How to Tune a Ukulele Tip

Ukulele Tuning Tips: Keep Yourself in Tune

For beginner ukulele players, getting the ukulele in tune can be a chore. However, it is absolutely necessary. It's not something optional that you can just skip. No matter how good you get, if your ukulele is out of tune, you'll sound terrible and people will run from the room screaming.

Why is it Difficult to Tune a Ukulele?

The ukulele tends to be more difficult to tune than larger instruments such as the guitar or bass. The short scale length means that you have to be very careful when tuning or you will overshoot.

It is also more difficult as many ukuleles have friction tuners. Guitars are fitted with geared tuners which tend to keep the tuning better and mean that tuning can be more accurate.

Top Tuning Tip: Buy a Digital Tuner

Digital tuners have made life so much easier for ukulele players. They are now small, cheap and accurate which makes them a vital addition to any ukulele player's gig bag.

There are many different types of tuner. There are chromatic tuners (which allow you to choose any note to tune to) and dedicated ukulele tuners (which will only allow to tune to the notes of the ukulele). There are tuners which work via a microphone and those that work by picking up on vibrations in the ukulele.

Which Ukulele Tuner Should I Buy?

That depends on your style of ukulele playing. Most ukulele players will not stay beyond the standard ukulele tuning (GCEA), so a dedicated ukulele tuner is fine. But if you want to experiment with other tunings (such as slack-key tuning or D-tuning), then a chromatic tuner becomes necessary.

If you are only planning on playing at home for fun, then a microphone tuner is will suit you. But if you are planning to play gigs, a clip on tuner will be much more suitable. A clip on tuner works by sensing the vibrations of the ukulele, so the sounds around you won't affect how the tuner works.

Some well respected makes of ukulele tuner are Kala and Intelli.