How to tune a Ukulele using a tuning fork

www.allinstruments.com is proud to present ‘How to tune a Ukulele using a digital tuner’ starring one of our technicians Mr David Hynds! We are afamily run music shop based in Westbury, Wiltshire. We sell, restore, repair and teach ‘all instruments’ from pianos to bagpipes! We strive to have ‘all instruments’ in store and have a wide range in our online shop www.allinstruments.com We hope that you find our videos useful, if you have any suggestions for future videos please get in touch!

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How to tune a Ukulele

Visit www.playauke.com & Learn how to play a Ukulele for 10 Bucks! I just got my first ukulele and I’m going to learn how to play it I hope. But I have to learn how to tune it first. Anyone have any good basic beginner advice for me?

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How to tune your ukulele with a tuning fork

My students are always fascinated by the sound of the tuning fork on my table. Now, this is how it sounds best…

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How to tune an Ukulele without a tuner

Brian Padilla the Ukulele instructor from Hilo Guitars demos how to tune an Ukulele without a tuner

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How To Tune Your Woodstock Ukulele

Shows how to tighten the tuning pegs on your Woostock Ukulele, plus how to tune it. Includes tones that you can tune the strings to. Narrated by Garry Kvistad, founder and owner of Woodstock Percussion, makers of Woodstock Chimes and the award-winning Woodstock Music Collection.

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Ukulele Tuning Tips: Keep yourself in Tune

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.

What’s the Right Way to Tune a Tenor Ukulele?

The tenor ukulele is becoming one of the most popular of the four sizes of ukulele (soprano, concert, tenor and baritone). Traditionally, it has been an instrument for skilled and experienced solo ukulele players (and is still the most popular ukulele amongst such people).

However, with so many ukulele heroes playing the tenor ukulele, an increasing number of beginners starting with the tenor ukulele. This does create some confusion as there are a number of tuning options for the tenor ukulele.

Re-Entrant C-Tuning

The re-entrant C-tuning (also called high-G tuning sometimes) is the traditional tuning for the ukulele. The tuning is GCEA with the G string being higher than the C and E strings.

The C is the middle C of the piano.

The fourth fret of the C string will give you the tuning note for the E string.

The third fret of the E string will give you the tuning note for the G string.

The fifth fret of the E string will give you the tuning note for the A string.

Low-G Tuning

This is slowly becoming the most popular tuning for the tenor ukulele. This tuning is also GCEA , but rather than being tuned high, the G string is tuned below the C string. This gives the tenor ukulele more the feel of a guitar (the tuning of a low-G tenor ukulele is the same as the top four strings of a guitar capoed at the fifth fret). It gives the ukulele more options for playing bass notes: which can be very helpful when you are playing solo and need to provide your own bass line accompaniment.

Re-Entrant D-Tuning

This is a relatively new tuning for the tenor ukulele. The Aquila company make strings for the tenor ukulele that can be tuned DGBE. This is the same as a guitar but with the D string tuned high (the same as the G string in the re-entrant C tuning). This tuning is very unusual.

Conclusion

When you decide which tenor ukulele tuning is the best for you, you need to take into account your own style of playing. If you are mostly a strummer, re-entrant C tuning will probably be the best choice for you. If you are more interested in solo playing, low-G might be the tuning for you. Once you’ve decided on your tuning, make sure the tenor ukulele that you buy is set up for that tuning and double check that you have bought the right size strings for your chosen tenor ukulele tuning.

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