Flute tuner

Flute tuning notes in Hz

Equal temperament. A concert flute is in C: the note you finger is the note the tuner names. Every frequency is in the note frequency chart.

How to tune a flute with this tuner

Play for a few minutes first: a cold flute is flat. Tap Start tuning and allow the microphone. The tuner asks for A4: play it at your normal dynamic and with your normal embouchure, not rolled in or out to chase the needle, and hold it for two seconds. Sharp, pull the head joint out a little; flat, push it in; then play the A again. Once it stays within five cents for a moment it ticks, and the tuner asks for B♭4, then F5, so you see whether the A was a fair sample. In a band, tune the B♭ instead: tap it and play it. With the microphone off, a tap on a note plays it, so you can hear the pitch before you play.

Then switch to Any note, and it works as a chromatic tuner for flute: it names every note you play, with its cents and its Hz, up to about B6 (1,976 Hz); the top C7 is past what it reads. Play a slow scale through the low, middle and high octave and note which ones sit sharp or flat. The head joint fixes the whole flute at once; the rest is your air, so a tuned A with a sharp third octave is normal, and that is what to practise with the needle.

How far to move the head joint

Pulling the head joint out lengthens the air column, so every note goes down, but not by the same amount: the shorter the tube a note uses, the more one millimetre moves it. Worked out from the length of the air column, 1 mm moves A4 about 4.4 cents, the low C about 2.6 and the short C♯5 about 5.5. So a flute 8 cents sharp at A needs the head joint out about 2 mm, which is also the step from A = 440 to 442. Most flutes are made to play in tune with the head joint out a few millimetres; pushed all the way in, they play sharp. When the A sits right, note where the head joint is, with a thin pencil line on the tenon or by the engraving, and start there next time.

Flute sharp or flat: what else moves the pitch

• Temperature. The pitch follows the air inside the tube: about 3 cents for every degree Celsius it warms (1.6 per °F). A flute from a cold case can start 20 or 30 cents flat and climbs as you play, so tune after you are warm, not before.
• Dynamics. Faster air sharpens, slower air flattens. A crescendo drifts sharp and a diminuendo sags flat unless you aim the air to hold it.
• Embouchure. Rolling in, or covering more of the hole with the lower lip, flattens; rolling out sharpens. Tens of cents, without moving a finger.
• The register. Most flutes and players run sharp in the third octave and flat in the low one; that is air and lip, not the head joint.
• C♯5. Its tone hole is small and sits high because it also vents notes in the third octave, so C♯ runs sharp and thin on most flutes. Aim the air lower into the hole for it rather than moving the head joint.

Open-hole flutes have one more tool: holding a finger close over an open ring key, partly across its hole without pressing it, bends a sharp note down. And check the crown is screwed snug: a loose crown lets the cork move.

The octave check and the cork

With A4 in tune, play A5 in Any note. If the third octave reads consistently sharp and the low octave flat while A4 is centred, the octaves are too wide: the cork, the stopper inside the head joint above the embouchure hole, has crept toward the hole. Octaves too narrow, high flat and low sharp: it has moved toward the crown. The head joint can't fix either, because it moves every note together. The cork's face should sit about 17 mm from the hole's centre, and the line near the end of your cleaning rod marks that distance. Put the rod into the head joint; the line should show in the middle of the embouchure hole. Off-centre, a repair shop resets it in minutes. If the line sits centred and the octaves are still wide, it is the air: the third octave takes faster air, and it is easy to overdo. A note that wobbles as well as being out of tune often means a leaking pad, which no tuning fixes.

Piccolo, alto flute and bass flute

The Flute switch folds octaves, which is why a piccolo or a bass flute ticks on the same A, B♭ and F.

440 or 442, and playing with others

As of 2026 many European orchestras tune to 442 or 443; most US school and concert bands tune to 440 and give a concert B♭. The reference switch moves the needle. With a piano, match the piano: play its A into Any note and set your head joint until your A reads the same. In a chord, the needle is not the target: a major third locked with the section sits about 14 cents below where the tuner centres it, a fifth about 2 cents above. Set the head joint with the needle, then tune held chord notes by ear. In a loud band room, a clip-on tuner with a contact pickup hears only your flute; at home a phone on the music stand is enough.

Flutes without a head joint

A one-piece bansuri, a Native American flute or a pan flute can't be pulled out; the maker tuned it, and you shade each note with the breath. Any note shows where the notes sit. A bansuri is named after its Sa, the note with the top three holes closed: an E bansuri plays E there. A recorder can: pull its head joint out a millimetre or two to flatten it; the recorder tuner has soprano, alto and tenor.

The notes you tuned go into Brumm as a short melody over a beat.