listen to the note you want to tune. Use the sounds to guide you until your ukulele produces the same sound the air tuner is reproducing.

Air tuners are great training if you want to learn to tune your ukulele using your hearing!

Using the tuning fork

This method is optional, but many trained musicians use it due to its preciseness. You can use the tuning fork once you’ve acquired enough experience with an air tuner, for instance.

The essentials of a tuning fork’s use are that it produces the “a'” or “=A4” note, always at the frequency of 440 Hz. You can find a complete tutorial here!

Tuning a ukulele only takes a few minutes.

As with most strings instruments, ukuleles need to be correctly tuned if you want them to sound harmonious. You can do this yourself or use a ukulele tuner, which you can find at any music store, either in person or online.

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