Violin Tuner
← All toolsThe four strings are G3 196.00 Hz, D4 293.66 Hz, A4 440.00 Hz and E5 659.26 Hz, a perfect fifth apart at every step. Tap a string in the chart to hear its pitch and tune to it by ear, exactly as you would to an oboe or a piano. Allow the microphone instead and you get live detection, reading the bowed note continuously so you can watch what a quarter turn of a fine tuner really does.
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Violin — Standard (GDAE)
| String | Note | Frequency | Reference tone |
|---|---|---|---|
| 4th | G3 | 196.00 Hz | |
| 3rd | D4 | 293.66 Hz | |
| 2nd | A4 | 440.00 Hz | |
| 1st | E5 | 659.26 Hz |
Tap Tone to hear a string and tune to it by ear — no microphone needed. Auto is on, so the needle below follows whichever string you are nearest.
Live pitch — microphone
Microphone audio is processed on-device and never leaves your browser — and the chart and reference tones above never need it at all.
How to use the Violin Tuner
- Start with the A string: sound A4 440.00 Hz from the chart and bring your A to it, since every other string is set in relation to this one.
- Bow a steady stroke at moderate pressure rather than plucking, because a sustained tone gives the detector a continuous waveform to lock onto.
- Use the fine tuners on the tailpiece for anything inside roughly a quarter tone, and the pegs only for larger corrections.
- Tune D and then G downward from A, tune E upward, and check A once more at the end.
Pegs first, fine tuners last
The two adjusters do different jobs and the order matters. A peg moves pitch in large, coarse jumps and is the only way to travel more than a semitone. A fine tuner at the tailpiece changes tension by a tiny amount per turn, which is exactly what you want when you are a few cents out.
Most violins carry a fine tuner on the E string and nothing on the others, because a steel E is under high tension and short in wavelength: a peg movement that barely nudges the G string sends the E flying past the note. If your tailpiece has all four, use all four.
Two habits save trouble. Do not run a fine tuner to the end of its thread — if it bottoms out, back it off to the middle and reset the string with the peg. And check that a screw driven far down is not touching the belly of the instrument, which deadens the sound and will eventually mark the varnish.
Bowing for a stable reading
Pitch detection is only as steady as the note you hand it. A stroke that starts with a scratch, wanders in pressure, or runs out of bow halfway produces a reading that dances, and the temptation is to keep adjusting a string that was never the problem.
Draw a slow, even stroke at moderate pressure, roughly halfway between bridge and fingerboard, and read the number from the middle of the stroke rather than either end. Too much bow pressure flattens the pitch measurably; too little gives a thin tone with an unstable fundamental. Both show up on the display as movement you will be tempted to chase.
Pizzicato is fine for a quick check but it decays fast, and the pitch of a plucked string falls slightly as the initial displacement relaxes, so the reading you catch at the attack is not the one a sustained note would give.
Violin and cello, both tuned in fifths
Both instruments are tuned in perfect fifths; the cello sits an octave and a fifth below the violin, so the two share only the pitch names, not the octaves. Equal-tempered fifths are about two cents narrower than the pure 3:2 fifth a string player tunes by ear, which is why the numbers below and your ear can politely disagree.
| Tuning | Strings, low to high | Frequency (Hz, A4 = 440) |
|---|---|---|
| Violin — Standard (GDAE) | G3 D4 A4 E5 | 196.00 293.66 440.00 659.26 |
| Cello — Standard (CGDA) | C2 G2 D3 A3 | 65.41 98.00 146.83 220.00 |
FAQ
- Why is the A string tuned first?
- Because it is the reference everything else is measured from. In an orchestra the oboe gives an A and the section matches it; alone with a tuner, A4 440.00 Hz plays the same part. It also sits in the middle of the set, so you can check A against D below and E above as double stops without ever needing an outer string to be correct first.
- My peg slips back as soon as I let go.
- A peg is a tapered wooden shaft held in a tapered hole by friction alone, so it has to be pushed into the pegbox as it is turned, not simply rotated. Slipping usually means dry air has shrunk the peg; sticking means humidity has swollen it. Peg compound applied sparingly to the two contact bands treats both. Wind the string so it beds against the pegbox wall, which puts some of the friction back.
- The tuner says my fifths are slightly off. Are they?
- Probably not. A pure fifth tuned by ear is 702 cents wide, while the equal tempered fifth this chart is built on is 700. Tune outward from A in pure fifths and your G lands about four cents below G3 196.00 Hz and your E about two cents above E5 659.26 Hz. That is not an error — it is the gap between beatless fifths and a tempered scale, and string players live on the pure side of it.
- Can I tune without a microphone?
- Yes. Each string in the chart is a playable reference pitch, which is the traditional method anyway: sound the tone, bow your string, and listen for the beating between them. Beats are unusually easy to hear on a violin because the tone is sustained and rich in harmonics. The microphone adds a cents readout, which is useful when you want to see how far a half turn of a fine tuner actually moves a string.
