How to Tune Your Ukulele
When you first get your ukulele it will have brand new strings. New strings go out of tune a lot until they are stretched. Once they are stretched they stay in tune.
How long does it take for the strings to stretch? 2-3 days if you tune your uke every few hours, a week if you tune your uke once a day.
To tune your ukulele, it’s easiest to have a pitch to listen to as you turn the pegs. You can get pitches to tune to from the Online Ukulele Tuner below or from a digital tuner.
How to Tune Your Ukulele
When you first get your ukulele it will have brand new strings. New strings go out of tune a lot until they are stretched. Once they are stretched they stay in tune.
How long does it take for the strings to stretch? 2-3 days if you tune your uke every few hours, a week if you tune your uke once a day.
To tune your ukulele, it’s easiest to have a pitch to listen to as you turn the pegs. You can get pitches to tune to from the Online Ukulele Tuner below or from a digital tuner.
How to Use the Online Ukulele Tuner
The online ukulele tuner below is one way to get pitches that you can tune your ukulele to.
1. Look at the row of circles below the ukulele.
2. Be sure the circle that says “No” on the left edge of the row is yellow. Click on that circle to make it turn yellow if necessary. (If some other circle is yellow you will be tuning to the wrong pitches and all your music will sound wrong.)
3. Click on the triangle inside the grey circle that’s just above the ukulele. You will hear the ukulele string pitches played one at a time in this order: A E C G. If you are holding your ukulele in your lap in playing position, the A string is the string closest to the floor.
4. Gradually turn one tuning peg on your ukulele as you pluck the string it is connected to until your string sounds like the reference pitch. (You will have to experiment with which way to turn the peg.)
5. Watch the ukulele tuning videos on this page to understand more about tuning your ukulele.
Always Pluck and Turn!
Be sure to pluck the string as you turn the peg to hear if the pitch of your string is getting closer to the reference pitch. This will also make sure that you do not break the string by turning the peg too tight.
Consider a Digital Tuner
You might find it hard to tune by just listening to a pitch and turning the peg. Lots of people love clip on digital tuners which tell you whether to tune up or down. Check out the last video below to see how a clip on digital tuner works. You can get a digital tuner from most music retailers
How to Tune Your Ukulele Videos
Parts of the Ukulele
Here is a video about the parts of the ukulele to help you know how to tune.
Ukulele String Numbers and Names