How to use the online tuner
- Press Start tuner and choose Allow when the browser asks for the microphone.
- Play one note and let it ring. Pluck or bow firmly, then keep still.
- Read the note and the needle. Left of center means flat: tighten the string, or push a wind instrument’s tuning slide in. Right of center means sharp: loosen the string, or pull the slide out.
- Stop in the green zone. The action line says “✓ In tune” once you’re within ±5 cents.
For a guitar, choose a preset (Standard, Drop D, Open G or DADGAD). The string strip below the needle follows the string you play, and each string gets a ✓ after half a second in tune. Tap a string to lock the tuner to it.
With the tuner focused, Space starts and stops it, S switches between the needle and the strobe, ↑ and ↓ change A4 by 1 Hz, and 1 to 6 lock a string (0 goes back to automatic).
What is a chromatic tuner?
A chromatic tuner identifies the nearest of the 12 notes in any octave and shows how many cents sharp or flat you are. This page is an online chromatic tuner: it names any note from E1, the lowest note of a bass guitar, up to C8, the top of a piano.
A cent is one hundredth of a semitone. Most people can’t hear a difference of 2 or 3 cents in a single note, but 10 cents between two strings sounds sour, and 20 cents is clearly out of tune.
Chromatic mode is better than a fixed guitar mode whenever you play something other than a guitar in standard tuning: a violin, a harmonica, a horn, a guitar in open D, or a note you don’t know yet. It never assumes which note you meant to play.
How the online tuner works
The tuner takes about 20 measurements a second from your microphone and finds the pitch with the McLeod Pitch Method, which compares the sound with delayed copies of itself to find how often the wave repeats. Low notes need a longer stretch of sound, so the tuner listens to longer slices when it expects a low string.
The microphone’s voice processing (echo cancellation, noise suppression and automatic gain) is switched off where the browser allows it, because it can bend or mute steady notes. On test tones the tuner reads to about 1 cent.
Phone and laptop microphones pick up little below about 100 Hz. They still work for a bass or a low guitar string, because the tuner can read the overtones and check which octave you’re in, but hold the instrument close to the mic.
Play one note at a time. A strummed chord contains several pitches and confuses any tuner, clip-on tuners included.
Reading the tuner
| What you see | What it means | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Needle left, “↑ Tune up” | The note is flat (too low) | Tighten the string or push the slide in |
| Needle right, “↓ Tune down” | The note is sharp (too high) | Loosen a little below the note, then come up to it |
| “✓ In tune”, needle in the green zone | Within the in-tune range | Move to the next string |
| The octave jumps between two numbers | The tuner hears an overtone | Pluck nearer the middle of the string, a little softer |
| “Play a note” stays on | The sound is below the level gate | Move closer, or set Sensitivity to High in Settings |
The strobe view shows the same reading as moving stripes. They drift right when you’re sharp, left when you’re flat, and stand still when you’re in tune, so you can see a difference of a single cent.
Tuning tips by instrument
Tuning a guitar: standard, drop D, open G
Standard tuning is E2 A2 D3 G3 B3 E4, from the thickest string to the thinnest. Drop D lowers the sixth string to D2; open G is D2 G2 D3 G3 B3 D4. Pick the matching preset so the strip shows the right targets, and tune from the lowest string up. If you’re used to a guitar tuner from a search engine or an app, the presets work the same way.
Always tune up to a note: if a string is sharp, loosen it below the note and then bring it back up. This settles the string at the nut and it stays in tune longer.
Wind and brass instruments
Choose your instrument’s key under Transpose, and the tuner shows the written note: B♭ for clarinet, trumpet and tenor sax, E♭ for alto and baritone sax, F for French horn. Warm up for two or three minutes first, because the pitch rises as the air in the instrument warms. Tune with a long, steady note at a comfortable volume.
Harp, kalimba and other instruments
Chromatic mode handles any instrument with a clear pitch. Tune a lever harp with all levers off, string by string. For a kalimba, tap each tine firmly and let it ring. Pianos are tuned with stretched octaves, where the high notes sit slightly sharp, so leave them to a piano technician.
Setting A4: 440, 442 or 415 Hz
A4 is the reference that every other note is built from. The international standard (ISO 16) is 440 Hz. Many orchestras tune slightly higher, usually 442 or 443 Hz, and Baroque groups often play at 415 Hz, about a semitone lower.
Some players prefer 432 Hz for the sound; it’s a matter of taste. Use the chips or the ± buttons to set A4, and match whatever your band, orchestra or recording uses. If you play along with a recording, tune one note to the recording and set A4 until the tuner reads in tune. To find the recording’s tempo as well, try the music tools.
When the tuner doesn’t react
- Allow the microphone. If the browser blocked it, the tuner shows the steps to allow it again.
- Pick the right input. Open Settings and choose the microphone you want, especially on a computer with a webcam or a headset.
- Avoid Bluetooth headset mics. They switch to call quality and filter out much of an instrument’s sound.
- Watch the level meter. It should cross the gate mark when you play. If it doesn’t, move closer or raise Sensitivity.
Still nothing? Test your microphone to see whether the browser gets any sound at all. You can also tune by ear with a reference tone here, or play any frequency with the tone generator. To see the pitch of your singing voice, use the voice pitch analyzer.